The municipality managed to reno­vate ancient Toplak's peak by means of proper and state funds. This is a vineyard building from 19th century. Viničarija (vineyard house) has a typi­cal division of rooms: in the middle there are a „priklet" (vestibule) and a black kitchen, on the right there is a „hiša" (a living room), on the left there is a „mala hiška" (a small room) form which there are stairs leading to the cellar. The building has a cellar with arches all the way under the building. The equipment was donated by sev­eral inhabitants of the municipality of Destrnik.

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An important historical and cultural monument is the Church of St. Urban. St. Urban is a patron of wine-growers, vineyards and barrel makers and also a patron against drunkenness. First a chapel was built on this place and was later was replaced by a church be­tween 1505 and 1518. In 1768 it was given a baroque style and in 1888 it was restorated. The nave has a star-like arch on semi-circle pillars. The main altar was manu­factured by J. Holzinger in 1770. In the central niche of the big altar there is a statue of St. Urban, the side statues are St Pe­ter and Paul, the statue of God in the wreath of clouds and angel heads in Antique and two figures of cherubs. The centre part of the side altar of St. Cross contains an al­tar picture with the prospects of Golgotha and Jerusalem, in front of it there is a plastic cross with the figure of Jesus.

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The Čušek homestead is an ethnological memorial of local importance for the Dornava municipality. The homestead is a typical example of countryside ar­chitecture belonging to a major farmer. It consists of a residence, stable, and a threshing floor under one roof. Parallelto these buildings is a cesspit and toi­let, adjacent to a pigsty and a wheeler's workshop with basement. All the build­ings of the homestead are covered with a tiled pitched roof. The facade of the residential building is divided by small windows with simple window trims. The windows are double and decorated with steel crosses. In 2007 the home­stead was renovated. It is the registered seat of the Lukarji Dornava Tourist Eth­nographic Association.

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In the north-eastern edge of the Dor­nava settlement there is one of the most beautiful late Baroque manors in Slovenia. Dornava Castle is the most important secular building of the late Baroque period. It was first mentioned in 1435, when it was built on the site of the former hunting mansion. In 1446 the castle was demolished by the Hun­garian Regent-Governor Anos Hunyadi. After 1526 its owners were the Herbersteins and then the Sauers. During the years 1700 and 1708 the latter replaced the simple storeyed mansion with a building which is a present-day wing of the mansion. After 1730 the castle was owned by the Attems, then owners of tatemberg, Breiice and Slovenska Bistrica. Between 1739 and 1743 they made additions creating the present-day luxurious castle, and arranged a Ba­roque park with a main axis of 1.5 km. The main hall boasts beautiful fres­cos from 1708. The most important is a mythological scene with Hercules, showing his different works and his re­ception at Mount Olympus. Among the decorations in the park were twelve well-known dwarves and six antique figures from around 1730, which can now be found at Ptuj Castle. The rest of the artworks and statues outside the castle complex date from 1745 and are the work of the Filip Jakob Straub workshop from Graz. The entire manor complex was designed on a grand scale, reaching towards Pesnica with its English park. Unfortunately, the majority has been destroyed.

The last private owners of the castle were the Pongratz family from Sloven­ska Bistrica, after that it was utilised as a mental hospital, and later as a facil­ity of the Care and Education Institute, one of the largest institutes for handi­capped children and youth in Slovenia. Presently, the mansion is unfortunately without purpose.

The legend on the beginning of the St. Mary's Visitation Church says that brothers Cyril and Methodius accom panied by young men from Rome were travelling from Poland through the area. At the Mura River they had to stop when one of the brothers injured his leg. During the rest he carved an icon of the Divine Mother. He told his companions that he was going to hang it at the place where he would first see the walls of the Roman Poetovio (present-day Ptuj). When they came to a big lime tree, they saw Roman Poetovio. The brothers hung the image of Mary's Visitation that they were carrying with them on the lime tree. During the trip many a young man found himself a girl, married, formed a family and stayed in the area. The Polish origins of these settlers is retained in the village's name of Polenšak.

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The Bed nature trail follows the old Drava river bed on the Drava polje river plain in the Hajdina municipality. It passes Hajdoge and Skorba and makes its way through flood meadows and the former meanders of the Drava River. Until the drainage channel for the hydroelectric power plant at Zlatoličje was built, the area along the Drava River consisted of water meadows with autochthonous plants. As the level of groundwater fell, the area acquired settlement and other urban functions. A piece of the former environment along the Drava River has been preserved and today it represents an important habitat to many animal and plant species. In order to allow visitors to appreciate and value the area along the old Drava river bed, the Berl nature trail was created, which is circular and 2.38 km long; it is marked and can be walked in under an hour. The nature trail is well served by public transport connections.

Along with other Roman finds, two temples dedicated to God Mithra are of special importance. The first was dis­covered at the end of the nineteenth century and has been preserved on site, protected with a hut. The second, larger one, to be located in the vicinity, had been severely damaged and is now displayed in the Ptuj museum.

Mithraeum I

Located on a former river terrace, Wil­helm Gurlitt researched the first of Ptuj's Mithraic temples at the end of the 19th Century. The number means that this is the first ever Mithraeum discovered at the same time it is the oldest dis­covered Mithraeum, being constructed between 150 and 160 A.D. It is a small temple, consisting of three parts and dedicated to the Sun-god Mithra.

