Slovenske Konjice (; , in older sources also ''Gannobitz'') is a town in northeastern

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It is the seat of the

Municipality of Slovenske Konjice The Municipality of Slovenske Konjice ( or ; ) is a municipality in the traditional region of Styria in northeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Slovenske Konjice. Slovenske Konjice became a municipality in 1994. Geogr ...

. The area is part of the traditional region of

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

History and town sights

The town of Slovenske Konjice lies below the northern slopes of Mount Konjice () and the winegrowing Škalce Hills. On a hill above the town to the southwest are the ruins of 12th-century Gonobitz Castle (, ), which has later additions and was abandoned in the 18th century. Its ruins have been partially restored.Barron, Yuri. 2016. ''The Slovenia book: top 100 destinations''. Slovenske Konjice, p. 173. Trebnik dvorec1

Above Old Square () stands the medieval Trebnik Mansion. The more than 860-year-old dense town line is a sloping square, from Trebnik Mansion past St. George's parish church, along a small stream in an open channel, down to the

Dravinja The Dravinja (, ) is the largest tributary of the Drava River in Slovenia. It is long. Its source is on the Pohorje Massif southwest of Mount Rogla about 1,150 m above sea level. The river passes Zreče, the town of Slovenske Konjice, the ruins ...

River. The new Town Square (''Mestni trg'') is on the other bank of the river, connected with Old Square by a bridge with four horse heads on the corners. The dominant structure in the upper part of the town's medieval core is the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

dedicated to

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

and belonging to the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor The Archdiocese of Maribor (, ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Slovenia. Its episcopal see is Maribor. History * 1859 : Maribor (then Marburg) became the see of the Diocese of Lavant * ...

, dating back to the late 13th century with 18th-century additions (a Baroque side chapel). The veneration of the saint at this place goes even further back in history. The town was mentioned in written sources dating to 1165 as a seminal parish. The castle was first mentioned in 1148 and the

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 rura ...

in 1236. The town itself was not surrounded by walls. At the time of the Ottoman raids, the church with its

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or Minister (Christianity), ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of n ...

served as a fortified refuge. A second church in the settlement is dedicated to

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

. It dates to the mid-16th century with a 17th-century

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

additions. The main street and the transversal connections above the Dravinja are lined with longitudinal or transversally positioned one-storey houses with well-preserved Gothic cores and Renaissance additions. The façades were restyled in the 19th century (

Biedermeier The Biedermeier period was an era in Central European art and culture between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle classes grew in number and artists began producing works appealing to their sensibilities. The period began with the end of th ...

Historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

). A rarity is the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

building of the former savings bank. A

Marian column Marian may refer to: People * Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name * Marian (surname), a list of people so named Places * Marian, Iran (disambiguation) * Marian, Queensland, a town in Australia * Marian, a village in toe c ...

dating to the mid-18th century and a column shrine dedicated to

Saint Florian Florian (; AD 250 – 304) was a Christian holy man and the patron saint of chimney sweeps; soapmakers, and firefighters. His feast day is 4 May. Florian is also the patron saint of Poland, the city of Linz, Austria, and Upper Austria, jointl ...

above the stream (both designed by the local artist Franc Zamlik in 1750) dominate the open square. The town core is well preserved.Slovenske Konjice played a role during the Slovenian peasant revolt of 1515, with rebels here composing a letter with their demands to send to

the emperor ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

in Vienna. Economic development was boosted after construction of main

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

road in the 18th century. During the 19th century the town got a local court. The

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway () is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, the former main seaport of Austria-Hungary, by railway for the first time. It now forms the Southern Railway in Austria and the Spi ...

was built in 1846, but it ran east of Konjice. On 20 June 1892, work started on a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

(760 mm)

steam railroad Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleratio ...

line called ''Konjičanka'' from

Poljčane Poljčane () is a settlement in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Poljčane. It lies 35 km south of Maribor and 35 km northeast of Celje. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The town lies in t ...

to Slovenske Konjice, which was opened on 20 December 1892. On 29 June 1921 it was extended to

Zreče Zreče (; ) is a town in northeast Slovenia and is the seat of the Municipality of Zreče. It lies on the slopes of Pohorje in the upper valley of the Dravinja River. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. It is now included in th ...

. It was closed in 1963, and the tracks were removed in 1970. A museum locomotive K.3 (Gonobitz), built by the Krauss factory at

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

and used on this line, is on display at the Slovenian Railway Museum in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

In 2022, torrential rains caused basements to flood in Slovenske Konjice.

