KVALITETA ŽIVLJENJA U SJEVEROZAPADNOJ HRVATSKOJ KROZ POVIJEST S NAGLASKOM NA GRAD VARAŽDIN
THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN NORTHWEST CROATIA THROUGH HISTORY WITH EMPHASIS ON THE CITY OF VARAŽDIN

Summary/Abstract: The author writes about the quality of life in northwest Croatia, which changed through the centuries and was different in rural and urban areas. Life in northwest Croatia before the beginning of the 20th century was very hard – poverty was widespread in the villages, families were large, living conditions unfavourable, sewers and waterworks non-existent. Most people worked in agriculture, which was dependent on the climate and weather conditions (which were often bad), while food was monotonous and lacking. Sanitation and hygiene were almost unknown, education was basic or non-existent, and healthcare was minimal. In such conditions, the qualities of live such as exist today were rarely thought or spoken about. With some exceptions, this state of affairs in the countryside lasted almost until the mid-20th century or, in some places, persisted even longer. When compared to the countryside, the quality of life of people residing in cities or towns was somewhat different. Such people also didn’t think much about quality of life, but they did take steps to “beautify” it, not only in their private lives, but also by changing the surroundings in which they lived. In this work, the author uses the example of Varaždin to show how the quality of life in the city, like that in the countryside, changed from century to century, albeit in different ways. In the city, there were differences in the quality of life of workers, traders, craftsmen, middle class, and nobles. The examples mentioned in this work confirm that the quality of life both in the countryside and the city changed from century to century, that that which was of good quality and rarely available in the 18th century became more common in the 19th century, and that the greatest changes were recorded in the 20th century.

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