Gradac (Slovenia)
| Gradac | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| Country |
 Slovenia
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| Historic region | Bela krajina | ||||
| Statistical region | Jugovzhodna Slovenija | ||||
| local community | Metlika | ||||
| Coordinates | 45 ° 37 ' N , 15 ° 15' E | ||||
| height | 140 m. i. J. | ||||
| Residents | 950 (2005) | ||||
| Post Code | 8332 | ||||
| License Plate | Novo mesto | ||||
| Structure and administration | |||||
| structure | Gradac, monastery, Okljuka | ||||
Gradac (historical names: Graecz, Gretz, Gradez, Gradecz ) is a village with around 950 inhabitants in the Metlika municipality . It is located on the Lahinja River in the Bela Krajina region in southern Slovenia near the border with Croatia .
description
Gradac (pronounced: Gradetz) is at an altitude of 140 meters above the Adriatic Sea at the point of contact between all three municipalities of the Slovenian region of Bela krajina : Črnomelj , Semič and Metlika . There are three districts: Gradac, Klošter , and Okljuka , all of which are on the Lahinja. Gradac is named after the Gradac Castle of the same name . The castle with a large park is located right in the center of the village on a loop of the Lahinja river . The Red Cross of Slovenia was founded in Gradac on June 18, 1944 . Gradac has a passenger and freight station (formerly: Gradac-Podzemelj), a post office, a small industrial area, and traditionally many handicraft businesses (stonemasons, carpenters, wagons, potters).
Gradac used to be a market and until 1955 an independent municipality. Since then, the place has belonged to the Metlika municipality . Under canon law Gradac belongs to the Podzemelj parish. The church is in the Klošter district, in Gradac itself there was a chapel in the castle. During the Second World War, the Italian occupiers built a chapel on the main square behind today's partisan monument, which was destroyed after the war, which has repeatedly led to criticism over the years.
Culture
Until the 1980s, Gradac had a cultural offer that included the Carnival Association Gradaški mački (German: "The Gradazer Kater"), theater performances in the culture house, village festival in the castle park, association of the volunteer fire brigade, sports association.
In March 2014 a longer newspaper article in Dolenjski list commemorated this extremely active and successful carnival association. It was mentioned that carnival celebrations were held in the Kulturhaus as early as 1960. From 1964 onwards, relocations took place. The moving trucks were pulled by bulls and horses or by the only tractor in town. At the beginning of the nineteen sixties, conquering outer space was a popular theme in these parades. For this purpose, a 12 m long dummy rocket was even built in 1966, which “flew” manned on ropes over the Lahinja to the castle. Of course, all possible events in what was then Yugoslavia were satirically targeted, which required a certain courage. As there were fewer and fewer farm animals in the village, oversized figures were made, which represented a horse, a cow, a bull, a pig and a turkey. In the year of the Olympic Winter Games in Sarajevo (1984) the games were presented: with an Olympic flame, lift, clinic, figure skater, bobsleigh with pigs as a crew and a snow factory that caricatured the lack of snow in Sarajevo at the beginning of the games. The parades were canceled in 1980 because of Tito's illness and too high a snow cover, as well as in 1984 when the warehouse with the carnival equipment in the castle burned down. The last move took place in 1985. Several thousand visitors came to each parade. He inspired residents of other places in the Bela krajina to set up their own carnival societies, e.g. B. in Semič "The Pirates" (Gusarji) or in Vranoviči "The Badgers" (Jazbeci) who also took part in the parades in Gradac. The name of the "Gradazer Kater" is said to come from the fact that workers from Gradac stole the flag with the image of a tomcat from the Muc house during the carnival season. At that time you had the tradition in Metlika Carnival to hoist flags with various symbols.
In 2009 the Gradaški mački took part in the summer carnival on de Kolpa with a raft to draw attention to the decaying castle. In 2010 they pointed out the infrastructure problems of the place in a similar way.
guest houses
Of the numerous inns (Mazele, Pance, Pri Dimu, Župančič, Rakar) none exist today.
history
A number of former farms, houses and buildings are under monument protection: for example the house of the Baricin family (the building complex has the shape of the letter "U" in the floor plan), the house of the Hanzel family (in the stairwell there is a wall painting in which The costumes of Bela krajina are depicted), the Macele House (the post office was housed in the building until the 1980s; the 19th century building bears the date 1889 carved in stone above the entrance together with the post horn; in the connecting wing the Hanzel-Haus was home to a grocery store) and the property of the Grof family (there is a completely preserved pottery with an oven and a chimney that can be seen from afar).
Gradac Castle
The historically most important and most striking building in the village is Gradac Castle . The castle is located in the center of the village on a bend in the Lahinja River . It is historically significant for the Bela krajina region , as it served as a fortress during the time of the Ottoman raids. It is almost completely preserved. As an important cultural monument in Slovenia, both the castle and the associated park are under state protection.
The castle can be seen on the right from the main thoroughfare Črnomelj – Metlika as soon as you approach the bridge over the Lahinja. In the center of Gradac, to the right of the only remaining grocery store, a path leads to the castle. A wooden bridge (formerly a drawbridge) leads over the filled moat into the castle.