Name

Over the centuries, the name ''Konjice'' appears in written documents in various forms: ''Gonviz'' (1251), ''Gombicz'' (1370), ''Gannabitz'' (1570), ''Gonaviz'' (1594), ''Gonavitz'' (1630), ''Gonwitz'' (1636), ''Gonowitz'' (1662), ''Ganowiz'' (1680), ''Gonnawitz'' (1680), and modern German ''Gonobitz''. The

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

''Slovenske'' was added to the Slovene name ''Konjice'' in 1934, under the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

, in order to distinguish it from the town of

Konjic Konjic ( sr-Cyrl, Коњиц) is a List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, city located in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in no ...

in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Monuments

* Konjice Castle *Trebnik Mansion * Vineyard Mansion at Škalce * St. George parish church * St. Anna Cemetery church *

Žiče Charterhouse Žiče Charterhouse, also Seiz Charterhouse (, ), was a Carthusians, Carthusian monastery or Charterhouse (monastery), Charterhouse in the narrow valley of Žičnica Creek, also known as Saint John the Baptist Valley () after the church dedicat ...

Owners of the castle

* house of Gonobitz 1148–1329 * house of Wilthausen 1329–1385 * house of

Duino Duino (, ) is today a seaside resort on the northern Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast. It is a ''hamlet (place), hamlet'' of Duino-Aurisina, a municipality (''comune'') of the Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. The settlement, pict ...

1385–1406 *

lords of Walsee The Lords of Walsee were a German noble family between the 13th and 15th centuries. Taking their name from Bad Waldsee in Upper Swabia, they were originally ministerials (unfree knights) in the service of the abbey of Weissenburg and the Staufe ...

1406–1469 * regional princes 1496–1576 * Johann von Khißl 1576–1592 * Archduke Ferdinand 1594–1597 * counts Tattenbach 1597–1670 *

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

1670–1685 * Johann and Otto Tattenbach 1685–1692 *

1692–1783 * Imperial Religious Fund (''Religionsfond'') 1783–1828 * princes of

Windisch-Grätz The House of Windisch-Graetz, also spelled Windischgrätz, is an ancient Austrian aristocratic family, descending from Windischgrätz in Lower Styria (present-day Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia). The noble dynasty serving the House of Habsburg achieve ...

1828–1945

Geography

Climate

Tourism

* Slovenske Konjice, formerly nicknamed "The Town of Wine and Flowers", won the Pan-European

Entente Florale The Entente Florale Europe (, "Flowery Alliance of Europe") is an international horticultural competition established to recognise municipalities and villages in Europe for excellence in horticultural displays. Trophies are presented annually by ...

Gold Medal Award in 1998 and 2014. * The traditional St. George festival (''Jurjevanje'') ranks Slovenske Konjice among Europe's Carnival Cities. The town has been rewarded for its efforts with the national "Most Beautiful Excursion Destination" award by the Tourist Association of Slovenia for many consecutive years.

Culture

The town of Slovenske Konjice hosted an international festival of underwater film and photography named "Sprehodi pod morjem" (Walking beneath the Sea).

Sport

ND Dravinja Nogometno društvo Dravinja, commonly referred to as ND Dravinja or simply Dravinja, is a Slovenian football club based in Slovenske Konjice that competes in the Slovenian Second League, the second tier of Slovenian football. The club was founded ...

Football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

Sport events

Konjice (mini) Marathon (Konjiški maraton)

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Slovenske Konjice include: * Konrad von Hebenstreit (died 1412), archbishop of

Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Isar river in ...

Ivan Minatti Ivan Minatti (22 March 1924 – 9 June 2012) was a Slovene poet, translator, and editor. He started writing poetry before World War II but principally belongs to the first postwar generation of Slovene poets. He is one of the ...

(1924–2012), Slovene poet * Branko Rudolf (1904–1987), Slovene writer *

Adelma Vay Baroness Adelma Vay de Vaya, (born Countess Adelaide von Wurmbrand-Stuppach; October 21, 1840 – May 24, 1925), was a Mediumship, medium and pioneer of Spiritualism (movement), spiritualism in Slovenia and Hungary. Life and work Vay was th ...

(1840–1925), writer,

medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...

, and pioneer of

Spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

Jure Zdovc Jurij "Jure" Zdovc (born 13 December 1966) is a Slovenian former professional basketball player and coach. He was most recently the head coach of Bursaspor of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). As a player, he was a tall point guard, who ...

(born 1966), Slovene basketball player and coach *

Tamara Zidanšek Tamara Zidanšek (; born 26 December 1997) is a Slovenian professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of world No. 22 in singles and No. 47 in doubles by the WTA, and has won one singles title and four doubles titles on the WTA Tou ...

(born 1997), Slovene tennis player

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Slovenske Konjice is twinned with:http://www.slovenskekonjice.si/obcinskevsebine/241 Občina Slovenske Konjice: Prijateljska mesta. Retrieved 1 April 2019.

International projects and other forms of cooperation

References

External links

*
Slovenske Konjice on Geopedia

The official travel guide to Slovenia

Slovenske Konjice video on YouTube

Association of Historical cities of Slovenia: Towns of Culture

Walking beneath the Sea Film festival
{{Authority control Populated places in the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice Cities and towns in Styria (Slovenia)