Template:Wp-Daruvar-History

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Archaeological findings here, (stone axes), could be traced back to the Stone Age. The history of Daruvar could be traced to the 4th century BC, when the first organized habitation emerged near the warm geothermal spas in today's Daruvar valley. Celtic - Pannonian tribes living here and familiar with water treatments benefiting health, were Iassi, (meaning healers), so called by both Greek and Roman writers.

As allies of the Roman Empire, the tribes provided support to Emperor Augustus during the siege of Siscia, (today's Sisak), and in the year 35, Iassi were granted local autonomy known as Res Publica Iasorum. The center of it was Aquae Balissae, meaning very strong springs. In the year 124, during the reign of Hadrian, the area gained additional autonomy as Municipium Iassorum. Stretching between the rivers Sava and Drava, on the roads which ran between Siscia-Mursa, (Sisak- Osijek), Salona–Aquincum, and Sirmium–Poetovio, it was easy to access. As did Hadrian, emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimius Severus, and Constantine I all visited Aquae Balissae's thermal complex, its decorated temple, its forum, and its (though not as big as the one in Pula) amphitheatre. After the fall of Western Roman Empire and the destruction of local tribes by Avar Kaghanate in 6th century this area was resettled by Croats, a Slavic tribe that came to the Balkans in 7th century.

In the 11th century the region became part of a mightier entity, that of the rapidly growing and politically important city of Križevci. Within, it became part of the archdiocese of Zagreb mentioned by legislators for the first time in 1334. Since the city was on a busy crossroads, there were four trading points within the valley — Četvrtkovac, Dimičkovine, Podborje, and Toplice (toplice = "spas" in Croatian). And, as it was more than millennium ago, pleasant spas kept attracting people. The population in that period was exclusively Catholic.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, all that changed. Expansion of the Ottoman Empire disrupted the steady development, and Turks occupied lands here in 1543. The Monastery of St King Ladislaus was degraded, becoming a Turkish defensive post looking into the Krajina, military zone created to protect the Habsburg Empire just west of the city. Local people fled from Turks. Turks were expelled in 1699 and the now ethnically mixed area came under the rule of Vienna in 1745. Podborje, Sirač, and Pakrac were bought by count Antun Janković who in 1771 renamed Podborje as Daruvar, (daru = "crane" in Hungarian), after a building of his own called the Crane's castle. In 1837 Daruvar was declared a free city by decree of king Ferdinand I. Empty lands were repopulated by people skilled in crafts, trade, and agriculture from around Croatia and beyond. Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Italians (around so called Little Italy), and others were invited to come. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Daruvar was part of the Požega County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Parts of Daruvar's suburbs were briefly captured by militants from the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Western Slavonia during the Croatian War of Independence.