Kompolje (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 42.) is a

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 ...

in the

Municipality of Dobrepolje The Municipality of Dobrepolje (; ) is a municipality in Slovenia. It lies in a karst valley approximately south of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. The administrative seat of the municipality is in Videm. The area is part of the traditional r ...

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 ...

. The area is part of the historical region of

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( ; ) is a traditional region in 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 an ...

. The municipality is now included in the

Central Slovenia Statistical Region The Central Slovenia Statistical Region () is a Statistical regions of Slovenia, statistical region in central Slovenia. Geography This is the second-largest region in terms of territory. It has a total area of 2,555 km2, with a central po ...

. The village includes the hamlet of Brezje south of the main settlement.Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, pp. 133–134.

Geography

Kompolje lies in the middle of the Dobrepolje

karst field Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. There is some eviden ...

. South of the village is Kompolje Cave (), also known as Žovkno Cave. It is the source of a large stream that soon disappears into the ground, and in the past people from villages in the region would travel up to three hours to obtain water from it during droughts. The Rupe Sinkholes lie southeast of Kompolje and water from Dolaja Cave () flows into them. In the past the locals would catch

olm The olm () or proteus (''Proteus anguinus'') is an aquatic salamander which is the only species in the genus ''Proteus'' of the family Proteidae and the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe; the family's other extant g ...

s in Dolaja Cave and sell them in Ljubljana and Vienna.

Name

Kompolje was first attested in written sources in 1280 as ''Gompol'' (and as ''Choempoel'' in 1342 and ''Gumpell'' in 1444). The name is derived from Slavic *''komъ poľa'' 'raised part of a field'. Other, less likely, theories derived the name from

Romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

''campulus'' 'small field' or Slavic *''kъn poľu'' 'to the field'. In the past the German name was ''Kompole''.

Church

The local

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

is dedicated to

Saint Vitus Vitus (), whose name is sometimes rendered Guy or Guido, was a Christian martyr from Sicily. His surviving hagiography is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical ...

() and belongs to the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Dobrepolje–Videm. It was originally a 14th-century church that burned down in 1877 and was rebuilt in the late 19th century using material from the razed iron ore foundry in Ponikve. The church was first mentioned in written sources in 1526.

Notable people

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

Štefan Adamič Štefan is a Slavic given name and surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Štefan Babjak (1931–2008), Slovak classical baritone opera singer * Štefan Banič (1870–1941), Slovak inventor who patented an early parachute desi ...

(born 1926), pathological physiology expert * Anton Hren (1880–1936), write of juvenile literature * Fran Samec (1884–1945), write of educational literature

Gallery

File:Kompolje Dobrepolje - shrine.JPG,

Chapel-shrine A wayside shrine is a religious image, usually in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads, but often in the middle of an empty stretch of country road, or at the top of a hill or mount ...

in Kompolje

References

External links

*
Kompolje on Geopedia
Populated places in the Municipality of Dobrepolje {{Dobrepolje-geo-stub