Slovenia – Eastern (Maribor, Celje, Novo Mesto, Postojna) May 17-19, 2019
Mokrice Castle, Jesenice. Just across the Croatian/Slovenia border, this stone/plaster manor house is now the Hotel Grad Mokrice with rooms surrounding a nice courtyard. A golf course surrounds the property. Free
I slept beside the Sava River where it is a reservoir from a dam just downstream. The train across the river was amazingly loud. The sun came out for the first time in a week and it actually got warm.
Rajhenburg Castle, Brestanica. Sitting on the corner of a hill on the west side of the river, this newer imposing manor house was closed.
The drive through rural south Slovenia followed the Krka River through innumerable small towns and farms. The river was close to flood. On a Saturday bicyclists were out in force including a group of about 300 that held up traffic for several kilometers thankfully going the other way.
Kostanjevica na Krki. In both the NM “small town” and “island” series, it is surrounded with what must have been a meander of the Krka River. It has an imposing church with a great copper “onion” bell tower. The inside is lovely with murals on the ceiling and some sidewalls, a large marble altar in the apse full of polychromes and smaller side altars with the same. The congregation was out tending the grounds.
Otočec Castle (River Castle), Otočec. When first mentioned in 1252, this castle was not on an island, but after the Mongol invasion in the mid 13th century, a canal was dug on the south side creating an artificial island. The storyboard had lots of intrigue that occurred with its many owners. One, a redhead was suggested to have sired 90 children in the town. In the 50s and 60s, it was rebuilt and turned into a 5-star hotel. Surrounded by walls and a lovely treed park, it is very cute. Free
Novo Mesto. In the NM “small towns” series, this larger town straddles both sides of the Krka River. It has a pedestrianized downtown and some nice churches.
ŽUŽEMBERK. Another NM “small town” with little to discriminate it.
Žužemberk Castle. Originally built in the 13th century, its bastions were reinforced in the 16th and four large round towers added by the wealthy Auersperg family who owned the large ironworks nearby. It was heavily bombed in WW II. Inside are some palace ruins and several wood ramps and walkways, but little to see other than the nice views down to the river. It holds cultural events in the summer. Free
CELJE
Celje Regional Museum. This is a good example of how a museum shouldn’t be. All in Slovene and wordy storyboards. There was a temporary exhibit on WW I, several dioramas on prominent citizens and a good profile on Alma Karlin, a Celje citizen who traveled around the world between 1919 and 1927. Many of her momentos are shown. Down the street is the second part of the museum, the Princely Palace with boring archeology in the basement and English storyboards that were so wordy, nobody would read them. The princes dated from the 13-14th centuries. €5 but free today as it was International Museum Day.
Celje Cathedral (St David’s Church). Originally from the 13 century, it was refurbished several times. The ceiling and walls have painted floral decoration.
War and Peace Monument. In a small park in north Celje, this unusual granite rectangle has abstract figures, no information and nothing that shows much about war except some prone bodies.
Žalec. A NM “small town” 12kms west of Celje, it has a small 1182 stone tower sitting next to the church.
Šentjur. Another NM “small town east of Celje, the upper town has some cute houses and a large church.
MARIBOR
Maribor is the second-largest city in Slovenia.
History. In 1164, a castle known as Castrum Marchburch (“March Castle”) was originally built on Piramida Hill, which is located just above the city. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204. It began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480/1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683.
In 1900, the city had a population that was 82.3% Austrian Germans and 17.3% Slovenes (based on the language spoken at home); most of the city’s capital and public life was in Austrian German hands. Thus, it was mainly known by its Austrian name Marburg an der Drau.
