Kerestinec

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Kerestinec is a village west of Zagreb, (in)famous for certain important events in Croatian history. The name of Kerestinec comes from hungarian word "Kereszt" which stands for "cross". According to historical sources, there was a wooden chapel of Holy Cross near the Erdödy castle. Since the Erdödys were Croatian-Hungarian noble family, a lot of hungarian words were used in that time, and this is why Kerestinec bears such name.

[edit] In the History

In 1573, during the Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt, government forces led by podban (vice-viceroy) of Croatia Gašpar Alapić defeated rebels in a battle near Kerestinec.

The pesants have rebeled once again in 1936, and this time against the Serbian giandarmerie who had their base in the castle. This, so called, Kerestinec rebellion was crushed by the Yugoslav army. All rebels were trialed and sentenced to long term inprisonment or to death. Later, the death penalties were diminished.

Before the outbreak of World War II, the government of Yugoslavia built a prison near Kerestinec and used it to detain political prisoners, mainly Ustashas and Communists. In March 1941, at the eve of the Axis invasion, a large number of left-wing intellectuals from Zagreb were arrested and interned in Kerestinec. A few weeks later Yugoslavia collapsed and the prison was taken over by authorities of the newly formed Independent State of Croatia. Following German invasion of USSR, the Croatian Communist Party started a resistance movement that would later become known as Partisans. The Ustasha regime decided to retaliate by having some of Kerestinec prisoners shot. On July 9th, the first group, including Božidar Adžija, Otokar Keršovani and Ognjen Prica, was executed.

The Party reacted by organising an impromptu prison-break. On July 13th the guards were overpowered and all remaining the prisoners managed to escape. But the attempt soon proved to be poorly organised and uncoordinated. Very quickly, most of the prisoners, including August Cesarec, were recaptured and shot in Maksimir woods. The exact details of the event, especially the role of the Comintern agents, remain a mystery to this day. This has spawned several conspiracy theories. It is believed that Miroslav Krleža, after hearing what had happened to his associate Cesarec, decided not to join the Partisans.

[edit] Today

Today, Kerestinec is one of the neighbourhoods in the Town of Sveta Nedelja. Buildings of note in the village are the Erdödy castle and the parish church of the Holy Cross.

In business, Kerestinec is also the seat of several companies and numerous private enterprises.

Kerestinec is also a cultural center of the Town. The leader of cultural development is the local Cultural society Kerestinec. Other groups are the Sport-fishing club "Som", "TOP" Kerestinec Footbal club, Firefighter society Kerestinec and several other unions.