Trbovlje (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is

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 ...

's eleventh-largest town, located in the traditional province 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 ...

and acting as the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

of the

Municipality of Trbovlje The Municipality of Trbovlje (; ) is a municipality in central Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Trbovlje. Settlements In addition to the municipal seat of Trbovlje, the municipality also includes the following settlements: * ...

. A historically renowned mining town, Trbovlje is located in the valley of a minor left tributary of the

Sava River The Sava, is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. From its source in Slovenia it flows through Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally reaches Serbia, fee ...

in the

Central Sava Valley The Central Sava Valley () is a valley in the Sava Hills and a geographic region along the Sava in central Slovenia, now constituting the Central Sava Statistical Region. The region consists of three municipalities: Zagorje ob Savi, Trbovlje, an ...

in central-eastern Slovenia.

Name

Trbovlje was attested in written sources in 1220–30 as ''Trefeul'' (and as ''Trevůl'' and ''Trevol'' in 1265–67, ''Triuella'' in 1302, ''Trifeul'' in 1325, ''Triueal'' in 1330, and ''Triuel'' in 1424). The name is a feminine plural noun in standard Slovene, but in the local dialect it is declined as a neuter singular adjective. This indicates that the name is derived from ''*Trěbovľe selo'' (literally, 'Trěbo's village'), referring to an early inhabitant of the place. In the past the German name was ''Trifail''.

History

Coal mining began at Beech Mountain (, ) south of the town in 1804. The town was connected to the

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway () is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, the former main seaport of Austria-Hungary, by railway for the first time. It now forms the Southern Railway in Austria and the Spi ...

in 1849, which contributed to its further development. During the 19th century, a cement plant, mechanical separator, sawmill, and power plant were built in Trbovlje. Poor social conditions in Trbovlje led to several strikes by mine workers, and the town became a center of the leftist movement and communist agitation. On June 1, 1924, there was a clash between workers and members of the

Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists The Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists (, ), acronymised as ORJUNA or Orjuna, was a proto-fascist, anti-communist, terrorist, and Yugoslavist nationalist organisation established in 1921 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Initiall ...

that resulted in several fatalities on both sides. In 1934, miners staged a

sitdown strike A sit-down strike (or simply sitdown) is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workpl ...

at the mine.

Second World War

During the Second World War, Trbovlje, along with the rest of

Lower Styria Styria (, ), also known as Slovenian Styria (; ) or Lower Styria (; ) to differentiate it from Austrian Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of St ...

, was annexed to the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. The coal mine and other industries of Trbovlje were especially important to the German authorities, and they initially lowered unemployment in the town and increased wages, increasing satisfaction with the new regime. However, the arrest and exile of Slovenes in August 1941 created disaffection. This and other repressive measures resulted in an estimated 90% of the population opposing the Germans by the summer of 1944.

Mass grave

The Abandoned Cemetery

Mass Grave 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 ...

() site, associated with World War II, is located in the former cemetery in the northern part of the town, between the fence and Trboveljščica Creek. It is also known as the Town Park Mass Grave (), and it contains the remains of about 30 German soldiers.

Culture

The Trbovlje Museum () has a large section dedicated to the history of mining. The Slovenian industrial band

Laibach Laibach () is a Slovenian and Yugoslav avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neoclassical genres. Formed in 1980 in the mining town of Trbovlje, Slovenia, at the time a constituent republic within Socialist Fede ...

also originated in Trbovlje. The Trbovlje Student Club organization () holds various events.

Economy

Trbovlje is known for its long

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

history. Trbovlje is also known for

Trbovlje Power Station The Trbovlje Power Station () was a lignite-fired power station on the bank of the Sava River near Trbovlje, Slovenia. The plant was operated by Termoelektrarna Trbovlje d.o.o. The original power station was built in 1915. The new power station w ...

, which is the location of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

's tallest chimney at 360 meters. In the past there were companies like respecte
Strojna Tovarna Trbovlje - STT
well known

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

, Mehanika, Cementarna Trbovlje, et cetera that have employed many high skilled people and contributed to the economy. Due to their size this was not felt only locally but nationally.

Parishes and churches

Two Roman Catholic

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 ...

es have their seat in Trbovlje: the

Parish of Trbovlje–St. Martin A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

and the

Parish of Trbovlje–St. Mary 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 ...

. Both belong to the Diocese of Celje. The Parish Church of St Martin was originally a Romanesque church, of which part of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

survives. The sanctuary is Gothic and in the 18th century a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

and

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

were added. In the 19th century the nave was extended. A second church of the Parish of Trbovlje–St. Martin in the western end of town is dedicated to

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

and was built in the 18th century. The Parish of Trbovlje–St Mary in the southern part of the town was established in 2000. Its parish church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary,

Mother of the Church Mother of the Church () is a Titles of Mary, title given to Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary in the Catholic Church, as officially declared by Pope Paul VI in 1964. The title first appeared in the 4th century writings of Saint Ambrose of Milan, as redi ...

. It was built from 1998 to 2000 according to plans by the architect

Jože Marinko Jože is a male given name related to Joseph. Notable people with this name include: * Jože Babič (1917–1996), Slovenian film, theatre and television director * Jože Benko (born 1980), Slovenian football striker * Jože Berc (born 1944), Slo ...

. Stained glasses, paintings, and the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

were created by the academy-trained painter

Lojze Čemažar Lojze is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Lojze Bratuž (1902–1937), Slovene choirmaster and composer, killed by Italian Fascist squads *Lojze Grozde, Slovenian student murdered by partisans during World War II *Lojze Kovači� ...

. The church was blessed in August 2000 and consecrated in October 2007. A significant portion of Trbovlje's populace today describe themselves as

atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, in third place behind Catholic and "no response."

Twin places

* Sallaumines, northern France since 1964. There is a street in Sallaumines named Trbovlje, and a street in Trbovlje named Sallaumines. There are also regular short-term exchanges of schoolchildren.

References

External links

*
Trbovlje on GeopediaTrbovlje on Google Maps
(map, photographs, street view) {{Authority control Populated places in the Municipality of Trbovlje Cities and towns in Styria (Slovenia)