The article proves that a number of conditions influenced the urban development of Maribor which helped to create its present image. One of them was the land itself which, owing to its system of parallel terraces, preconditioned its step-like shaping from the river harbour to the present Gregorčičeva Street; another was a basically parallel direction of the streets which gave to the settlement a planimetrie foundation; and finally, the location of the main buildings: the parish church, both manors, the Minorite monastery and the Jewish ghetto — which fixed certain locational points. Following is the formation of the Glavni trg (Main Square) and the meridian street system and finally the town walls which changed the city area into a firmly framed setting on which the events of the centuries to come took place. The 16th century added Lent, enclosed by a wall, the 18th century a commercial transit road, the 19th century a railroad crossing which huge workshops. After WWII the city activities began purposefully to move out of the old centre, however, no equal aglo- meration has so far been created