Preža (; in older sources also ''Preže'',''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 34. ) 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 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 ...

. The area is part of the traditional 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 ...

and is now included in 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 ...

. It no longer has any permanent residents.

History

Preža was a Gottschee German village. In the Kočevje land registry of 1498 the village had four half-farms; the cultivated area gradually increased, so that by 1574 seven half-farms were recorded in the village. Before the Second World War Preža had 16 houses, and three Slovene families also lived in the village. The Southern Lower Carniolan Battalion of the

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 ...

forces was founded here on 16 April 1942. Italians forces burned the village on 27 April 1942 and killed 11 men from the vicinity that they had brought to the village.

Church

The village church was a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

dedicated to Saint Joseph. It stood at the northern edge of the village and there was a cemetery south of the church. The church had a rectangular nave with two side chapels and a narrower polygonal

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

walled on three sides. There was a

bell-gable The bell gable (, , ) is an architectural element crowning the upper end of the wall of church buildings, usually in lieu of a church tower. It consists of a gable end in stone, with small hollow semi-circular arches where the church bells are ...

extending above the west wall of the church. The church was built around 1637 and was first mentioned in written sources in 1689 by

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, present-day Slovenia, and a Li ...

. The church was expanded in the mid- to late-18th century. The building had a gabled shingled roof. The church was destroyed in the 1950s and a gravel road was laid in its place.Ferenc, Mitja. "Preža: Podružnična cerkev sv. Jožefa / Pröse: Filialkirche St. Josef"

References

External links

Preža on GeopediaPre–World War II list of oeconyms and family names in Preža
Former populated places in the Municipality of Kočevje {{Kočevje-geo-stub