Gorica (; Vengušt, Jernej. 1919. ''Seznamek prekmurskih občin (krajev) z označbo pošte in zemljevidom.'' Radgona, p. 6. /ref>) is a small roadside village in the
Municipality of Puconci
The Municipality of Puconci (; ) is a municipality in the traditional region of Prekmurje in northeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Puconci. Puconci became a municipality in 1994.
The majority of the population is Lut ...
in the
Prekmurje
Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...
region of
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 ...
.
Location
Gorica is located only 6 km north of
Murska Sobota
Murska Sobota (, Slovenian abbreviation: ''MS'' ; ;''Radkersburg und Luttenberg'' (map, 1:75,000). 1894. Vienna: K.u.k. Militärgeographisches Institut. ) is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Murska Sob ...
, the main town in the Prekmurje region. The main part of the settlement of Gorica developed along main road from Puconci to Brezovci.
At the crossroads in the centre of the
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
, a secondary road leads southwards to
Polana
Polana may refer to the following places:
Places
*Polana, Lower Silesian Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
*Polana, Subcarpathian Voivodeship (south-east Poland)
*Polana, Opole Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
*Polana, Pomeranian Voivodeship (north P ...
. There is a second crossroad at the western end of the village with road towards the hamlet of the settlement known as Gornja Gorica (Upper Gorica) and the village of Šalamenci turning towards the north. There is a
natural spring
A spring is a natural exit point at which groundwater emerges from an aquifer and flows across the ground surface as surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere, as well as a part of the water cycle. Springs have long been important fo ...
in the middle of the village. Known locally by the Slovene word for spring, ''Izvir'', it was particularly important before a
water supply network
A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following:
# A drainage basin (see water purification – sour ...
was built in the village in 1968. The spring with the concrete water
cistern
A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster.
Cisterns are disti ...
built around it, is considered a landmark and is valued by the local people. The local mini football team is named ''KMN Izvir Gorica'' after it.
Village activities
Farming
Local people mostly work in
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
. There is a variety of soils around the village with a mixture of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
and sandy soils towards hills to the north of the settlement and lime-rich
marl
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
M ...
stone mixed with sandy soils in the flatlands to the south. Crops cultivated in the area include
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
,
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...
, and
sugar beet
A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...
s.
Potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
es for domestic use, as well as
pumpkin
A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...
s, from which locals extract
pumpkin seed oil
Pumpkin seed oil is a culinary oil, used especially in eastern Europe.
Culinary uses
This oil is a culinary specialty from what used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is now southeastern Austria (Styria), eastern Slovenia (Styria a ...
, are also grown in the fields and fruit trees are maintained in gardens in the village.
Social activities
The village
fire station
__NOTOC__
A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...
doubles as a
village hall
A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...
. It was built in 1957 and includes a
conference room
A conference hall, conference room, or meeting room is a room provided for singular events such as business conferences and meetings.
Room
It is commonly found at large hotels and convention centers though many other establishments, including even ...
as well as a small
auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...
with a
stage
Stage, stages, or staging may refer to:
Arts and media Acting
* Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions
* Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage"
* ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...
.
Wildlife in the rich
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
grounds around the village is managed by the Dolina Hunters' Association (Lovska Družina Dolina) from Puconci.
A women's association, a mini football club, and a voluntary firemen's association are active in the village.
The ''Štrk''
Powered Paragliding
Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring or PPG, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a back-pack motor (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider. It can be launched in still air, and on ...
Club from Murska Sobota also maintains a launch and landing strip with a small
hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
in Gorica.
Village history
The earliest mention of Gorica as ''Guricha'' in surviving written documents is in the ''Diplomataria'' dating to 1365, preserved in the
National Archives of Hungary
The National Archives of Hungary (in Hungarian: ''Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár'') were created in 1756. They were first located in Pressburg, Upper Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia). In 1784, they were transferred to Buda.
The National Archive ...
. In 1366 it appears as ''Goricha in dystrict Sancti Martini''. In 1499 it is spelled ''Gorycza''. Sources from 1698 give the population of ''Goricza'' as 70.
Today there are many religions represented in the village –
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
,
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, and
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...
. Locals of various religious persuasions are well integrated, and even share a common local cemetery.
The modern history of Gorica is similar to that of all neighboring villages. With the rest of Prekmurje, it was part of the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
until 1918 and was included in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
from 1941 to 1944 and
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
between 1944 and 1945. It was liberated by
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
troops in May 1945 and Soviet troops were stationed in practically every house in the village. After the Second World War the village with the surrounding infrastructure slowly started to develop. Much was achieved by the villagers themselves through volunteering for the construction of the fire station and village hall and in the
asphalt
Asphalt most often refers to:
* Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete
* Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...
ing of the main road.
Notable locals
The village is especially proud of Karel Flisar (1912–1983), born in the village, who worked as a fireman all over the Prekmurje area. He also worked at the Firemen's Association of Slovenia (''Gasilska Zveza Slovenije''), where he was a leading member. In the period immediately after the Second World War he was the initiator of the restoration of numerous local fire stations and their equipment as well as the education and training of firemen. A
commemorative plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...
to him was unveiled at the local fire station in 2005 and a competition between local fire brigades is organised in the village in his memory every four years, known as the Karl Flisar Memorial (''Gasilski memorial Karla Flisarja'').
References
Other sources
''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'' 1980, vol. 4
Ivan Zelko:Zgodovina Prekmurja
Arhiv RS
Geodetski zavod RS
Kronologija vasi Gorica
Gallery
File:GoGo.jpg, Gornja Gorica (Upper Gorica)
File:GORICA LANG.jpg, Gorica Lang
File:GORICA MLAKA.jpg, Spring
File:Koponja_in_rože.JPG, Koponja (Cattle were once watered here.)
File:GORICA PANORAMA.jpg, Panorama
File:Vaško - gasilski dom Gorica.png, Gorica fire station
File:Razglednica G Gorica.jpg, Picture postcard of Gorica
File:Zajetje in stavba za vodovod.jpg, Building for water supply