Onek (; german: Hohenegg,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 40.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 ...

: ''Wrneggə''Petschauer, Erich. 1980. "Die Gottscheer Siedlungen – Ortsnamenverzeichnis." In ''Das Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer'' (pp. 181–197). Klagenfurt: Leustik.) is a settlement in the hills east of

Kočevje Kočevje (; german: Gottschee; ''Göttscheab'' or ''Gətscheab'' in the local Gottscheerish dialect; it, Cocevie) is a city in the Municipality of Kočevje in southern Slovenia. It is the seat of the municipality. Geography The town is loc ...

in southern

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

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...

and is now included in the

Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region The Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region ( sl, Jugovzhodna Slovenija statistična regija) is a statistical region in southeast Slovenia. It is the largest statistical region. The development of this region is largely the result of industry (the au ...

Name

The Slovene name ''Onek'' is derived from German ''Hohenegg''. The German name ''Hohenegg'' and the Gottscheerish name ''Wrneggə'' are derived from ''hohen Eck'' 'high hillside, high slope', with the common southern German reflex ''-egg'' (<

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

''ekka''), thus referring to a local geographical feature.

History

Onek was a village settled by Gottschee Germans. In the land register of 1574, Onek is listed as having eight full farms that were subdivided into 16 half-farms,Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 235. corresponding to a population between 90 and 100. The 1770 census recorded 29 houses in the village. A school was established in the village in 1884.''Krajevni leksikon Dravske Banovine''. 1937. Ljubljana: Zveza za tujski promet za Slovenijo, p. 216. In 1936 there were 37 houses in the village and a population of 140. There was substantial emigration from the village before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. At that time, its economy was based on agriculture, peddling, and the sale of timber and firewood. Its original population was evicted in November 1941. In the summer of 1942 Italian troops burned the area. After the Second World War the village was resettled by Slovenes from

Prekmurje Prekmurje (; dialectically: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; hu, Muravidék) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarian minority, lying between the Mur Ri ...

Mass graves

Onek is the site of two known

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may 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 execution, although an exact ...

from the period immediately after the Second World War. The Kren Cave Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Jama pod Krenom) is located north of Onek in a sinkhole measuring across and deep. It contains the remains of soldiers from the

Croatian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Oružane snage Republike Hrvatske – OSRH) is the military service of Croatia. The President is the Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, and exercises administrative powers in times of war by giv ...

, Serbians, and probably also Germans and Russian

Cossacks The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

transported from the prisons at Šentvid and Kočevje. The Debelič Meadow near Kren Cave Mass Grave () is located about behind the sign for the Kren Cave Mass Grave, below the road, in the direction of the Rog Sawmill. It contains the remains of soldiers that were unable to walk to Kren Cave from the point to which they were transported by truck. A series of roadside wooden sculptures several meters high representing the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

, created by Stane Jarm (1931–2011) in 1998, mark the route to the graves from nearby

Željne Željne (; in older sources also ''Sela'',''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 40. german: SeeleFerenc, Mitja. 2007. ''Nekdanji nemški je ...

.Fajfar, Stane. 1998. Križev pot Slovencev. ''Osilniška dolina'' 14: 6.

Religious heritage

A 17th-century chapel dedicated to

Saints Cosmas and Damian Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...

formerly stood at a fork in the road north of Onek.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 2791 The year 1662 (or perhaps 1862) was carved into a roof beam of the chapel. The keystone of the door casing was carved with the inscription ''IHS 1817'' and the letters ''GIGK'', probably indicating that it was renovated in 1817, the same year that the new Saint Anne's Church was built in neighboring Mačkovec.Ferenc, Mitja, & Gojko Zupan. 2012. ''Izgubljene kočevske vasi'', vol. 2 (K–P). Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, p. 192.Ferenc, Mitja. Onek: Kapela sv. Kozme in Damijana / Hohenegg: Kapelle St. Kosma und Damian
The chapel had a square nave and a polygonal

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

walled on three sides with a shingled gabled roof. On the ridge of the roof there was a wooden bell tower with a square

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. According to the Slovenian Cultural Heritage Registry, the chapel was burned during the Second World War; however, according to Ferenc, it was in good condition after the war and only the interior furnishings were damaged. Masses were held in the chapel immediately after the war, and then it was used to store hay. The chapel was demolished in 1955, and its site is registered as cultural heritage. A church dedicated to Saint Anne stood above the village, in the territory of what is now Mačkovec. It was demolished in 1965.

References

External links

*
Onek on GeopediaPre–World War II map of Onek with oeconyms and family names
{{Kočevje Populated places in the Municipality of Kočevje