Soteska (; german: Ainöd) is a settlement on the left bank of the Krka River in the

Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice The Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice () is a municipality near Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia. Its seat is the town of Dolenjske Toplice. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola. The municipality is now included in the S ...

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 historical region of Lower Carniola. The municipality is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. Soteska includes the hamlet of Ključ southeast of the main settlement.Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 531.

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, ...

is dedicated to Saint Erasmus and belongs to the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Novo Mesto The Roman Catholic Diocese of Novo Mesto ( la, Dioecesis Novae Urbis; sl, Škofija Novo mesto) is a diocese in the city of Novo Mesto in the Ecclesiastical province of Ljubljana in Slovenia. History * April 7, 2006: Established as Diocese of ...

. It is a medieval 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. The nave is barrel vaulted with an archivolt and spandrels. The

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 ...

was reworked in the 19th century and has a semicircular coffered vault painted with figures by Franz Kurz von Goldenstein. The main altar is from the 19th century. The north side altar dates from the second half of the 18th century and features a painting by

Valentin Metzinger Jean-Valentin Metzinger (19 April 1699, Saint-Avold – 12 March 1759, Ljubljana) was a French-born Austrian-Slovenian painter, in the Baroque style. Life and work His ancestors were originally from Italy. He was one of twelve children born ...

(1699–1759). The south chapel contains an 18th-century altar.

Landmarks

Soteska Mansion

Soteska Mansion (german: Schloß Ainöd)Reisp, Branko. 1998. ''Gradovi dežele Kranjske.'' Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, p. 160. is now a ruin. It stood on the banks of the Krka River and was built by Count Georg Sigmund von Gallenberg in 1664 and 1689. It had a rectangular layout with an interior courtyard bordered by four two-story arcades, and four rectangular towers at the corners. The entry tower bore the crest of the Gallenberg and Schrottenbach families and the year 1675. The interior was richly painted, with some works attributed to the 17th-century Dutch painter Almanach.Soteska
Soteska Castle was characterized by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor as one of the most beautiful castles in Carniola. The castle was sold to the Auerspergs in 1733, and then to the Counts of Lichtenberg in 1743. The Auerspergs reacquired the castle in 1793 and owned it until the Second World War. The Partisans looted and burned the castle on 23 October 1943, and after the war many of the building stones were carried off. The gardens in the castle grounds survive, with a pavilion now referred to as the Devil's Tower ( sl, Hudičev turn). The tower contains paintings by the 17th-century Dutch painter Almanach.

Old Soteska Castle

The ruins of an older castle, known as Old Soteska Castle ( sl, Stara Soteska, german: Alt Ainöd), stand on a nearby hill. It was initially owned by the Lords of Soteska, and then by the Istrian branch of the Counts of Gorizia from 1335 to 1374. A nobleman was killed at the castle in the peasant uprising of 1573. The Lords of Scheyer, lieges of the Habsburgs, held the castle after this; they were enthusiastic Protestants during the Reformation, and one of them even supervised the Protestant schools and received a red leather-bound copy of the Dalmatin Bible in 1584. The castle was strongly fortified during the

Ottoman wars in Europe A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in ...

and was the seat of a provincial court. The Scheyer family died out in 1650 and was succeeded by the Gallenbergs. Count Georg Sigmund von Gallenberg had the old castle razed when the new castle was built.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Soteska include: *

Andrej Glavan Andrej Glavan (born 16 October 1943) is a Slovenian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Novo Mesto from its creation on 7 April 2006 until his retirement on 30 June 2021. Also he was a Titular Bishop of Musti in ...

(born 1943), Slovenian Roman Catholic prelate * Jožef Rudolf Milic (1817–1888), printer and publisher * Mansvet Šmajdek (1819–1868), religious writer

References

External links

*
Soteska on Geopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soteska, Dolenjske Toplice Populated places in the Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice