Žale
Encyclopedia
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
. It is located in the Bežigrad
Bežigrad
The Bežigrad District or simply Bežigrad is a city district in the northern part of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It encompasses the area between the southern rail line to the south, the Upper Carniola rail line to the west, the highway loop to the north, and Šmartno Street and the Žale...
district and operated by the Žale Public Company.
History
The cemetery was built in 1906 around the Holy Cross Church. The first burial was performed in the same year on May 3, when the priest Martin Malenšek was transferred there from the old NavjeNavje
Navje, formerly known as St. Christopher's Cemetery is a memorial park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad district, just behind the Ljubljana railway station....
cemetery.
During World War I, many of the fallen soldiers of all sides were buried in Žale. However, they were all Roman Catholics, while Protestants, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Muslims were buried in Navje. In 1923 the authorities allowed Jews and Muslims to be buried in Žale too, but only on the exterior side of the cemetery wall.
In 1931 the new part of the cemetery (B part) opened. The Italian military cemetery was arranged there and many Italian soldiers were reburied from the A part. In the same year the Jewish part of the cemetery was arranged too, however it was separated from the main part by a fence. In 1939 the Ossuary of the victims of World War I was built, where 5258 of the victims of this war as well as of the associated conflicts were later buried.
With the growth of Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
the need for graves was growing too. In the 1930s the cemetery was proclaimed the central cemetery of Ljubljana and the planning of its expansion began. As the plans of the architect Ivo Spinčič failed to please the authorities, in 1936 a new design was commissioned from the architect Jože Plečnik
Jože Plecnik
Jože Plečnik , was a Slovene architect who practised in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague and Ljubljana.-Biography:...
. The new part, named Plečnik Žale cemetery, was completed in 1940.
Until 1968, only coffin burials were performed in Žale, but in that year the Žale Crematorium was built and the urn burials became available too.
In 1974 with the construction of the C part, the cemetery expanded again. The C part was designed by the architect Peter Kerševan. In 1988 the D part (Nove Žale, New Žale) designed by Marko Mušič
Marko Mušic
Marko Marijan Mušič is a Slovenian architect. He has designed buildings in cities such as Zagreb, Skopje and Ljubljana. Since May 2008 he has been a vice-president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts .-Works:* Dom 7...
opened.
As of 2008 the cemetery measures 375,000 m²
M²
m2 may mean:*Square metre, an SI measure of area*m2 , the ambient project of German electronic musician and DJ Mathis MootzM2 may mean:*M squared, a measure of laser beam quality*M2 , by Marcus Miller...
and comprises the A, B, and C parts to the right of the Tomačevo road, and the D part to the left of the road. The fifth part of the cemetery, the Plečnik Žale, is not used for burials but for pre-burial ceremonies and associated cemetery activities. More than 150,000 people have been buried at Žale, about 2000 of them prominent. The whole area of Žale has been proclaimed a cultural monument of Slovenia.
Notable people
- Fran AlbrehtFran AlbrehtFran Albreht was a Slovenian poet, editor, politician and partisan. He also published under the pseudonym Rusmir....
, author, editor and politician - Vera AlbrehtVera AlbrehtVera Albreht was a Slovene poet, writer, publicist and translator.-Life:She was born as Vera Kessler in Krško into the well-to-do family. Her mother was Marija Kessler, nee Trenz, an ethnic German and her father Slovene, Rudolph Kessler...
, poet - Vladimir BartolVladimir BartolVladimir Bartol was a Slovene writer, most famous for his novel Alamut. Alamut was published in 1938 and translated into numerous languages, becoming the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world.-Biography:Bartol was born on February 24, 1903 in San Giovanni , a suburb of the...
, writer - Katja BohKatja BohKatja Boh was a Slovenian sociologist, diplomat and politician.-Early life and career:She was born in a wealthy middle class family in Ljubljana, Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Her father was an Austrian Jew who had converted to Roman Catholicism, her mother was Slovene. During World War II, she was...
, sociologist, politician and diplomat - Ivan CankarIvan CankarIvan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...
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, writer and priest - Rihard JakopičRihard JakopicRihard Jakopič was a Slovenian painter. He was the leading Slovenian Impressionist painter and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pioneer of Slovenian impressionist painting.- Life :Jakopič was born in Ljubljana, then part of the...
, painter - Davorin JenkoDavorin Jenkothumb|right|Davorin JenkoDavorin Jenko was a Slovene composer. He is sometimes considered as the father of Slovenian national Romantic music...
