Žažar (; german: Saschar''Intelligenzblatt zur Laibacher Zeitung'', no. 141. November 24, 1849, p. 14. or ''Schaschar''''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 120.) 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 hills southwest of

Horjul Horjul () is a small town in the Inner Carniola region of Slovenia. It is the administrative center of the Municipality of Horjul. It developed from a clustered village on the north side of the marshy valley of Horjulka Creek. It includes the hamle ...

in the

Inner Carniola Inner Carniola ( sl, Notranjska; german: Innerkrain) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the southwestern part of the larger Carniola region. It comprises the Hrušica karst plateau up to Postojna Gate, bordering the Slovenian Littoral (the ...

region of

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 ...

. It includes the hamlet of Razpotje.

Geography

Southwest of the settlement core is the Jevše Valley with a watering hole for livestock. The Trešnica Gorge and Gošava Spring lie northeast of the settlement core.Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 441. The territory of the settlement includes the following hills: Koprivnik Hill (elevation: ), Babca Peak ( sl, Babčin vrh, elevation: ), Gradišče Hill (elevation: ), and Žažar Hill (elevation: ). There is an opening into Pajsar Cave (), which is long and lies in the southern part of the settlement.

Name

Žažar is also known locally as ''Žajžar''. The priest and historian Peter Hicinger explained the name as meaning ''žarišče'' 'focal point of a fire', from the verb ''žariti'' 'to heat (red hot)'. In the past it was known as ''Saschar'' or ''Schaschar'' in German.

History

There is a walled prehistoric burial ground on Gradišče Hill. A school was established in Žažar in 1913. A school building was built in 1927.

Second World War

The village was partially burned by Italian troops on June 9, 1942. At the end of January 1943 the Partisans attacked an Italian stronghold at the elementary school in Žažar.

Mass graves

On 2 August 1942, nine civilians from

Šentjošt nad Horjulom Šentjošt nad Horjulom (; german: Sankt Jobst''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 118.) is a settlement in the Municipality of Dobrova–P ...

and other nearby villages were taken to the forest west of Žažar by the Partisans and murdered. Their bodies were thrown into a sinkhole known as the Rupe Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče v Rupah) on the slope of Križman Peak () near the hamlet of Kajndol in neighboring Smrečje. Another

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 Second World War is located nearby, known as the Koprivnik Mass Grave (). It contains the remains of Slovene civilians.

Church

The local church in the settlement is dedicated to

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

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 Podlipa. It was first mentioned in written sources in 1526. It is a Gothic structure with ribbed vaulting. The main altar, dating from 1907, is the work of the sculptor Ivan (a.k.a. Janez) Buh from Vrhnika, and the side altars date from 1836 and 1858. The church stands in the southeast part of the settlement, north of the road. It has protected cultural heritage status.

Cultural heritage

In addition to Saint Anne's Church, several other structures in Žažar have protected cultural monument status: *The Gradišče–Ruperčev Svet archaeological site consists of a fortification with well-preserved defensive walls. Nearby is a tumulus and a flat Iron Age and Roman-era burial ground. *The Konfin archaeological site is located on Konfin Saddle. Iron ore

slag Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...

has been discovered here. A large smelter stood here, probably associated with the ancient fort on Gradišče Hill, believed to have been active during the Roman era. *The farm at Žažar no. 1 has a rectangular stone house with the year 1882 carved into the stone door casing. It is covered with a symmetrical gabled roof. The farm also has a barn of the same age with decorative brick ventilation holes. The farm is located at the northwest edge of the village. *The stone barn at Žažar no. 13 dates from the last quarter of the 19th century. It has stalls below and a hayloft above. The gables have brick double-lancet ventilation holes, and on the sides there is wooden latticework for ventilation. The building has a symmetrical gabled roof. The farm is in the southeastern part of the settlement. *The barn at Žažar no. 16 is a rectangular two-story building. The semicircular door casing into the stall bears the year 1881. The upper lever has ventilation holes, and in the gable there are two windows with louvers and two rosettes. The building has a half-hip roof. The farm is in the southern part of the settlement. *The farmhouse at Žažar no. 27 is a single-story rectangular building that was built in 1843 and adapted in 1879. It has a smoke kitchen, small windows, and old architectural elements. It has a symmetrical gabled roof and a wooden gable with a balcony. The farm is in the northeast part of Žažar. *There is an open

chapel-shrine A wayside shrine is a religious image, usually in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads, but often in the middle of an empty stretch of country road, or at the top of a hill or mo ...

dedicated to

Our Lady of Peace Our Lady of Peace, Mother of Peace, Queen of Peace or Our Lady Queen of Peace is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. She is represented in art holding a dove and an olive branch, symbols of peace. Her official memoria ...

outside the settlement, north of the house at Žažar no. 24. It was erected in 1923 in memory of those that fell during the First World War and it contains a statue of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

. *At the crossroads in the center of the village there is a three-story Baroque

with doors. It has shallow, semicircular niches and 19th-century paintings of

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

, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Elizabeth. *A single 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 ...

with three sections and stone columns stands in the village. It was erected in 1906 and has a symmetrical gabled roof covered with concrete tiles. It stands along a route leading out of Žažar to the south and is part of the farm at Žažar no. 16. *The roofed double hayrack with three sections at Žažar no. 14 was built by Andrej Kogovšek; the year 1856 is carved into the second transverse beam. The sections of the hayrack are closed by perpendicular intersecting beams and it has a steep symmetrical gabled roof. It stands in the southern part of the settlement. *In the woods on the east slope of Križman Peak there is a small concrete memorial in the shape of a square

frustum In geometry, a (from the Latin for "morsel"; plural: ''frusta'' or ''frustums'') is the portion of a solid (normally a pyramid or a cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting this solid. In the case of a pyramid, the base faces are ...

. It bears an upright metal plaque commemorating the second battalion of the Dolomite Detachment, which camped at this site in the fall of 1942.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 29230 Žažar Slovenia - Shrine to Our Lady of Peace.JPG, Shrine to Our Lady of Peace in Žažar Žažar Slovenia - Shrine.JPG, Shrine opposite the former fire station in Žažar Žažar Slovenia - Former Fire Station.JPG, The former fire station in Žažar (1932–1962)

References

External links

*
Žažar on Geopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zazar Populated places in the Municipality of Horjul