The first written reference to Vara�din, whose historical name is Garestin, was on 20 August 1181, when King B�la III mentioned the nearby thermal springs (Vara�dinske Toplice) in a legal document.
Vara�din was declared a free royal borough in 1209 by the Hungarian King Andrew II. The town became the economic and military centre of northern Croatia. Due to Turkish raids, the town was structured defensively around the old fortress, and acquired the shape of a typical medieval Wasserburg. In the early 13th century, the Knights Hospitaller (Croatian: Ivanovci) came to Vara�din, where they built the church and a monastery.
At the end of the 14th century, Vara�din fortress passed to the hands of the Counts of Celje. Over the following centuries Vara�din had several owners, the most influential being Beatrice Frankopan, Margrave Georg of Brandenburg, who built the town hall; the last was Baron Ivan Ungnad, who reinforced the existing fortification. At the end of the 16th century Count Thomas Erd�dy became its owner, assuming the hereditary position of Vara�din prefects (�upan), and the fortress remained in the ownership of the Erd�dy family until 1925.
In 1756, the Ban Francis Nad�sdy chose Vara�din as his official residence, and Vara�din became the capital of all of Croatia. It hosted the Croatian Sabor and the Royal Croatian Council founded by Empress Maria Theresa.
The periods of the Reformation and the counter-reformation had a great influence on Vara�din. With the arrival of the Jesuits, the school (gymnasium) and the convent were founded, and churches and monasteries were built in the baroque style. In the 18th century Vara�din was the seat of many Croatian noblemen, and in 1756 it became the Croatian administrative centre. The fire of 1776 destroyed most of the town, resulting in the administrative institutions moving back to Zagreb.
The town was in the Croatia-Slavonia province of the Autrian monarchy, ruled by the Kingdom of