From the first, smaller castle courtyard, a passage leads to the large castle courtyard. From there a path leads into the garden and further into the park with the mausoleum .
Ironworks (blast furnace)
The first ironworks in the Bela Krajina region was in Gradac and was founded after the revolutionary year of 1848 by Franz Ritter von Friedau , who already owned ironworks in Donawitz ( Leoben ) and Vordernberg in Upper Styria .
Second World War
The Red Cross of Slovenia was founded in Gradac on June 18, 1944 .
In the house of the Hanzl family, directly on the main road from Gradac to Metlika, not far from the castle, an ambulance had been set up since autumn 19944, as was the house of the Potočnik family. The premises of the former restaurant were used for this, in which 12 beds were set up. Here the wounded waited to be transported to the partisan airport in nearby Otok, which was carried out with ox carts or horse-drawn vehicles. Wounded were also in the adjoining house of the Mazelle / Macele family, which had larger rooms that had previously been used for lectures and dance events. Meals were prepared in the Macele House.
An ambulance had been set up in the castle since the capitulation of Italy, which was managed by Dr. Zvezdana Mervin was headed. Approx. 48 patients were admitted per day. Since there were three partisan airfields (Otok, Krasinec and Prilozje) near Gradac (as the crow flies approx. 2 km) and the opponents had probably found out that the wounded were waiting in Gradac to be transported there, this place became on the afternoon of January 30, 1945 bombed at 4 p.m. A total of six or seven planes were involved in the attack. Five civilians were killed and eight others were wounded. In addition to the saw, three houses and the new bridge over the Lahinja were completely destroyed. Another 14 houses were badly damaged. Neither the castle with the officers' school located there nor the makeshift hospital were hit. The medical center continued to work until the airfields were closed in the spring of 1945. A total of around 1,500 wounded and sick people as well as 2,000 women and children and elderly people are said to have been cared for in the ambulance and the medical centers.
post war period
Since the independence of Slovenia and the associated economic changes, the appearance of the place has changed. Many houses have been renovated. A sewage system and sewage treatment plant were built to which most of the houses were connected. There are no more local suppliers in town. In 2019, the Metlika-Črnomelj regional road was renewed and pavements were built. On July 21, a tornado covered several buildings, including the fire station.
Personalities
- Franc Ipavec (* 1776 in Gradac), father of Benjamin and Gustav Ipavec
- Jurij Ipavec , surgeon, *? 18th century
- Franc Ipavec , doctor, his children became famous composers and doctors (son of Jurij Ipavec), born August 11, 1776 in Gradac, † 1858
- Jakob Zearo , stonemason (among other things created the stone coat of arms of the Savinšek family in Metlika, who owned the Metlika Castle )
- Adolf Pirsch , painter, July 4, 1858 in Gradac, † April 28, 1929 in Graz Entry in the Austrian Biographical Lexicon
Main gate of the castle
View to the Lahinja river
Aerial photograph of Gradac from 1935
Macelehaus
Hanzlhaus
House of the Hanzl family (formerly Pance house)
Baricin house
Watermill under the road bridge
Millstones
"Gradaški mački" raft at the summer carnival in Podzemelj (2010)
swell
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ M. Bezek-Jakše, Gradaški Mački - Gradčani leteli na Luno pred ZDA (German: Die Gradazer Kater - The Gradazer flew to the moon before the United States ), Dolenjski list, March 6, 2014, p. 25
- ↑ Gradaški mački at the first summer carnival on the Kolpa (Podzemelj) in 2009
- ↑ Gradaški mački at the summer carnival at Kolpa 2010
- ↑ Sprehod ob Lahinji in Krupi, Delo, Napovednik Lajf, p. 18, April 30, 2009
- ↑ http://www.mk.gov.si/en/
- ↑ http://rkd.situla.org/
- ↑ Metlika :: Bela krajina :: Slovenija ( Memento from September 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ M. Bezek-Jakše "Le malo jih še ve, da so ranjence vozili iz Gradaca" (German: few people still know that the wounded were transported from Gradac), Dolenjski list, Novo mesto, November 25, 2010, p. 21
- ↑ MB-J. "Gradac je vse sprejel gostoljubno" (German: Gradac welcomed everyone hospitably), in Dolenjski list, Novo mesto, November 27, 2014, p. 8
- ↑ Blaž Štangelj, Kar naenkrat so začele padati Bombe (German: Suddenly bombs fell), Dolenjski list, February 2020
- ↑ Zvonko Rus, "Partizanska letališča in spuščališča v Beli krajini" (German: Partisan airfields and dropping points in the Bela krajina), Učne delavnice, Ljubljana, 1979, p. 14 f.
- ↑ Prenovljen odsek ceste skozi Gradac (German: Renewed section of the road through Gradac), Dolenjski list, January 3, 2020
- ↑ Streho nosilo, kot da je papirnata (German: The roof was covered as if it were made of paper), Dolenjski list, p. 1 and p. 10
