Križevci is one of the oldest towns in the northern Croatia, mentioned as Cris (cross) in 1193 in the documents of King Bela III. Initially divided into Gornji and Donji Križevac (Upper and Lower Town). Gornji grad received privileges of a free and royal town back in 1252, which is today celebrated as the Municipality Day. Donji grad received the same privilege in 1405. Disputes between the two cities continued until the 1752 when Empress Maria Theresia decided to merge two towns into one. Križevci have always been the administrative center and the center of a County, which covered almost half the area of the northern Croatia. Its importance grew from the moment when it started hosting sessions of the Croatian Parliament. Of thirty Parliament sessions held in the city, in the historical memory of the local population remained the "Bloody Parliament of Križevci" in 1397 when King Sigismund killed Croatian Ban Stjepan Lackovic and some of his supporters.