Šmarčna () is a settlement on the right bank of the

Sava River The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...

in the

Municipality of Sevnica The Municipality of Sevnica ( sl, Občina Sevnica) is a municipality along the Sava and the Mirna Rivers in southeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Sevnica. Today it is part of the Lower Sava Statistical Region. It is th ...

in east-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 ...

. The area is part of the historical region of

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...

. The municipality is now included in the

Lower Sava Statistical Region The Lower Sava Statistical Region ( sl, Posavska statistična regija; until December 31, 2014 ) is a statistical region in Slovenia. It has good traffic accessibility and is located in the Sava and Krka Valleys, with hilly areas with vineyards and ...

. The settlement includes the hamlet of Gomila (or Spodnji Erkenštajn, german: Unteerckenstein, ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 87.).Savnik, Roman, ed. 1976. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 3. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 278.

History

Settlement of Šmarčna in prehistoric times is attested by

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

finds. In the Middle Ages, Lower Erkenstin Castle (german: Untererkenstein, sl, Spodnji Erkenštajn) stood in the hamlet of Gomila. During the Second World War, the German authorities deported the population of the village and settled

Gottschee Germans Gottscheers are the German settlers of the Kočevje region (a.k.a. Gottschee) of Slovenia, formerly Gottschee County. Until the Second World War, their main language of communication was Gottscheerish, a Bavarian dialect of German. Origins They ...

there. The village was burned one week before the end of the war.

Mass grave

Šmarčna 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 end of the Second World War. The Šmarčna Čeček Field Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Šmarčna na čečkovi njivi) lies south of the settlement on a lot by the house at Šmarčna no. 2. It contains the remains of eight Ustaša soldiers killed in May 1945 while withdrawing towards Austria.

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

Mary Help of Christians Mary, the Help of Christians ( la, Sancta Maria Auxilium Christianorum) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a devotion now associated with a feast day of the General Roman Calendar on May 24. John Chrysostom was the f ...

( sl, Marija Pomočnica) and belongs to the Parish of

Boštanj Boštanj ( or ; in older sources also ''Gorenji Boštanj'',''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 86. german: Obersavenstein, , , or ) is a ...

. It was built in 1970 on the site of an older chapel that was incorporated into the new building.

References

External links

Šmarčna on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Sevnica {{Sevnica-geo-stub