Matena () is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the

Municipality of Ig The Municipality of Ig (; sl, Občina Ig) is a municipality in central Slovenia. Its seat is the settlement of Ig. It was formed in 1995 from parts of the Municipality of Vič–Rudnik, until then one of the five municipalities that formed the ...

in central

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, an ...

, just south of the capital

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 ...

. The entire municipality is part of the traditional region of Inner Carniola and is now included in the Central Slovenia Statistical Region.

Name

Matena was attested in written sources in 1421 or 1422 as ''Mathesdorff'' and ''Mattestorff''. The Slovene name is probably a contraction of ''*Matejina (vas)'', derived from the Biblical name ''Matej'' 'Matthew', thus meaning 'Matthew's village'. The medieval transcriptions have the genitive form of the name in

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...

as their first element.

Church

The local

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

is dedicated to Saints Hermagoras and Fortunatus and belongs to the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Ig. It is a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

building that was restyled in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

in the late 17th century.

Cultural heritage

In addition to Saints Hermagoras and Fortunatus Church, several other structures in Matena are registered as cultural heritage: *The village core itself is registered as cultural heritage because of its special ambiance. Matena is a

ribbon village A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mater ...

with a preserved series of buildings from the second half of the 19th century. The center of the village is at a fork in the road in front of the church and the village linden tree. *The Lanišče archaeological site has yielded finds from prehistoric, Roman, and Medieval times, including pottery, horseshoes, and a Venetian coin. Secondary sites associated with the site include Roman-era gravestones at the church and the site of the 16th-century Höfflein Manor, which was destroyed in the 1895 earthquake. *The Stari Deli archaeological site has yielded Roman-era horseshoes and two oak dugout canoes. One of them was identified as associated with prehistoric

pile dwellings Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The ...

. It was discovered while cleaning a ditch in 1927 and taken to the National Museum of Slovenia. The other, discovered in 1948, was destroyed. *The village features 13 straight-line

hayrack A hayrack ( sl, kozolec) is a freestanding vertical drying rack found chiefly in Slovenia. Hayracks are permanent structures, primarily made of wood, upon which fodder for animals is dried, although their use is not limited to drying hay. Other ...

s dating from the 19th century along a farm road south of the village center. The oldest hayracks are made of wood with tile roofs, and others have been renovated with concrete columns and asbestos-cement roof panels. *The house at Matena no. 26 stands at a fork in the road in the northern part of the village. It is a single-story rectangular structure with a dormer above the entrance and a gabled roof. It has a rectangular door casing bearing the year 1914 and a richly ornamented facade from the sane time. *The house at Matena no. 28 stands east of the village core. It is a single-story structure with a large dormer and entrance in the side facing the road. It has a half-hip roof covered in clay tiles. The facade is decorated in

Secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

style and dates from the beginning of the 20th century. *There is a granary at Matena no. 32, in the center of the village next to the square in front of the village linden tree and church. It is a small, two-story structure dating from the beginning of the 19th century. It has a gabled roof with extended eaves above wooden steps and a balcony on the upper floor, where the entrance to the granary is. The ground floor was built as a residential area. *There is a chapel shrine south of the village, along a field road to Iška Loka. It contains a statue of the Virgin Mary and has painted side niches, and was created in 1925. *A stone column shrine stands at the crossroads in the village. It is topped by a hip roof with a cross, below which there is a seated figure of Christ in a wooden enclosure. The shrine dates from the 19th century.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 11579 File:Matena Slovenia - Shrine.JPG, Column shrine File:Matena Slovenia - Shrine detail.JPG, Shrine detail

References

External links

*
Matena on Geopedia
{{Ig Populated places in the Municipality of Ig