Slovenj Gradec

Slovenj Gradec (; ) is a toun in northren Slovenie. It is the centre of the Ceety Municipality o Slovenj Gradec. It is pairt o the historic Lawer Styrie region, an syne 2005 it haes belangit tae the NUTS-3 Carinthie Statistical Region. The toun is locatit aroond 45 km wast o Maribor an 65 km northeast o Ljubljana.

History
Historically, Slovenj Gradec wis pairt o the Duchy o Styrie athin the Austrian Empire till 1918, when, wi the rest o Lawer Styrie, it wis includit in the new Kinrick o the Serbs, Croats an Slovenes.

Atween the mid 19t century an 1945, the toun wis a German-speakin island in a Slovene-speakin aurie.  In the 1880 census, toun o Slovenj Gradec, or Windischgrätz, as it wis cried, wis 75 percent German-speakin an 25 percent Slovene-speakinMeyers Konversationslexikon, 5th ed., Leipzig-Vienna 1897, vol. XVII, p. 794, but amang the German speakin population there wur allegedly those - like the faimily o the componer Hugo Wolf- o mixed ethnic oreegin.

Efter the end o Warld War I, mony o the local German speakin inhabitants muivit tae Austrick; those that remained wur gradually assimilatit tae or re-integratit intae the Slovene-speakin majority. Efter Warld War II, aw remainin ethnic Germans wur expelled frae Yugoslavie an Slovenj Gradec lost its tradeetional presence o German speakers.

Main sichts
The pairish kirk in the toun is dedicatit tae Saunt Elizabeth o Hungary an belangs tae the Roman Catholic Airchdiocese o Maribor. It is first mentioned in written documents datin tae 1235. Richt next tae it is a Gothic chapel dedicatit tae the Holy Spirit wi frescos datin tae the mid-15t century.Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage reference numbers ešd 658 & 659 

In 2003, an aircheological excavation uncovered the remains o wha is believit tae be the auldest kirk in aw o Styrie, datin tae the Carolingian period.

Famous fowk
The German/Austrian noble faimily o the Princes o Windisch-Grätz, first mentioned in 1220, haed their oreeginal hame in a castle near the toun Der Große Brockhaus, Leipzig 1935, vol. XX, p.359 an teuk their name frae the toun's German name.

In 1860, the componer Hugo Wolf wis born in the toun. The hoose in which he wis born is nou a muisic schuil.
Slovenj Gradec is the birthplace o the alpine skiier Tina Maze, Slovenie naitional fitbaa team fitbawers Marko Šuler an Mirnes Šišić, an creetical theorist Renata Salecl.

Twin touns
  Gornji Milanovac, Serbie

References
Some o the information in this airticle is based on an translatit frae that foond in its German equivalent.

Freemit airtins
 Offeecial wabsteid  (Slovenie)
 Toun Heraldry 
 Slovenj Gradec municipality on Geopedia 

Category:Populatit places in the Ceety Municipality o Slovenj Gradec
Category:Windisch-Graetz