Petrova Gora

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Petrova Gora (English:Peter's mountain) is a mountain range in central Croatia. The mountain used to be named Gvozd (transl. from Croatian:Forrest) but was renamed after 1097 CE to honour Petar Svačić, the last native king of Croatia who died on the mountain in a battle against Coloman of Hungary.

During World War II, Petrova Gora was the location of the Partisan resistance movement's central military hospital which consisted of a system of underground chambers and log cabins scattered throughout the mountain range. Even while the country was under German occupation, the hospital was never discovered by the occupying forces and remained in operation until May 1945. Starting in 1940, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, from makeshift underground printing rooms on the mountain, started printing Vjesnik, a daily newspaper that is still being printed daily in Croatia. Veliki Petrovac, the second highest peak on the mountain has for decades been home to a memorial site and a monument dedicated to the Partisans and their activities on the mountain during Yugoslavia's resistance in World War II.