 bjelovar is a city in central croatia. it is the administrative centre of bjelovar-bilogora county. at the 2011 census, there were 40,276 inhabitants, of which 91.25% were croats. bjelovar was first mentioned in 1413 and only gained importance when a new fort was built there in 1756, at the command of the habsburg empress maria theresa. the initial role of the city was to defend central croatia against the ottoman invasions. the town had to wait until the end of these wars to be pronounced a free royal town by ban ivan maÅ¾uraniÄ in 1874. ==exonames== in hungarian, the town is known as belovÃ¡r, in german it is known as bellovar, in kajkavian it is known as belovar and in serbian cyrillic, it is known as ÐÑÐµÐ»Ð¾Ð²Ð°Ñ. ==history== the oldest neolithic location in this area is in Å½dralovi, a suburb of bjelovar, where, while building a basement for the house of josip horvatiÄ, a dugout was found and identified as belonging to the starÄevo culture (5000&nbsp;â 4300 bc).jakovljeviÄ, g. arheoloÅ¡ka topografija bilogore, bjelovarski zbornik â89, bjelovar, 1989, pp 108â119dimitrijeviÄ, s. das neolithikum in syrmien, slawonien und nordwestkroatien&nbsp;â einfÃ¼hrung in den stander forschung, archeologica iugoslavica x, belgrade, 1969, p 39-76 (45, 47)dimitrijeviÄ, s. sjeverna zona&nbsp;â neolitik u centralnom i zapadnom dijelu sjeverne jugoslavije, praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja ii, sarajevo, 1979, pp 229â360 (252â253) finds from Å½dralovi belong to a regional subtype of a late variant of the neolithic culture. it is designated the Å½dralovi facies of the starÄevo culture, or the final-stage starÄevo. there are also relics of the korenovo culture, sopot culture, lasinja culture, and the 
Bjelovar Cities_and_towns_in_Croatia Populated_places_in_Bjelovar-Bilogora_County