Bele Vode () is a settlement in the

Municipality of Šoštanj The Municipality of Šoštanj (; ) is a municipality in northern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Šoštanj. The municipality was established on 3 October 1994, prior to which it belonged to the larger Municipality of Velenje ...

in northern

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It lies in the Mozirje Hills () northwest of the town of

Šoštanj Šoštanj (; ) is a town in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Šoštanj. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The entire municipality is now included in the Savinja Statistical Region. History Šoštanj w ...

. The area is part of the traditional region of

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

. The entire municipality is now included in the

Savinja Statistical Region The Savinja Statistical Region () is a Statistical regions of Slovenia, 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 compr ...

. The settlement includes the hamlets of Kloše, Punčkov Vrh, Visočki Vrh, and Zaloka.Savnik, Roman, ed. 1976. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 3. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 427.

Name

The name ''Bele Vode'' is originally a

hydronym A hydronym (from , , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a subset of top ...

, literally meaning 'white waters'. The adjective ''bele'' 'white' may refer to the light color of the water as it flows over rocks, or it may refer to limestone cliffs or deciduous (in comparison to "black", i.e.

coniferous Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

) forest that the water flows through. It may also be an old designation indicating 'west', 'right', 'large', or 'major'.

History

The ancient settlement of the area is attested by early

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

finds in Morn Cave (), discovered by Srečko Brodar in 1936. The

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

and

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

artifacts from the site have been identified as belonging to the

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an Industry (archaeology), archaeological industry of Lithic technology, stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and with the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and We ...

–pre-

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Cro-Magnon, Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the L ...

culture and dating to the Würm glaciation. The finds include the remnants of 312 posts that are probably the remains of

stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on Stilts (architecture), stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they als ...

s. Later archaeological finds include metal objects from the late

Hallstatt Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...

and La Tène cultures, and Roman coins and ceramics. A school was built in the settlement in 1905.

Partisan Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Ital ...

units were active in the area during the Second World War. A German offensive against the 14th Partisan Division concluded in Bele Vode on 16 February 1944.

Mass graves

Bele Vode is the site of two known

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, 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 exec ...

from the Second World War. Both are also known as the Oce Mass Grave () or Kozamurnik Farm Mass Grave () and are located in some bushes and a gulch north-northwest of the Kozamurnik farm. They both contain the remains of Ukrainian prisoners of war that were murdered on 19 March 1945. The Bele Vode 1 Mass Grave () is located about 380 m from the farm and contains the remains of six soldiers. The Bele Vode 2 Mass Grave () is located about 270 m from the farm and contains the remains of seven soldiers.

Church

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

in the settlement is dedicated to

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...

and belongs to the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Celje The Diocese of Celje (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church located in the city of Celje in the ecclesiastical province of Maribor in Slovenia. History * April 7, 2006: Established as Diocese of Celje from the Diocese of Maribor ...

. It was built between 1775 and 1793 on the site of two earlier buildings. The church was first mentioned in written sources in 1482. The bell dates from the first half of the 16th century, and the furnishings of the church mostly date to 1835. Two other churches, built on the top of Cross Mountain (''Kriška gora'', formerly known as ''Oslovska gora'') south of the settlement core, are dedicated to the

Feast of the Cross The Feast of the Holy Cross, or Feast of the Cross, commemorates True Cross, the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. In the Christianity, Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different celebrations which honor and celebrate the ...

.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage
reference number ešd 2869 The older one was built between 1833 and 1840, and the other between 1850 and 1857. The churches were a popular pilgrimage destination in the 19th century, indicated by the large number of votive offerings at the church, including animal figurines. A

Scala Sancta The (, ) are a set of 28 white marble steps located in an edifice on extraterritorial property of the Holy See in Rome, Italy proximate to the Archbasilica of Saint John in Laterano. Officially, the edifice is titled the Pontifical Sanctuary ...

shrine at the site is decorated with frescoes by Tomaž Fantoni dating to 1873.

References

External links

Bele Vode on Geopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bele Vode Populated places in the Municipality of Šoštanj