Jesenice
Template:Municipality of Slovenia
Jesenice (German: Aßling) is a town and a municipality in Slovenia, on the Slovene side of the Karavanke mountain range, south of Austria. It is known for the biggest Slovenian steel making company and its ice hockey club, Acroni Jesenice. It got its name from the ash tree (jesen in Slovenian). The history of Jesenice is tightly knit with its ironworks and metallurgy, which have until recently been the driving force of Jesenice's development in practically all departments.
Geography and climate
Jesenice lies in the Upper Carniola region, in the Upper Sava Valley. It is surrounded by the Karavanke mountain range to the north and by Mežakla to the south. Across the Karavanke lies the Austrian town of Villach. The resort town of Kranjska Gora is 15 kilometres northwest of Jesenice, and Bled lies 10 kilometres to the southeast. Other nearby villages and towns include Mojstrana, Hrušica and Žirovnica. The village of Planina pod Golico, 5 km north of Jesenice is popular with tourists, especially in May when the wild narcissi are in flower. Jesenice's climate is transitional between temperate and continental with influences of alpine.
History
Early history
The German name for Jesenice is Aßling and was first mentioned in a 1004 document in which Bled (Veldes at that time) was also mentioned. There were no settlements there at that time, however. The name Assling only marked the area on banks of the Jesenica stream. Later, a settlement slowly started to grow around the church of St. Lenart nearby.
There are few sources for the early history of Jesenice and most of them focus on ironworks. The oldest is a set of mining rights issued by the House of Ortenburg dating to 1381. This document proves that the first settlements were founded on the southern slopes of the Karavanke (not in the Sava valley) due to need for wood, water energy and iron ore. With the development of new techniques in extracting iron from ore, the need for water energy grew and the small streams on the slopes of the Karavanke were no longer sufficient. The ore-extracting industry was thus relocated to the valley in 1538, creating a settlement that was to become the town Jesenice. This industry continued to exploit resources from mines in the Karavanke.
The members of the House of Ortenburg were the most prominent landowners in the area from the 11th century onwards. They were at their strongpoint in the 13th century in terms of land property, encompassing almost all of the Sava valley from its source to its confluence with Sora river. The oldest settlement in Jesenice municipality is Koroška Bela, founded in the 13th century. Initially there were no settlements in Koroška Bela's immediate surroundings. The House of Ortenburg, however, promoted colonisation of the Gornjesavska valley, especially that of ore-rich areas. Throughout the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the small settlements of Plavž, Sava, Murova and Javornik sprung up. On April 13, 1929 all these settlements became part of the town of Jesenice by decree of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.
Industrial growth from 19th century to World War I
The abovementioned settlements evolved independently of each other until the arrival of the railway at the end of 19th century; they were only connected by a gravel road. Besides mining and ironworking, inhabitants made a living from agriculture and stockbreeding.
Different iron foundries belonged to different owners (the Zois, Ruard and Bucelleni families) and did not interact. All developed and evolved very quickly. This situation continued until the arrival of capitalist liberalism. Compared to other foundries around the world, Jesenice iron foundries were very out-of-date. The need for their modernisation became apparent, but this required vast financial resources, which neither the Zoises, the Ruards nor the Bucellenis had. Help was offered by a family of bankers from Ljubljana, the Luckmann family. They agreed to modernize the iron foundries, but demanded the foundation of a new shareholder company. The company, named Kranjska Industrijska Družba (KID) (The Carniolan Industrial Company) was founded on September 18, 1869 by the Luckmann family. The Zois family was the first to join the company, with the Ruards following three years later. The company soon expanded its activities to the Tržič ironworks and Croatia (Topusko). This was the first time that all the Upper Carniolan ironworks were joined under a single administration, with central management in Ljubljana and business administration in Jesenice. The greatest achievement of KID was the discovery of a process for obtaining ferromanganese in a smelting furnace. This innovation brought KID a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 and worldwide fame. Jesenice ironworks achieved a status as a pioneering centre of technical invention in the history of ironworking.
KID was also the basis for a new ironworks facility which still provides employment today. The new facility started expanding quickly - it went from medieval style iron foundries to up-to-date modern ironworks facilities in just a few years. The town of Jesenice grew almost exponentially with the great influx of people attracted to the newly created jobs.
Political, cultural and social life at the beginning of 20th century
Points to note in the political, cultural and social life in Jesenice at the beginning of 20th century are the foundation of the gymnastics associations of Sokol in October 2, 1904 and Orel in February 18, 1906. Both associations were in constant competition and provides the dynamics for all political, cultural and social activities.
Other groups established at that time were the choir, a reading club, a brass band, the Workers' Catholic Association. Three political parties: clerical, liberal and social democratic, also became active in Jesenice, all three establishing their own cultural and gymnastics associations. Germans had a great influence in Jesenice at that time; Orel and Sokol were founded to counterweight German influence, both being nationally-oriented.
In 1904, the rolling mills were relocated from Jesenice to Javornik (at the eastern end of today's Jesenice). Stockholders wanted to cover the expenses of relocation by lowering workers wages and this led to the first strike in Jesenice, involving around 400 workers. The strike lasted for six weeks, with strikers only partially achieving their goal.
