Olešče () is a settlement in the Municipality of Laško 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 ...

. It lies in the hills east of Laško. 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

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 ...

Name

The name of the settlement was changed from ''Sveti Peter pri Jurkloštru'' (literally, 'Saint Peter near Jurklošter') to ''Olešče'' in 1959. The name was changed on the basis of the 1948 Law on Names of Settlements and Designations of Squares, Streets, and Buildings as part of efforts by Slovenia's postwar communist government to remove religious elements from toponyms. The settlement is still locally known as ''Šempeter''. The name ''Olešče'' was first attested in 1328 as ''Beleczicz'' (and as ''Wellesitsch'' in 1382 and ''Beleschicz'' in 1423). The name ''Olešče'' is derived from a 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, ...

, *''Velešiťane'', based on a patronymic derived from the

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', sometimes also ''hypocoristic'') or pet name is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for I ...

*''Velešь''. Before ''Olešče'' became the name of the entire settlement, the name used to refer to one of the hamlets in the settlement.

Mass grave

Olešče is the site of a mass grave from the end of the Second World War. The Olešče Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Olešče) is located about north of the neighboring village of

Reka Reka may refer to: Places * Řeka, a village in the Czech Republic * Reka, Cerkno, a village near Cerkno, Slovenia * Reka, Laško, a village near Laško, Slovenia * Reka (Kladovo), a village near Kladovo, Serbia * Reka, Koprivnica, a village ne ...

. It measures and lies between two apple trees, and it contains the remains of about 14 Ustaša soldiers that were shot in May 1945.

Church

The local

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, built on a small hill south of the settlement core, is dedicated to

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

and 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 ...

of Sveti Rupert. It is a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

building that was restyled in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

in the 17th century.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 3329

References

External links

Olešče on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Laško {{Laško-geo-stub