The mayor of Ptuj Miran Senčar says that he managed to change and start a lot of things, but he was constantly trying to cope with the opposition gathered around the former mayor. Foto: BoBo
The mayor of Ptuj Miran Senčar says that he managed to change and start a lot of things, but he was constantly trying to cope with the opposition gathered around the former mayor. Foto: BoBo


Miran Senčar became the major of the Municipality of Ptuj four years ago after he beat the long-term mayor Štefan Čelan in the second round of the elections. He says that he managed to change and start a lot of things, but he was constantly trying to cope with the opposition gathered around the former mayor. In addition to that, he was often dealing with bureaucracy, and the key people from the ministries never really attended the most important events in the oldest town in Slovenia. He puts more hope into the new government.

One of his most important projects was the start of the arrangement of the Panorama Archaeological Park. "We wanted to create an open-air archaeological park, and we celebrate 1950th anniversary of Ptuj next year. Roman warriors lived on the Panorama hill in the 2nd and 3rd century – in 103, the Roman legions from Ptuj moved to Vienna and Ptuj became a colony settled by the meritorious warriors. They carried out a non-invasive mapping of the hill and accurately saw the exact location of the streets, the old houses, and the plumbing. We first arranged the routes, exactly where the streets used to be. This was a huge 30-year long project, but once the archaeological park is here, it will be one of the biggest attraction in Ptuj."
In recent years, the number of tourists has been growing between 10-15 percent a year. "Ptuj is an exceptional cultural city, the event begins with a carnival, and then there are several festivals: Specialities of Slovene farms, Souvignon Festival, Arsana music festival, Festival Arts Stays, Days of Poetry and Wine, Roman Games, Ptuj Castle Games, Folk Pop Music Festival. We have 1,400 registered events, which are carried out by associations throughout the year. For those who want to see live culture, Ptuj is more than a live city," he adds.

An additional offer will also be a network of cycling routes, which will connect the municipalities of Lower Podravje and where people can cycle through a diverse landscape.