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, Communist leader - Dragotin KetteDragotin KetteDragotin Kette was a Slovene Impressionist and Neo-Romantic poet. Together with Josip Murn, Ivan Cankar and Oton Župančič, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature.-Life:...
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, poet, essayist and politician - Milan KomarMilan KomarMilan Komar, also known as Emilio Komar was a Slovene Argentine Catholic philosopher and essayist.-Life:...
, philosopher - Albert Kramer, politician
- Janez Evangelist KrekJanez Evangelist KrekJanez Evangelist Krek was a Slovene Christian Socialist politician, priest, journalist and author.He was born in a peasant family in the village of Sveti Gregor , in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father died when he was a child...
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, author, politician, historian - Janez MenartJanez MenartJanez Menart has been one of the most influential and most widely sold Slovenian poets, translators and screenwriters from the first post-war generation...
, poet - Josip Murn AleksandrovJosip Murn AleksandrovJosip Murn, also known under the pseudonym Aleksandrov was a Slovene symbolist poet. Together with Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič, and Dragotin Kette, he was regarded as one of the beginners of modernism in Slovene literature...
, poet - Lili NovyLili NovyLili Novy née Haumeder was a Slovene poet and translator of poetry. She is considered the first Slovene female lyric poet as well as one of the most important Slovene female poets in general....
, poet - Anton Ocvirk, literary historian
- Anton Peterlin, physicist
- Leonid PitamicLeonid PitamicLeonid Pitamic was a Slovene Yugoslav lawyer, philosopher of law, diplomat, and academic.- Life :He was born in the Carniolan town of Postojna, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today in Slovenia. After finishing the classical lyceum in Gorizia and the Theresianum in Vienna, he enrolled to...
, jurist - Jože PlečnikJože PlecnikJože Plečnik , was a Slovene architect who practised in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague and Ljubljana.-Biography:...
, architect - Anton Slodnjak, literary historian
- Dominik SmoleDominik SmoleDominik Smole was a Slovenian writer and playwright.-Biography:Smole was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia...
, writer and playwright - Matej SternenMatej SternenMatej Sternen was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter.Sternen was born in Verd, now part of the Carniolan municipality of Vrhnika, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attended the secondary school in Krško and attended technical school in Graz between 1888 and 1891...
, painter - Gregor StrnišaGregor StrnišaGregor Strniša was a Slovenian poet, playwright, and songwriter. He is considered as one of the most important Slovene language poet of the second half of the 20th century...
, poet - Rudi ŠeligoRudi ŠeligoRudi Šeligo was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with Lojze Kovačič and Drago Jančar, he is considered as one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-World War II period.- Life :...
, writer, politician and playwright - Josip VidmarJosip VidmarJosip Vidmar was a prominent Slovenian literary critic and essayist. Vidmar is remembered because of his role in the Slovenian resistance during World War II, and for his influence in the cultural policies of the Titoist regime in Slovenia from the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s.He was born in...
, literary critic - Milan VidmarMilan VidmarMilan Vidmar was a Slovene electrical engineer, chess player, chess theorist, philosopher, and writer. He was a specialist in power transformers and transmission of electric current.- Biography :...
, electrical engineer, chess player and theorist - Angela VodeAngela VodeAngela Vode was a Slovenian pedagogue, feminist author and human rights activist. An early member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, she was expelled from the Party in 1939 because of criticism against the Hitler-Stalin Pact...
, politician, author, feminist activist - Vitomil ZupanVitomil ZupanVitomil Zupan , who also wrote under the pseudonym Langus, was a Slovenian writer, poet, playwright, essayist and screenwriter. He is considered one of the most important authors in the Slovene language of the second half of the 20th century.-Biography:Vitomil Zupan was born in Ljubljana, then part...
, writer - Gregor ŽerjavGregor ŽerjavGregor Žerjav, sometimes spelled Žerjal , was a Slovene and Yugoslav lawyer and liberal politician. Together with Albert Kramer, he was the leader of the Slovenian liberals in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes....
, politician - Oton ŽupančičOton ŽupancicOton Župančič was a Slovene poet, translator and playwright.Župančič is regarded, alongside Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette and Josip Murn, as the beginner of modernism in Slovenian literature...
, poet
External links
- The Garden of All Saints. 3D visualisation of Plečnik Žale by Boštjan Burger.
- 360° views of Žale on Plečnik.net
- Architecture of Žale
- Automatic search engine of the graves in Žale