Košnica pri Celju () is a settlement in the
City Municipality of Celje
The City Municipality of Celje (; sl, Mestna občina Celje) is one of twelve city municipalities in Slovenia. Its seat is the city of Celje, a regional center of Styria.
Settlements
In addition to the municipal seat of Celje, the municipalit ...
in eastern
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 traditional region of
Styria. It is now included with the rest of the municipality in the
Savinja Statistical Region
The Savinja Statistical Region ( sl, Savinjska statistična regija) is a statistical region in Slovenia. The largest town in the region is Celje. It is named after the Savinja River. The region is very diverse in natural geography; it mainly c ...
.
Name
The name of the settlement was changed from ''Košnica'' to ''Košnica pri Celju'' in 1955.
Geography
Košnica pri Celju is a dispersed settlement above the right bank of the
Savinja River on the southwestern outskirts of
Celje. It includes the hamlets of Spodnja Kočnica to the south, closer to the river, and Zgornja Košnica to the north, below the southeast slope of Hom Hill (). Lisce Hill () stands to the northeast, and the Slomnik Ridge () rises to the southwest. Košnica Creek ( sl, Košniški potok), a tributary of the Savinja River, flows through the village. The soil is stony and the terrain is partially karstified.
History
During the interwar period, a road was built through Košnica pri Celju from Celje to Laško. Construction of the road required destruction of a rock formation known as the Virgin Cliffs ( sl, Devine peči, german: Jungfernsprung), which stood above the Savinja River. During the Second World War, German forces shot Anton Bobnič in the hamlet of Zgornja Košnica on July 22, 1942 for collaboration with the
Liberation Front. In the postwar period, extensive residential housing was built in the hamlet of Spodnja Kočnica.
Mass graves
Košnica pri Celju is the site of three known
mass graves
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, 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 executi ...
from the period immediately after the Second World War. All three graves are located south of the road from Košnica pri Celju to
Liboje, south of the house at Košnica pri Celju no. 13, in a meadow alongside Košnica Creek ( sl, Košniški potok). They contain the remains of ethnically Slovene and German residents of Celje that were murdered between May and July 1945. Field investigations of the graves were carried out in July 2010. Mass Grave 1 (), also known as the Women's Mass Grave (), contains the remains of 400 to 600 victims. Mass Grave 2 () also contains the remains of 400 to 600 victims. Mass Grave 3 () contains the remains of 600 to 1,000 victims.
References
External links
Košnica pri Celju on Geopedia
Populated places in the City Municipality of Celje
{{Celje-geo-stub