SACRAL HERITAGE
Church buildings have been built in the Kozjansko area since at least the 9th century. The Church of St. Michael in Pilštanj was the seat of the ancient parish, from which all parishes in Kozjansko and Bizeljsko were formed. The age of the churches can be determined from the names of saints to whom they are dedicated – St. George, St. Martin, St. Margaret, St. Michael. Here, mighty pilgrimage churches are intermixed with modest village branches.
Svete gore above Bistrica ob Sotli
Svete gore above Bistrica ob Sotli takes a special place among sacred buildings. This ancient cult centre with St. Mary’s church dedicated to her birth, St. Martin’s and George’s chapels, the chapels of St. Sebastian and Fabian and the chapel of the Lady of Lourdes is situated on the narrow ridge of the hill. Legend says that the construction started after the Countess of Kunšperk got lost in the dark woods, and ordered a church to be built in this area after she was rescued.
St. Mary’s Church was first mentioned in 1265 as Monte Sancte Marie. As to when the hill was given its name of Svete gore, it remains unknown. The church must have stood on Gore at least as early as the 13th century, otherwise the hill would not have been called St. Mary’s Hill. Major construction work took place in the 17th century, when the enlarged church was blessed in 1611 by Bishop Tomaž Hren of Ljubljana. As the church soon became too small, the two side naves were added around 1727, the main nave was raised and vaulted, and the oratory and the choir loft were added to the sacristy.
The present St. Mary’s Church from the Early Baroque has the appearance of a basilica. In the period of 1868 to 1871, the church was painted by Tomaž Fantoni. The main altar features the most important events in Mary’s life, and all her relatives. First there is Mary the Queen, surrounded by a trio of angels, then the Birth of Mary (08/09) in the centre, the Annunciation (25/03) at the sides and, at the top, the Coronation of Mary in Heaven.
In the nave, another six side altars lean on the columns which are dedicated to St. Anna, St. Florian, St. Anthony of the Desert, Lady of the Rosary, St. Francis Xavier and St. Isidore.
Pilgrims turn to Mary with Jesus on the throne in the nave. An interesting feature of the statue is that its clothes are changed, and there is a larger number of pieces of clothes stored.
Below St. Mary’s Church are the chapels of St. George and St. Martin, which are among the oldest sacral buildings in Slovenia and date from the 9th to the 11th centuries. The Chapel of St. George, with its illegible inscription on the portal and the silhouette of a man, has a special place and has long been a source of intrigue for the expert community, which has time and again come up with new explanations for the creation of the relief or the inscription.
The Chapel of St. Sebastian and Fabian, and the Lourdes Chapel are located above St. Mary’s Church. The latter is richly decorated with stonemasonry marks on its exterior.
During archaeological excavations, an ancient Slavic necropolis was found, which extended all the way to St. George’s Chapel. The objects from the excavations are preserved at the Posavje Museum in Brežice.
More information at: www.svetegore.si
Olimje Monastery
In 1663, the Croatian nobleman Janez Sakhmardi Dyankoch left his Olimje manor to the Pauline monks who erected a monastery here. The mighty Church of the Assumption was added to the manor in 1765–1766. It originally consisted only of a single, elongated rectangular nave and a narrower rectangular choir loft. A bell tower was added as early as 1710, and between 1765 and 1766, St. Francis’ Chapel was added on the north side.
The interior of the church shows a very rich Baroque style, a single-aisled, vaulted nave, with two pairs of chapels on the sides, opening into the nave with high arches. The presbytery houses a wealth of art. The triumphal wall is painted with a faux architecture, with flowers, angels and saints worshipping Mary, placed in the form of a statue at the top of the triumphal arch in a recess in the wall.
The mighty main altar, which reaches up to the arch, is the work of an unknown carver from the late 17th century. It is one of the largest golden altars in Slovenia. Above it, the space opens up with an additional dome, painted by Ivan Ranger between 1739 and 1740. The chapel of St. Francis, leaning against the south wall of the church, is precious in its own right. The murals cover every last corner of it and are full of scenes from the saint’s life. The author of these paintings is Anton Lerchinger, originally from Rogatec. They date from 1766 and accurately depict peasant costume in the 2nd half of the 18th. Lerchinger is also the author of the paintings in the monastery pharmacy.
