Mlaka pri Kočevju (; german: Kerndorf,
[''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 42.][Ferenc, Mitja. 2007. ''Nekdanji nemški jezikovni otok na kočevskem''. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej, p. 4.] Gottscheerish
Gottscheerish (''Göttscheabarisch'',Maridi Tscherne: Wörterbuch Gottscheerisch-Slowenisch. Einrichtung für die Erhaltung des Kulturerbes Nesseltal, Koprivnik/Nesseltal 2010. german: Gottscheerisch, sl, kočevarščina) is an Upper German ...
: ''Kearndoarf''
[Petschauer, Erich. 1980. "Die Gottscheer Siedlungen – Ortsnamenverzeichnis." In ''Das Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer'' (pp. 181–197). Klagenfurt: Leustik.]) is a settlement north of the town of
Kočevje in southern
Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of
Lower Carniola and is now included in the
Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region.
Name
The name of the settlement was changed from ''Mlaka'' to ''Mlaka pri Kočevju'' in 1953. The name ''Mlaka'' is derived from the Slovene common noun ''mlaka'' 'pond', referring to the village pond.
[Ferenc, Mitja, & Gojko Zupan. 2012. ''Izgubljene kočevske vasi'', vol. 2 (K–P). Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani.] Petschauer suggests that the German name ''Kerndorf'' may be derived from a surname, ''Kern'', or that it may derive from
Middle High German ''kurn'' (dialect ''kirn'') '
quern
Quern ( da, Kværn) is a former municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populo ...
'.
History
Mlaka pri Kočevju was a
Gottschee German village. In the land registry of 1574, it had five full farms divided into 10 half-farms, corresponding to a population of 60 to 65. In the 1770 census the settlement had 28 houses. In 1936, there were 46 houses in the settlement, with a population of 164. The village economy at this time was based on farming, hauling timber, lumber, and firewood, gathering berries, peddling, and selling milk and butter in the nearby town of Kočevje. The original inhabitants (77 ethnic Germans from at least 19 houses) were evicted during the Second World War, between 4 and 12 January 1942.
The buildings in the village survived the war in relatively good condition and the population continued to grow after the war, reaching a maximum of 308 in 2000.
Religious heritage
The village church was dedicated to Saints Phillip and James and dated from 1677.
It was a picturesque building with a
bell-gable
The bell gable ( es, espadaña, french: clocher-mur, it, campanile a vela) is an architectural element crowning the upper end of the wall of church buildings, usually in lieu of a church tower. It consists of a gable end in stone, with small ho ...
and a large portico. The main altar was created by Franz Götzl in 1841, and the side altar, dedicated to Saint Andrew, dated to 1862. Next to it, there was a chapel dedicated to Saint
Notburga.
[Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 232.] The church fell into disrepair and was demolished after 1966. Its two bells were scrapped, and the stones from the church were reused to build nearby houses.
A
chapel-shrine at the southern edge of the village was razed in 1963. A replacement, dedicated to Saint Peter, was built by Peter Požar and it was dedicated on 29 June 2007. A second chapel-shrine, dedicated to Saints Phillip and James, was built about 100 m from the location of the old church and was dedicated on 25 July 2007.
References
External links
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Mlaka pri Kočevju on GeopediaPre–World War II map of Mlaka pri Kočevju with oeconyms and family names
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mlaka Pri Kocevju
Populated places in the Municipality of Kočevje