Vrhnika (; german: Oberlaibach;''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 120. la, Nauportus) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

. It is the seat of the Municipality of Vrhnika. It is located on the Ljubljanica River, 21 km from

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

along the

A1 motorway A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

Geography

Vrhnika lies at the southwest end of the Ljubljana Marsh near the sources of the Ljubljanica River, where the Ljubljana Basin opens up between the foot of Ljubljana Peak ( sl, Ljubljanski vrh, ) and Ulovka Hill (). The territory of the town extends south onto the Logatec Plateau ( sl, Logaška planota), where the Big and Little Drnovica Collapse Sinkholes ( sl, Velika Drnovica, Mala Drnovica) are found. A rich network of springs and streams originates and joins near the town to form the source of the Ljubljanica.

Name

The settlement at the location of today's Vrhnika was attested in antiquity as ''Nauportus'' in Latin, and as Ναύποντος and Νάμπορτος in Greek. Medieval attestations of the name include in 1300, ''Oberlaybach'' in 1308 (and ''Ober Laybach'' in 1309), and ''Vernich'' in 1481, corresponding to the modern Slovene name. In the past, the town was known as ''Oberlaibach'' in standard German. The Slovene name is probably a compound of ''vrh'' 'top, summit' + ''nika'' or 'creek, spring', referring to the source of the Ljubljanica River. The Latin name ''Nauportus'' is a compound of ''navis'' 'boat' + ''portus'' 'transfer', referring to a place where cargo had to be transferred from boats to pack animals or carts along a trade route. A mythological reinterpretation of the Latin name as referring to the portage of a boat itself (specifically, the ''

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of ...

'') appears in

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

's '' Natural History''.

History

In Roman times, Nauportus was an important communication point. Vrhnika as it exists today started to develop in the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

. Vrhnika became a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

and was among the wealthiest towns in

Carniola Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region s ...

up to the early 18th century, when it started to lose importance. Nevertheless, it remained one of main transportation junctions in

Inner Austria Inner Austria (german: Innerösterreich; sl, Notranja Avstrija; it, Austria Interiore) was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the Imperial duchi ...

because of its strategic location on the crossroads between the trade routes from

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and from

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

.Orožen Adamič M., Perko D., Kladnik D. (1995). ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije''. Ljubljana: DZS. The development of the town was strongly impaired by the construction of the

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway (german: link=no, Österreichische Südbahn) is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, former main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, by railway for the first time. It no ...

in the 1840s, which bypassed it. From then on, it started losing importance, becoming a

satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

of Ljubljana, which has remained up to this day.

Mass grave

Vrhnika is the site of a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

from the period immediately after the Second World War. The Pikec Valley Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče pri Pikčevi dolini) is located at the bottom of a sinkhole southwest of the town, on Sveč Hill near the Vojc house. It contains the remains of six German prisoners of war that were murdered in May 1945.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Vrhnika include: * Baltazar Baebler (1880–1936), chemist * Arnošt Brilej (1891–1953), hiking and tourism specialist *

Ivan Cankar Ivan Cankar (, ) (10 May 1876 – 11 December 1918) was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slov ...

(1876–1918), writer * Karel Cankar (1877–1953), journalist and editor * Stane Dremelj (1906–1992), painter * Karel Grabeljšek (1906–1985), writer * Janko Grampovčan (1897–1974), economist * Francis Jager (1869–1934), beekeeping and orchard expert * Gabrijel Jelovšek (1858–1927), merchant * Franc Lah (1816–1890), sculptor * Andrej Lenarčič (1859–1936), agricultural specialist * Josip Lenarčič (1856–1939), merchant * Anton Maier (1859–1943), education specialist * Ignacij Mihevc (1870–1939), politician and journalist *

Floris Oblak Floris may refer to: People Given name * Five counts of Holland: **Floris I, Count of Holland (c.1017–1061) **Floris II, Count of Holland (c.1085–1121) **Floris III, Count of Holland (1141–1190) ** Floris IV, Count of Holland (1210–1234) ...

(1924–2006), poet and writer * Simon Ogrin (1851–1930), painter *

Franc Popit The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

(1921–2013), communist politician * Radoslav Silvester (1841–1923), poet and composer * Ignac Voljč (nom de guerre Fric; 1904–1944), People's Hero of Yugoslavia * Jakob Voljč (1878–1900), poet and writer''Slovenski biografski leksikon'': Jakob Voljč.
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References

External links

Vrhnika
Visit Vrhnika
Vrhnika
official page of the municipality

* ttps://www.google.com/maps/place/1360+Vrhnika/@45.9414531,14.2779067,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x477ad66dc48b13d3:0x400f81c823ff2a0?hl=en Vrhnika on Google Maps {{Authority control Populated places in the Municipality of Vrhnika Cities and towns in Inner Carniola