5 Best Sights in Excursions North of Zagreb, Zagreb and Environs

Consecrated in 1650 on the site of a medieval predecessor, this pale yellow church has the highest tower in Varaždin, at almost 180 feet tall. In front is a statue of 10th-century Croatian bishop Grgur Ninski, a replica of the original, which is in Split; another such replica can be seen in Nin.

Consecrated to Varaždin's patron saint in 1761 on the site of an older church, this Baroque structure is more attractive on the outside than the inside. Note the false yet imposing white columns in the facade, the red-tiled conical steeple, and the sculpture at the foot of the steeple of a firefighting St. Florian pouring a bucket of water onto a church, presumably an allusion to the fire that devastated Varaždin in 1776.

Croatia's preeminent religious pilgrimage site is home to the Blessed Virgin of Bistrica, a black, wooden, 15th-century Gothic statue of the Holy Mother associated with miraculous powers (per legend, having survived the Turkish invasion and a subsequent fire) and set in the main altar. The church, which was proclaimed a Croatian shrine by the nation's parliament in 1715, was rebuilt in the neo-Renaissance style in the late 19th century; the shrine complex adjacent to the church was enlarged in time for a 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II. Behind the church is a huge amphitheater built for the pope's visit, and from there, you can climb up Kalvarija (Calvary Hill) to the Stations of the Cross, ornamented with sculptures by Croatian artists.

Čakovec's key ecclesiastical landmark was built between 1707 and 1728 on the site of a wooden monastery that burned down in 1699. The bell tower was added in the 1750s. Inside is a late-Baroque altar decorated with elaborate statues; on the outside is a facade from the turn of the 20th century, when Hungary ruled the region, with reliefs of several great Hungarian kings from ages past.

This single-nave, pale-pink Baroque church with a particularly colorful late-Baroque altar was consecrated in 1712 by the Ursuline sisters, who came to Varaždin from Bratislava nine years earlier at the invitation of the Drašković family. Its charming, strikingly slender tower was added in 1726.