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Originally, the St. Martin of Tours Church was built along the route of the former Roman road, during the time of the Great Plague. Later it was replaced by a gothic building which was completed before 1390. The parts of this building that have been preserved are a gothic presbytery, which is today the side chapel of the new church, and the bell tower, below which there used to be a chapel. The gothic presbytery with star-ribbed vault is the oldest in Slovenia. The new church was built in the shape of a cross between 1873 and 1874.

The whole church and its furnishings display gothic style, including four side altars and the main altar, which was built according to plans by Professor Ortwein. The church has medieval fres¬cos and a star vault, whose ribs rest on corbels and on pillars reaching to the ground. They are decorated with voluminously-shaped masks, attributed to the school of Peter Parler, a sculptor from Prague. These corbel masks are priceless artworks and mark a link be-tween Hajdina and the nearby Ptujska Gora. In the presbytery there are frag ments of gothic medieval painting and a well-preserved stone tabernacle. In the graveyard chapel there are statues of Mary and John, products of the Vid Koniger workshop in Graz.

The St. Martin of Tours was at first a subsidiary of the Hoe parish. In 1597 it became an independent parish. Later separate parishes were established: Kungota formed around the Church of St. Kunigunda and Slovenja vas around the new Church of St. Mary's Ascen-sion. A part of the former territory of the Hajdina parish now belongs to the newly-established parish of the Holy Family in Kidričevo.

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Herberstein's basement is located in the centre of Slovenske gorice, namely at Juršinski Vrh. The present owner of the basement, Alojz Kaučič, decided to renovate the magnificent basement of Count Oto Herberstein, whose initials are still on the boundary stones and bricks. In the vaulted basement the owner has arranged a wine shop with the most distinguished wine samples, produced and held in wooden barrels and bottled in the first private bottling plant in Ptuj.

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Since 1993 the Municipality of Jurginci has been organising the agricultural-tourist event Gratitude to Autumn. Each year it is dedicated to a different agricultural branch. During 2009's event the Queen of Autumn Heritage Museum was opened, arranged by the Association for the Preservation and Development of Heritage in a house near the church. Texts and pictures give a rich presentation of former Autumn Queens as well as the locality's natural and cultural heritage, some important figures from this part of Slovenske gorice, and old agricultural items and tools.

The Puh Museum or »Puhova cimprača« is a memorial centre for the world-renowned inventor Janez Puh located in his home village of Sakušak, near Juršinci in Slovenske gorice. By means of ethnological heritage, archive material and museum exhibits his life and work in the field of transport and automotive engineering are presented. Janez Puh was an inventor, visionary, factory-owner, and business­man.

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St. Lawrence Church was first men-tioned in 1322. It was already a parish at the time. The present late Gothic church was completed in 1540. Around 1700 the Rosary Chapel was added. The exterior is formed by pillars from the years 1518, 1528 and 1540. The presbytery, covered by a meshed vault on pillars with capitals, dates from 1526 and displays stylistic parallels with the St. Lenart Church in Lenart. The church was painted by Jakob Brollo. The main altar is from 1830.

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The korant is the most popular and most frequently seen traditional carni­val image from Ptujsko polje. Accord­ing to traditional beliefs, the korant is a demon who chased away winter and awakened nature to spring, life and growth. In present times, although it has lost its former mission and func­tion, it still arouses special feelings inpeople: there is still something mysterious and powerful in it.

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The coat of arms of the Markovci municipality is a heraldically regular coat of arms, meaning that the symbolism is appropriate and the colour combinations are suitable. It brings together everything that is true for good coats of arms:

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It is located at the fork in the road from Nova Vas to Bukovci and Stojnci. It is an interest­ing chapel from 1822 of the closed type, covered with a two-gutter title roof and with two side niches.

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The chapel is of the open type, and covered with a twogutter tile roof.

The column is located along the Bukovci-Spuhlja road in the south-western part of village. It is a stone column with three niches and four gutter roof. In the fron-tal niche there is a cross, below it there is a built-in plate bearing an indistinct inscription and the year 1617, when the column was probably erected.

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The original St. Mark's Church was built in the sixteenth century; the small church was extended in the seven teenth century and side chapels added. Until 1637 the church was a subsidiary of Saint George's Church in Ptuj, after that it was subordinated to the Church of Saint Oswald until 1789, when the St. Mark became an independent par-ish.

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Lake Ptuj is the largest Slovenian artificial lake. It was created in 1978 by putting a dam on the River Drava under Ptuj, and it serves as a reservoir for the Formin hydro power plant; at the same time it is becoming a place for recreational purposes as rowing, sailing and fishing. The lake is 7.3 km long and 1.2 km wide. It covers 420 hectares, the maximum depth reaches 12 metres and the water quantity in the lake is 20 for wintering of water birds in Slovenia. Around 10,000 birds spend every winter on this lake, which is around 20% of all wintering water birds in Slovenia. Owing to a huge importance of bird protection, Lake Ptuj was together with the River Drava pronounced as the Natura 2000 area in 2004. During the winter shortages, upsetting the water birds might be fatal. To pro-vide a necessary peaceful environment for wintering birds a part of the lake is prohibited for sailing. To this end the Municipalities Markovci and Ptuj adopt-ed a Decision which limits the sailing on most sensitive spots of the lake.

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Along the left bank of the River Drava, 2 kilometres from the centre of the town, in the settlement Oregje, there is a Hince's sequoia. This sort of tree was brought to Europe in the 19th century and it was planted in parks. The sequoia in Oregje is the biggest tree of this type in Slovenia. The circumference of the tree is 7.7 metres and it is 45 metres tall.

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