Marija Reka (; german: Maria Riek) is a settlement in the
Municipality of Prebold in east-central
Slovenia. It lies in the hills south of
Prebold
Prebold () is a settlement in central Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Prebold. It lies on the edge of the lower Savinja Valley at the northern edge of the Sava Hills west of Celje. The area is part of the traditional region of Styri ...
. 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 ...
. The municipality is now included 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 com ...
. The settlement includes the hamlets of Mala Reka, Velika Reka, and Jelenca.
[Savnik, Roman, ed. 1976. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 3. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, pp. 507–508.]
History
Mercury was discovered in the area in the 17th century, but was only mined for a brief period in the Hribar Gorge ( sl, Hribarjev graben) during the interwar period. The Stergar Quarry ( sl, Stergarjev kamnolom) operated in Marija Reka from 1936 to 1962. In the past, there were also water-driven sawmills and grain mills.
During the Second World War, the area was a crossroads for
Partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
courier routes, and there were several armed engagements between Partisan and German forces in the area. On April 14, 1942, a Partisan unit destroyed a
Gestapo vehicle on the road from Marija Reka to
Trbovlje, and the Partisans' Robida printshop operated on the north slope of Mount Reka ( sl, Reška planina) in the summer of 1943.
Mass graves
Marija Reka is the site of 12 known
mass graves from the period immediately after the Second World War: the Kregar Ravine 1–12 mass graves ( sl, Grobišče Kregarjev graben 1–12). The graves are located east and west of the Kregar Ravine southwest of the main settlement, along a forest road leading past
wayside shrines into the forest. The graves contain the remains of about 2,000 civilians from
Trbovlje,
Hrastnik,
Zagorje ob Savi
Zagorje ob Savi (; german: Sagor,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96. ''Seger an der Sau'') is a town in the Central Sava Valley in ce ...
,
Laško,
Žalec
Žalec (; german: Sachsenfeld''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 44.) is a town in central Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality ...
, and the surroundings of
Celje
)
, pushpin_map = Slovenia
, pushpin_label_position = left
, pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Cou ...
, as well as several hundred Croatian civilians and about 100 German prisoners of war. The victims were murdered between May and August 1945.
Church
The local
parish church is dedicated to the
Assumption of Mary and belongs to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Celje
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Celje ( la, Dioecesis Celeiensis; sl, Škofija Celje) is a diocese located in the city of Celje in the Ecclesiastical province of Maribor in Slovenia.
History
* April 7, 2006: Established as Diocese of Celje from ...
. It was originally a 14th-century church with major reconstruction in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 3153 The church was first mentioned in written sources in 1545. It was damaged in a fire in 1790, and then re-vaulted. The church obtained the status of a vicariate in 1787, and a parish in 1891.
Notable people
Notable people that were born of lived in Marija Reka include:
* Martn Jurhar (1880–1934), religious writer
References
External links
*
Marija Reka on Geopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marija Reka
Populated places in the Municipality of Prebold