During World War I many Slovenes in Carinthia and Styria were detained on suspicion of being enemies of the Austrian Empire. This led to distrust between Austrian Germans and Slovenes. After the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Maribor was claimed by both the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and German Austria. On 1 November 1918, a meeting was held where it was decided that the German-speaking city should be part of German Austria. Ethnic Slovene Major Rudolf Maister denounced the decision and organised Slovenian military units that were able to seize control of the city. All Austrian officers and soldiers were disarmed and demobilised to the new state of German Austria. The city council then held a secret meeting, where it was decided to do whatever possible to regain Maribor for German Austria. They organised a military unit called the Green Guard (Schutzwehr), and approximately 400 well-armed soldiers of this unit opposed the pro-Slovenian and pro-Yugoslav Major Maister. Slovenian troops surprised and disarmed the Green Guard early in the morning of 23 November. Thereafter, there was no threat to the authority of Rudolf Maister in the city. As Maribor was now firmly in the hands of the Slovenian forces and surrounded completely by Slovenian territory. After 1918, most of Maribor’s Austrian Germans left for Austria. World War II. In 1941 Lower Styria, the predominantly Yugoslav part of Styria, was annexed by Nazi Germany. German troops marched into the town at 9 pm on 8 April 1941. On 26 April Adolf Hitler, who encouraged his followers to “make this land German again”, visited Maribor and a grand reception was organised in the city castle by the local Germans. Immediately after the occupation, Nazi Germany began mass expulsions of Slovenes to the Independent State of Croatia, Serbia, and later to the concentration and work camps in Germany. This led to organised resistance by partisans. Maribor was the site of a German prisoner-of-war camp from 1941-45 for many British, Australian, and New Zealand troops who had been captured in Crete in 1941. The city, a major industrial centre with an extensive armament industry, was systematically bombed by the Allies in the closing years of World War II. A total of 29 bombing raids devastated some 47% of the city area, killing 483 civilians and leaving over 4,200 people homeless. Over 2,600 people died in Maribor during the war.
By the end of the war, Maribor was the most war-damaged major town of Yugoslavia.[9] The remaining German-speaking population, except those who had actively supported the resistance during the war, was summarily expelled at the end of the war in May 1945.
Post-World War II period. After the Second World War, Maribor made good use of its proximity to Austria and its workforce and developed into a major transit- and cultural centre of northern Slovenia. When Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991, the loss of the Yugoslav market severely strained the city’s economy, which was based on heavy industry. The city saw a record unemployment rate of nearly 25%. After Slovenia entered the European Union in 2004, introduced the Euro currency in 2007, and joined the Schengen treaty, all of the border controls between Slovenia and Austria ceased on 25 December 2007. The economic situation of Maribor after the mid-1990s crisis worsened again with the onset of the global economic crisis combined with the European sovereign-debt crisis.
Old Town of Maribor. Once surrounded by walls, now there are several small arch entrances in the buildings on the outside of the old town. Eleven major fires occurred in the town and five completely destroyed the entire city – in 1601, 1648, 1650, 1700 and 1797. The old town has some nice architecture – the post office, university and theatre.
Maribor Cathedral (Stolna zupnija Maribor). The original church dates to the 12th century and was enlarged to three naves in the 13th. It burned down several times over the centuries. I loved the simple stained glass. Free
Climb the bell tower (166 steps) for good views of the city and especially the old city. On top there is an apartment used until 1933 for a guard on fire duty. Exhibits discuss the fires, fire brigade, the first phone in 1887 and the clock mechanism made in Vienna in 1899. Free
Plague Column. On the Main Square, it was erected by “pious burghers” in gratitude for the end of a 1680 plague epidemic that had claimed a third of the city’s population. The original monument was built in 1681. The current one is a 1743 replacement. It is considered one of the best examples of baroque art in Slovenia. The column is made entirely of white marble, and consists of an ornate rectangular pedestal that supports a Corinthian column bearing a gilded statue of the Virgin Mary, crowned with twelve stars and standing on the moon (a reference to Revelation 12:1). At its base, the column is surrounded by six saints, to which the townspeople prayed for intercession: St. Francis of Assissi, St. Sebastian, St. James, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Roch and St. Francis Xavier. The monument was later surrounded by an ornamental stone fence.
Basilica of the Virgin Protectress, Ptujska Gora, Sitting on the highest hill around and visible for miles is this large church. I entered at the end of mass on a Sunday morning to a full congregation. The church has a magnificent marble altar with stucco statues and a large polychrome of Mary, nice polychrome statues on the sidewalls, abstract stained glass and frescoes in the right entrance. Free
Mary’s Pilgrim Route. This connects Slovenian and Croatian shrines of St Mary – 409kms in Slovenia and 393kms in Croatia.
PUTJ
Old Town of Ptuj. The lower part of the town is narrow lanes coming off the main area with the Parish Church of St George and the enormous square clock tower. Above is
Castle of Ptuj (Grad Muretinci). 12 kms east of Putj, this manor house does not look occupied and is not open to the public. The yellow paint with orange geometrics on the corners is peeling.