In 1870, the first railway tracks were led through Jesenice and construction of railway station followed soon after. This made Jesenice much better connected with the world and allowed for exports to other parts of the world. In 1905, construction of the Karavanke-Bohinj railway was started. This was a very complicated project, since it demanded the drilling of two tunnels: one to Austria through the Karavanke and the other through the Kobla mountain in Bohinj for better access to Italy. The tunnels were successfully completed and the railway line was opened to traffic in a special ceremony attended by Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
1918-1945
During WW1, the ironworks mainly manufactured military products. Jesenice only suffered one bombing attack with no casualties at all. With the end of World War I came major political changes - on December 1, 1918, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed, opening up new markets. Due to its border position, Jesenice became an important traffic junction. A grammar school was established in 1914. The first boys' and girls' school was established in 1920, renamed in 1935, offering higher education. There was no grammar school in Jesenice before the end of World War II (it was established in 1945). For its own staffing needs, KID established an apprenticeship school in 1938. Between the wars, Jesenice was also the center of all kinds of small trade. A tradesman's union was formed in 1920.
Development of ironworks continued; by 1937, 4567 workers were affiliated to a greater or lesser extent with KID.
Italy occupied Jesenice on April 11, 1941, with the Germans taking over eight days later. That resulted in the immediate arrest of some of the workers' leaders, educated and culture-affiliated individuals, and all Roma people. Forced immobilization and recruitment followed soon after. The Germans were aware of the strategic and industrial importance of Jesenice, so they soon began with a programme of assimilation, introducing lessons only in the German language to schools, germanizing public signs, etc. These measures lead to the formation of the Partisan movement in Jesenice.
As was the case during World War I, steel making industry was again diverted to German military needs. Since most of the population joined the resistance, the now-German management started importing French workers, which were followed by Italian workers after Italian capitulation.
On March 1, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Jesenice was subjected to the worst bombing in its history (by Allied forces), which came in two waves. There were many casualties and a great deal of material damage in the centre of the town.
1945-today
After the end of World War II followed a new economic golden age. Soon after the war, two further smelting furnaces were put into operation. The Jesenice ironworks became one of the main steel manufacturers in the rebuilding the newly-founded Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and started employing more people than ever before. Many new industrial buildings were built, increasing production manyfold. With this age of prosperity, Jesenice began to develop into its present shape. As the population increased, massive building of apartment blocks, houses and residential sections took place. Cultural, sports, school, medical and traffic infrastructure was built. Jesenice became the center of black metallurgy in Slovenia. Introduction of electrical steel processing marked the era of manufacturing steel of higher quality and in greater quantities. At its peak in 1970s, the ironworks employed more than 8000 people.
After the collapse of Yugoslavia, economic policies changed and Jesenice ironworks could not compete with the much more developed metallurgy in the West. The second problem was the loss of raw material resources, located in the former SFRY. This led to massive layoffs and emigration of people in search of new jobs. The ironworks currently employs around 1350 workers, but has undergone massive modernisation. It is currently on the level of other steel making companies throughout the world. However, since the declaration of Slovenian independence in 1991, Jesenice became much less dependent on metallurgic industry and is currently developing in other areas of economy.
Jesenice is presently undergoing massive urban reconstruction with the help of EU resources. A new city centre is being built in the former industrial part of town. Two shopping malls have already been built, besides the new city hall. The current projects include rebuilding of some old parts of town and sport facilities, as well as another high school.
Sightseeing and notable places
Places to visit in Jesenice are: The Museum of history of steel production in the 'Ruard' mansion in the area of old Sava, the Kos mansion house gallery in the centre of town, and numerous interesting places in the nearby countryside. For sports fanatics a visit to the Hockey hall might be interesting, especially when there is a match on. There are a few pubs and bars that young people frequent and may be worth a visit such as Dozivetje, Domina and Teater.
There are also two high school institutions in Jesenice. The first one is ŽIC (Železarski Izobraževalni Center) - (Ironworks Educational Centre), which offers 4-year courses in technical and medicine vocations. The other is Gimnazija Jesenice (Jesenice High School), with a 60-year tradition.
For a peaceful walk or cycle ride, head up the hill to Planina pod Golico where you can find swathes of white narcissi in springtime. Planina pod Golico is a good starting point for walks further up into the mountaings onto Golica, Rožca, Španov vrh etc.
Notes
Jesenice is not to be confused with village of Jesenice, which lies in the south-east of Slovenia on border with Croatia in the municipality of Brežice, nor with the town Jesenice u Prahy in the Czech Republic.
Born in Jesenice
- Helena Blagne Zaman, (born 1963), singer
- Tone Čufar (1905 - 1942), writer
- Anže Kopitar (born 1987), ice hockey player
- Tomo Križnar (born 1954), peace activist, writer
- Thomas Luckmann (born 1927), sociologist
- Miha Mazzini (born 1961), writer, screenwriter, film director
- Jure Robič (born 1965), ultra marathon cyclist
External links
