 Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural centre of eastern Slovenia.Maribor was first mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209, and as a city in 1254.Like most Slovene ethnic territory, Maribor was under Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured the city for the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which then joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.