Hlebine is a municipality in Koprivnica-Križevci County

Koprivnica-Križevci County

Koprivnica-Križevci County is a county in northern Croatia. Its hyphenated name comes from two entities: the two of its largest cities, Koprivnica and Križevci....

 in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. It consists of two villages, Hlebine and Gabajeva Greda.

Population

Its population is earns its living primarily from agricultural production. The population has been decreasing continuously for a number of years. As of 2001, Hlebine had 1470 inhabitants with the overwhelming majority being Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

.

History

Hlebine is first mentioned 1671 as a village in the Drnje

Drnje

Drnje is a village and a municipality in the Koprivnica-Križevci county in Croatia. According to the 2001 Croatian census, there are 2,156 inhabitants in the municipality, Croats forming an absolute majority at 96%. They live in 3 settlements:...

 parish. It became an independent parish in 18th century. It was a part of Koprivnica

Koprivnica

Koprivnica is a city in northern Croatia. It is the capital of the Koprivnica-Križevci county. In 2011 the city administrative area had a total population of 30,872, with 23,896 in the city itself.-Population:...

 county until 1993. Hlebine is also an important city for Croatian art, and is a center of Croatian naive art

Naïve art

Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...

. It is a birth town of Franjo Mraz

Franjo Mraz

Franjo Mraz was a notable Croatian artist. Together with Ivan Generalić and Mirko Virius, he is considered a founder of Croatian naive art. His most famous paintings are "Oranje" and "Zima" ....

, Krsto Hegedušić

Krsto Hegedušic

Krsto Hegedušić was a Croatian painter, illustrator and theater designer. His most famous paintings depict the harsh life of the Croatian peasantry in the manner of naive art...

, Ivan Generalić

Ivan Generalic

Ivan Generalić was a Croatian naïve art painter.Generalić was born in Hlebine near Koprivnica. In elementary school, painting lessons were his greatest joy and as a child he used to earn money...

, Josip Generalić

Josip Generalić

Josip Generalić was a Croatian painter. His works can be found at the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art in Zagreb.-References:...

 and Franjo Gaži.