The monastery was abolished in 1782, and the manor was sold to Count Ferdinand Attems in 1805.
After World War II, ownership of the manor transferred to the state. The Little Brothers of St. Francis of Assisi (Minorites) arrived in Olimje in 1990 and set up the monastery here. They ran the Olimje Parish and set up an herbal pharmacy, beehive, and an herbal garden in the former castle garden. There is also a pilgrimage house within the monastery.
More at: www.olimje.net
Svete gore above Podsreda
The Stations of the Cross lead to the Church of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or to Stare gore above Podsreda, as they are popularly called. At the top of the hill, you will find St. Mary’s Church and St. Anne’s Chapel. The central, former pilgrimage church of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows was first mentioned in 1347, while the present building dates from the beginning of the 15th century.
The interior of the church, which is reached by stairs, has been preserved in its original form only in the presbytery enclosed from three sides, which features paintings. The most striking feature is the large late Baroque main altar from the 2nd half of the 18th century. The statue of Pieta, a work of a workshop from Ptujska gora from 1410, which was in the main altar, is now in the National Gallery in Ljubljana, and a copy of the statue is in the parish church.
The side altars are dedicated to St. Stephen, St. Roch, and Mary Magdalene. The pulpit is from Rococo, and the magnificent Stations of the Cross feature inscriptions in the Bohoričica script. The centre of pilgrim worship is the newer Stuflesser statue of Mary from 1902, placed on a carved Baroque throne in the nave.
The 14th-century St. Anne’s Chapel is situated above the church.
The Stations of the Cross, which lead from Podsreda to Stare gore, were built by the parish in 1834. It was rebuilt in 1893–1894, when the chapels were given new paintings by Ferdinand Stuflesser. The last station of the Stations of the Cross is in the former chapel of St. Hermagoras and St. Fortunatus. The last renovation took place in 2015, when individuals, villages and hamlets pledged to maintain each chapel.
Church of St. John the Baptist, Podsreda
It was mentioned as a vicariate in 1426 and became a parish in 1765.
The old church in Podsreda burnt down in a fire in 1798, leaving only the ribbed-vaulted presbytery, which was converted into a mortuary and used until 1871. A new church was built in 1802–1804 and 1810. The interior of the church is a late Baroque space, although it was built at the beginning of the 19th century. It is decorated with frescoes by Tomaž Fantoni from 1877–1878. The big altar dates from 1865. Above the altar hangs a painting from the old church by Franz Michael Strauss, dating from c. 1738 and depicting the baptism in the Jordan. The two side altars are of the tabernacle type. The left one dates from the beginning of the 19th century. The statue of the Mother of God on the tabernacle is more recent, and the two statues of angels are from the castle chapel in Pišece. The right altar dates from 1878. Above it has the Deisis group and Magdalene kissing the feet of the Crucified. The pulpit was made by Ivan Herman from Graz in 1834. The Baroque organ was made in 1822 by master Jožef Otonič from Maribor. On the side altar, there is a copy of the Pieta from Svete gore above Podsreda, the original is on display at the National Gallery in Ljubljana.
Chapels and signs
Chapels and signs were created as part of folk devotions, as memorials and reminders of events, and as signposts along the way. Simple people were more familiar with crosses, chapels and signs, which are plentiful on the hills and valleys of Kozjansko.
There are also many stone signs from the 16th to the end of the 19th century, which were supposed to show the way for pilgrims and travellers. The Kozjansko park area prides itself on eighteen of such signs. Some stone columns are decorated with figural images, among them, the figure of a sorrowful Christ stands out. The signs are the work of unknown folk artists, the only exception is the sign in Lesično whose quality far surpasses all other works and displays the immense skills of the craftsman. People named the signs as crosses, and the name of the former owner was usually added. Many were linked to the plague, although they were not mainly created as reminders of that serious disease.