Dravlje (; german: Draule''Intelligenzblatt zur Laibacher Zeitung'', no. 141. 24 November 1849, p. 19.) is a former village in the

City Municipality of Ljubljana The City Municipality of Ljubljana (), also the City of Ljubljana ( sl, Mestna občina Ljubljana, acronym MOL) is one of twelve city and metropolitan municipalities in Slovenia. Its seat is Ljubljana, the largest and capital city of Slovenia. , i ...

, the capital 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 ...

Geography

Dravlje is an elongated settlement at a transition from gravelly to clay soil that also corresponded to a border between cultivated fields (to the east) and meadows (to the south and west).Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 344. The older houses extend to

Zgornja Šiška Zgornja Šiška (; german: Oberschischka''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 112.) is a formerly independent settlement in the northwest p ...

. The former fields extended to the railroad to Upper Carniola but were mostly developed with new construction after the Second World War. Today's streets in the neighborhood correspond to the old farm roads between the fields.

Name

Dravlje was attested in written sources in 1136–68 as ''Draulach'' (and as ''Dreolach'' in 1330 and ''Draewlach'' in 1358). The name is based on the

demonym A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...

''Dravľane'' 'people from the Drava Valley', derived from the name of the

Drava River The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

. The name presumably refers to internal colonization of Slovenia before the 13th century, when people from the Drava Valley moved to the area. In the past the German name was ''Draule''.

History

Dravlje was annexed by the City of Ljubljana in 1953, ending its existence as an independent settlement.

Church

A Baroque church dedicated to

Saint Roch Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...

stands at the north end of the former village. It was formerly a popular pilgrimage destination. The church was built starting in 1646 (but not completed until 1682) in thanksgiving for the end of a plague epidemic that lasted several years. From 1956 to 1991, the south wall of the church contained four statues of saints that were invoked against the plague (Saint Roch, Saint Urban, Saint Sebastian, and the Virgin Mary). They are the work of Matej Tomec (1814–1885) and were removed from the

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 ...

on Klagenfurt Street ( sl, Celovška cesta) when it was destroyed in 1956.Plaque on the chapel-shrine. The shrine, which dated from 1645 and had been renovated in 1874, was rebuilt after the collapse of communism in 1991 and the statues were returned to it. There is a linden-lined boulevard leading to the cemetery next to the church.

References

External links

Dravlje on Geopedia
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