Hrastovlje (; it, Cristoglie) 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

City Municipality of Koper The City Municipality of Koper (; sl, Mestna občina Koper, it, Comune città di Capodistria) is one of twelve city municipalities of Slovenia. It lies at the coastline of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Slovenia and was established in 1994. ...

in the

Littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

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 ...

Etymology

Hrastovlje was attested in written sources in the 14th century as ''Cristoglan'' (and as ''Cristoviae'' in 1581, and ''Christoja'' in 1763–87). The name is derived from the plural

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, ...

''*Xrastovľane'', referring to residents of a village named after oak trees ( sl, hrast).

Geography

Hrastovlje is also the location of the only major spring in Slovenian

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...

, the

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

spring of the Rižana River, which is itself the most important source of water supply for the Slovenian coastal areaThe Rižana River: Environmental flow assessment
(Assessment and Provision of Environmental Flows in Mediterranean Watercourses). By Nataša Smolar-Žvanut & D. Vrhovšek. Study made for

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. 2004. and part of the habitat range of the marbled trout listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

Holy Trinity Church and fresco

Hrastovlje is best known for Holy Trinity Church, which contains a late-medieval

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

. The church itself 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 ...

Predloka Predloka () is a small village in the City Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia. History Predloka was a hamlet of Loka until 1986, when it was administratively separated and made a settlement in its own right. Church The paris ...

. It is a stone-built church, typical of the area, and stands on a small hill above the village inside a walled enclosure 8 m high. The church was built in the late Romanesque tradition before 1480. The encampment wall, built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, is an irregular rectangle with cylindrical towers in exposed corners. The frescos inside the church date to 1490 and are some of the best preserved in Slovenia. They were plastered over and whitewashed, and were only rediscovered in 1949 and were carefully restored. The most famous is the 7 m sequence known as the Dance of Death on the south wall of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, representing people of all walks of life from kings and popes to beggars and babies being led by

skeletons A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

towards

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

itself. Scenes from the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

also decorate the nave, images of the Apostles are painted in niches in the apse, with other saints and prophets as well as a Passion series and the journey and adoration of the

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...

.Slovenian Tourist Board site
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References

External links

*
Hrastovlje on GeopediaThe Danse Macabre of Hrastovlje: a very rare medieval fresco hidden until 1949
{{Authority control Populated places in the City Municipality of Koper