Ožbalt () 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 ...

on the left bank of the

Drava River The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

in the

Municipality of Podvelka The Municipality of Podvelka (; sl, Občina Podvelka) is a municipality in the traditional region of Styria in northern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Podvelka. The Municipality of Podvelka–Ribnica was created in 1994, ...

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 ...

Name

The name of the settlement was changed from ''Sveti Ožbalt'' (literally, 'Saint Oswald') to ''Ožbalt'' (literally, 'Oswald') in 1952. 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.Urbanc, Mimi, & Matej Gabrovec. 2005. Krajevna imena: poligon za dokazovanje moči in odraz lokalne identitete. ''Geografski vestnik'' 77(2): 25–43.

Church

The local

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, ...

, from which the settlement gets its name, is dedicated to Saint Oswald. It belongs to the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor ( la, Archidioecesis Mariborensis, sl, Nadškofija Maribor) is an archdiocese located in the city of Maribor in Slovenia. History * 1859 : Maribor (then Marburg) became the see of the Diocese of Lavant ...

and was originally 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 from the late 14th century. It is an old

pilgrimage church A pilgrimage church (german: Wallfahrtskirche) is a church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route, like the Way of St. James, that is visited by pilgrims. Pilgrimage churches are often located by the graves ...

. The current structure dates to 1813 and the belfry was added in 1859. The internal furnishings are

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 ...

, whereas the main altar was built in stone before World War II.

References

External links

Ožbalt on Geopedia
*
Populated places in the Municipality of Podvelka {{Podvelka-geo-stub