Laporje () 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

Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica The Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica (; sl, Občina Slovenska Bistrica) is a municipality in the traditional region of Styria in northeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Slovenska Bistrica. Slovenska Bistrica became a ...

in northeastern

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 Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

. It is now included with the rest of the municipality in the

Drava Statistical Region The Drava Statistical Region ( sl, Podravska statistična regija) is a statistical region in Slovenia. The largest city in the region is Maribor. The region's name comes from the Drava River and includes land on both banks along its course thro ...

. The village includes the hamlets of Laporska Gorca to the southeast and Turnše to the southwest.Savnik, Roman, ed. 1980. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 4. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 540.

Name

Laporje was first attested in written sources in 1251 as ''Lapriach'' (and as ''Lapriak'' in 1273 and ''Labriach'' in 1480). The name is derived from the Slovene common noun ''lapor'' '

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

', referring to the characteristics of the local soil. The place name is now a singular neuter form but, based on the

locative In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...

plurals reflected in the medieval transcriptions, it was probably originally 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, ...

(literally, 'people living on marly soil').

History

The area was already settled in antiquity, as testified by the discovery of four carved stones during renovation of the church in 1907. (Two of the stones have been lost, and one is now built into the south wall of the church.) Schooling was established in Laporje in 1828, with classes held in the rectory. School buildings were built in the village in 1848, 1881, and 1926.

Church

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the settlement is dedicated to Saints Phillip and

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It was built in 1907 on the site of a 14th-century church.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 3090 The first structure at the site dated to 1374, and the parish was established in 1395. The first known parish priest was attested in 1429, and the parish records date back to 1619. The main altar in the church was created by Jožef Holzinger in 1770, and several statues are the work of Jožef Straub.

References

External links

Laporje on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica {{Slovenska-Bistrica-geo-stub