thumb|right|150px|Matija Gubec statue in the large 1573 Peasants' Revolt monument in [[Gornja Stubica made in 1973 by Antun Augustinčić, a prominent Croatian sculptor]]
Matija Gubec (; 1548 – 15 February 1573), also known as Ambroz Gubec (or Gobec), was a Croatian revolutionary, and a leader of the Croatian–Slovene Peasant Revolt of 1573. He was part of the court of three people that governed the rebels.
Biography
The name Matija first appears in the work of the Hungarian historian Miklós Istvánffy in 1622. and later the two, and the peasant king, György Dózsa (leader of the Hungarian peasant revolt in 1514), merged in folk traditions. When the revolt erupted, the peasants elected him to be one of the leaders, and renowned for his personal qualities, he became the most influential leader of the rebellion. he was publicly tortured and forced to wear a red-hot iron crown, cruelly dragged along the streets of the city, pinched with red-hot iron pincers, and was subsequently quartered.
Legacy
thumb|left|A representation of the execution of Matija Gubec in front of [[St. Mark's Church, Zagreb|St. Mark's Church in Zagreb, by Oton Iveković]]
While Matija Gubec's cause was defeated, his legacy continued to be preserved in local folklore throughout the centuries. In the 20th century, the Croatian Peasant Party, and later Josip Broz Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans, embraced his cause as their own. During the Spanish Civil War, Yugoslav leftists who served in the pro-Republican International Brigades named their force the Grupo Matija Gubec. During World War II, a Croatian and Slovenian brigade were named after him. The museum continues to operate to this day.
Gubec is the protagonist of Gubec-beg (1975), the first Croatian rock opera, which told the story of the Peasant revolt. It was performed 212 times and was seen by over 400,000 people.
In 2008, a total of 362 streets in Croatia were named after Matija Gubec, making him the most common person eponym of streets in the country. In Serbia, 42 streets are named after Gubec, .