Slovenj Gradec

Slovenj Gradec (German: Windischgrätz, after about 1900 Windischgraz) is a town and a municipality in northern Slovenia. It is part of the historic Lower Styria region, since 2005 it belongs to the NUTS-3 statistical region of Carinthia. The town is located in the valley of the Mislinja River at the eastern end of the Karavanke mountain range, about 45 km (28 mi) west of Maribor and 65 km (40 mi) northeast of Ljubljana.

History

Gradec, Slovene for 'little castle', was first mentioned in a 1091 deed, then part of the Imperial March of Styria. From 1180 until 1918 it belonged to the Duchy of Styria, since 1804 a crown land of the Austrian Empire. It was the ancestral seat of the Windisch-Graetz noble family first documented in 1220^[2]. Upon the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, with the rest of Lower Styria, it was included in the newly established Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Between the mid-19th century and 1945, the town was a German-speaking island in a Slovene-speaking area. In a 1880 census, the town of Slovenj Gradec, or Windischgrätz (see: Wends) as it was called to distinguish it from the Styrian capital Graz, was 75 percent German-speaking and 25 percent Slovene-speaking,^[3] but among the German-speaking population there were allegedly those - like the family of the composer Hugo Wolf- of mixed ethnic origin.

After the end of World War I, many of the local German-speaking inhabitants emigrated to Austria; those that remained were gradually assimilated to or re-integrated into the Slovene-speaking majority. After World War II, all remaining ethnic Germans were expelled from Yugoslavia and Slovenj Gradec lost its traditional presence of German speakers.

Main sights

The parish church in the town is dedicated to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It is first mentioned in written documents from 1235. Next to it lies a Gothic chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit with frescos dating to the mid-15th century.^[4]

In 2003, an archeological excavation uncovered the remains of what is believed to be the oldest church in Styria, dating to the Carolingian period.

Notable residents

In 1860, the composer Hugo Wolf was born in the town. The house in which he was born is now a music school.

Slovenj Gradec is also the birthplace of skier Tina Maze, tennis player Katarina Srebotnik, Slovenia national football team footballers Marko Šuler and Mirnes Šišić, top handball player Iztok Puc, critical theorist Renata Salecl and writer, theatre critic and literary historian Lado Kralj.

Twin towns

• Gornji Milanovac, Serbia

References

• Some of the information in this article is based on and translated from that found in its German equivalent.

1. ^ Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, census of 2002
2. ^ Der Große Brockhaus, Leipzig 1935, vol. 20, p. 359
3. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, 5th ed., Leipzig-Vienna 1897, vol. 17, p. 794
4. ^ Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage reference numbers ešd 658 & 659

External links

• Official website (Slovenian)
• Town Heraldry
• Slovenj Gradec municipality on Geopedia