Podlehnik (; german: Lichtenegg
) is a settlement in the
Haloze Hills in eastern
Slovenia. It is the seat of the
Municipality of Podlehnik. The area traditionally belonged to the region of
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
. It is now included in the
Drava Statistical Region
The Drava Statistical Region ( sl, Podravska statistična regija) is a statistical region in Slovenia. The largest city in the region is Maribor. The region's name comes from the Drava River and includes land on both banks along its course thro ...
.
Name
Podlehnik was attested in historical sources as ''Lihteneck'' and ''Leichtenekke'' in 1259–1260, as ''Lihtneck'' in 1297, and as ''Liehtneck'' in 1308, among other variants.
The Slovene name is a fused prepositional phrase that has lost case inflection: ''pod'' 'under' + ''Lehnik'', referring to the location of the village below Lehnik Castle. The name of the castle (german: Li(e)chtenegg) is a compound from
Middle High German ''lieht'' 'light, bright' + ''egge'' 'hill, peak', thus meaning 'castle on a bright/sunny hill'. The Slovene change of the ending from -''negg'' to -''nik'' is an example of
folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
based on analogy with many other toponyms ending in -''nik''.
History
The settlement developed around 13th-century Lehnik Castle. The castle was destroyed during
Ottoman raids in 1532 and very few traces of it remain (foundations of a tower and a defense ditch). What was originally the
castle chapel
Castle chapels (german: Burgkapellen) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the ...
is now the local church, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, and was expanded in the 16th and 18th centuries.
Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number 3462
References
External links
Podlehnik on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Podlehnik
{{Podlehnik-geo-stub