Kočevje (; ; ''Göttscheab'' or ''Gətscheab'' in the local

Gottscheerish Gottscheerish (''Göttscheabarisch'',Maridi Tscherne: Wörterbuch Gottscheerisch-Slowenisch. Einrichtung für die Erhaltung des Kulturerbes Nesseltal, Koprivnik/Nesseltal 2010. , ) is an Upper German dialect which was the main language of c ...

dialect; ) is a town and the seat of

Municipality of Kočevje The Municipality of Kočevje (; ) is a Municipalities of Slovenia, municipality in southern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the city of Kočevje. Today it is part of the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. In terms of area, it is t ...

in southern

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 ...

Geography

The town is located at the foot of the

Kočevski Rog Kočevski Rog or Kočevje Rog () or simply Rog is a karstified plateau in the Kočevje Highlands above the Črmošnjice Valley in southeastern Slovenia. The plateau is part of the traditional Lower Carniola region of Slovenia and of the Dinaric ...

karst plateau on the

Rinža The Rinža ( German: Rinse, Rinnse) is a river of Slovenia. It is long and flows through Kočevje. It is the main watercourse of the Kočevje Polje and it is a losing stream. A few kilometers downstream of Kočevje, it goes subterranean. It emer ...

River in the historic

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 ...

region. It is now part of the

Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region The Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region () is a statistical region in southeast Slovenia. It is the largest statistical region. The development of this region is largely the result of industry (the auto industry, pharmaceuticals, and other light ...

. The Rinža River flows through the town. Lake Kočejve, a former open-pit coal mine, lies northeast of the town center.

Climate

Kočevje features a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfb''/''Cfb'').

Name

Kočevje was attested in written sources in 1363 as ''Gotsche'' (and as ''Gotsew'' in 1386, ''Kotsche'' in 1425, and ''propre Koczeuiam'' in 1478). The name is derived from ''*Hvojčevje'' (from ''hvoja'' 'fir, spruce'), referring to the local vegetation. The initial ''hv-'' changed to ''k-'' under the influence of German phonology. Older discredited explanations include derivation from the hypothetical common noun ''*kočevje'' 'nomadic settlement' and Slovene ''koča'' 'shack'. The former German name was ''Gottschee''.

History

In 1247 Berthold, Patriarch of

Aquileia Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small ( ...

, granted the area around Ribnica within the imperial

March of Carniola March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 21 ...

to the Carinthian counts of Ortenburg. When the counts had received further estates in 1336 on the wooded plateau down to Kostel on the Kolpa River from the hands of Patriarch Bertram, they called for German-speaking settlers from Carinthia and

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

. In the following decades they established the town of Gottschee, which was first mentioned in a 1363 deed. The settlement received market rights in 1377 and

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

in 1471. Until 1918, the town was part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

(and part of

Cisleithania Cisleithania, officially The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council (), was the northern and western part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in the Compromise of 1867—as distinguished from ''Transleithania'' (i.e., ...

after the

Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (, ) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereign ...

), in the district of the same name, as one of the 11 ''Bezirkshauptmannschaften'' in province of

Carniola Carniola ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region still tend to identify with its traditional parts Upp ...

. The German name alone was used by the post office before 1867. After the Second World War, a Yugoslav labor camp for political prisoners operated in Kočevje until March 1946.

Germans of Kočevje

They first settled in

around 1330 from the German lands of

and

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

and maintained their German identity and language during their 600 years of isolation. They cleared the vast forests of the region and established villages and towns. In 1809, they resisted French occupation in the 1809 Gottscheer Rebellion. With the end of the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

in 1918, Gottschee became a part of the new

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 ...

. The Gottscheer thus went from being part of the ruling ethnicity of Austria-Hungary (and the ruling group in the estates of the province of

itself) to an ethnic minority in a large Slavic state. With the onset of the

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 ...

and the Invasion of Yugoslavia their situation was worsened further.

Landmarks

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 town is dedicated to

Saint Bartholomew Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Most scholars today identify Bartholomew as Nathanael, who appears in the Gospel of John (1:45–51; cf. 21:2). New Testament references The name ''Bartholomew ...

() and belongs to the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Novo Mesto The Diocese of Novo Mesto (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the city of Novo Mesto in the ecclesiastical province of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Ljubljana in Slovenia. History * April 7, 2006: Established as ...

. It is a Neo-Romanesque building erected between 1887 and 1903 on the site of an earlier church.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Kočevje include: * (1931–2011), sculptor, graphic artist and teacher (worked in Kočevje) * Matej Bor (1913–1993), poet and author * (1923–1999), academy-trained painter, art teacher, art theorist * Ivan Jurkovič (born 1952), apostolic nuncio to Russia * Zofka Kveder (1878–1926), writer * (1858–1924), composer * Roman Erich Petsche (1907–1993), teacher, painter, and

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

* (1908–1942), secondary-school professor, social revolutionary, communist resistance fighter

Bibliography

References

External links

*
Kočevje on GeopediaPre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (1–39)Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (40–140)Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (144–326)Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (332–344, unnumbered)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocevje Populated places in the Municipality of Kočevje Cities and towns in Lower Carniola