Motnik
Encyclopedia
Motnik is a village in the Tuhinj Valley
in the Kamnik
municipality in the Upper Carniola
region of Slovenia
.
The Parish Church
in Motnik is dedicated to Saint George
and is a Baroque
building with 19th century furnishings. Close by is a smaller church, the chapel of Mary Magdalene
. Close to the settlement is also an abandoned brown coal
mine in which the fossil
ized remains of a Pygmy Rhinoceros
were discovered in 1910. They were found to be 25 million years old and are now displayed in a small museum in the village.
Tuhinj Valley
The Tuhinj Valley is a valley in Slovenia linking the Celje Basin with the Ljubljana Basin in an east-west direction along the courses of the Nevljica and Motnišnica rivers....
in the Kamnik
Kamnik
Kamnik is the name of a municipality in Slovenia as well as the town that serves as its administrative, cultural, economic, and educational center. The municipality is in north central Slovenia. It encompasses a large part of the Kamnik Alps and the surrounding area...
municipality in the Upper Carniola
Upper Carniola
Upper Carniola is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The centre of the region is Kranj, while other urban centers include Jesenice, Tržič, Škofja Loka, Kamnik, and Domžale.- Historical background :...
region of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
.
The Parish Church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in Motnik is dedicated to Saint George
Saint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
and is a Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
building with 19th century furnishings. Close by is a smaller church, the chapel of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
. Close to the settlement is also an abandoned brown coal
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
mine in which the fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
ized remains of a Pygmy Rhinoceros
Meninatherium
Meninatherium is an extinct genus of the Asian rhinoceros. Meninatherium had one horn on its snout and was covered in fur. It lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It was a prototype of the woolly rhinoceros....
were discovered in 1910. They were found to be 25 million years old and are now displayed in a small museum in the village.