Kočevje (; ; Göttscheab or Gətscheab in the local Gottscheerish dialect; ) is a town and the seat of Municipality of Kočevje in southern Slovenia.

Geography

The town is located at the foot of the Kočevski Rog karst plateau on the Rinža River in the historic Lower Carniola region. It is now part of the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. The Rinža River flows through the town. Lake Kočejve, a former open-pit coal mine, lies northeast of the town center.

Climate

Kočevje features a humid continental climate (Dfb/Cfb).

Name

Kočevje was attested in written sources in 1363 as Gotsche (and as Gotsew in 1386, Kotsche in 1425, and propre Koczeuiam in 1478). The name is derived from *Hvojčevje (from hvoja 'fir, spruce'), referring to the local vegetation. The initial hv- changed to k- under the influence of German phonology. Older discredited explanations include derivation from the hypothetical common noun *kočevje 'nomadic settlement' and Slovene koča 'shack'. The former German name was Gottschee. The German name alone was used by the post office before 1867.

After the Second World War, a Yugoslav labor camp for political prisoners operated in Kočevje until March 1946.

Germans of Kočevje

They first settled in Carniola around 1330 from the German lands of Tyrol and Carinthia and maintained their German identity and language during their 600 years of isolation. They cleared the vast forests of the region and established villages and towns. In 1809, they resisted French occupation in the 1809 Gottscheer Rebellion. With the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918, Gottschee became a part of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Gottscheer thus went from being part of the ruling ethnicity of Austria-Hungary (and the ruling group in the estates of the province of Carniola itself) to an ethnic minority in a large Slavic state. With the onset of the Second World War and the Invasion of Yugoslavia their situation was worsened further.

Landmarks

thumb|left|150px|St. Bartholomew's Parish Church

The parish church in the town is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew () and belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Novo Mesto. It is a Neo-Romanesque building erected between 1887 and 1903 on the site of an earlier church.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Kočevje include:

  • (1931–2011), sculptor, graphic artist and teacher (worked in Kočevje)
  • Matej Bor (1913–1993), poet and author
  • (1923–1999), academy-trained painter, art teacher, art theorist
  • Ivan Jurkovič (born 1952), apostolic nuncio to Russia
  • Zofka Kveder (1878–1926), writer
  • (1858–1924), composer
  • Roman Erich Petsche (1907–1993), teacher, painter, and Righteous Among the Nations
  • (1908–1942), secondary-school professor, social revolutionary, communist resistance fighter

Bibliography

References

  • Kočevje on Geopedia
  • Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (1–39)
  • Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (40–140)
  • Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (144–326)
  • Pre–World War II list of Kočevje residences, occupations, and family names (332–344, unnumbered)