Krapina (krâpina; Korpona) is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje County with a population of 4,482 (2011) and a total municipality population of 12,480 (2011). Krapina is located in the hilly Zagorje region of Croatia, approximately away from both Zagreb and Varaždin.
The following settlements comprise the Krapina municipality:
Bobovje, population 510
Doliće, population 436
Donja Šemnica, population 912
Gornja Pačetina, population 404
Krapina, population 4,471
Lazi Krapinski, population 79
Lepajci, population 391
Mihaljekov Jarek, population 469
Podgora Krapinska, population 565
Polje Krapinsko, population 666
Pretkovec, population 66
Pristava Krapinska, population 214
Strahinje, population 328
Straža Krapinska, population 42
Škarićevo, population 707
Šušelj Brijeg, population 4
Tkalci, population 432
Trški Vrh, population 399
Velika Ves, population 727
Vidovec Krapinski, population 215
Vidovec Petrovski, population 101
Zagora, population 94
Žutnica, population 248
Krapina has been known since 1193. It has always been a favorite site for castles and country houses of Croatian and Hungarian rulers.
In the first half of the 15th century, it was an important center of the Counts of Celje, who additionally fortified the town and expanded the nearby castle. Later, it came in the possession of the Keglević family.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Krapina was a district capital in Varaždin County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
Krapina Neanderthal site
In 1899, on a hill called Hušnjakovo near modern Krapina, the archaeologist and paleontologist Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger found over eight hundred fossil remains belonging to Neanderthals.
The half-cave in Krapina was soon listed among the world's science localities as a rich fossil finding site, where the largest and richest collection of the Neanderthal man had ever been found.
At the site where the Neanderthal remains were discovered there is now a state-of-the-art Neanderthal museum which also includes an extensive section on evolution, making it one of the most interesting evolutionary museums in Europe.