Škofja Loka

Škofja Loka
—  Town  —
Škofja Loka Location of Škofja Loka in Slovenia
Coordinates: 46°10′N 14°18′E
Country	Slovenia
Traditional region	Upper Carniola
Statistical region	Upper Carniola statistical region
Municipality	Škofja Loka
Government
• Mayor	Miha Ješe
Area
• Total	145 km2 (56 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	11,969
• Density	83/km2 (210/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+01)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02)
Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, census of 2002.

Škofja Loka (literary, 'bishop's meadow') is a town in Slovenia. It is the economic, cultural, educational, and administrative centre of the Municipality of Škofja Loka in Upper Carniola, at the confluence of the Poljane Sora and the Selca Sora rivers, at the transition of the Sora Plain into the Škofja Loka Hills and the Polhov Gradec Hills. In the Middle Ages, it was a property of the Bishops of Freising. Today, it has one of the best preserved medieval urban centres in Slovenia. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. In 1987, the town was proclaimed a cultural monument.

History

The Selca Sora River in Škofja Loka. The Cappuchin Bridge (Slovene: Kapucinski most) crossing it is the oldest preserved bridge in Slovenia.

Town Square in the town centre. The Marian column is a Baroque monument, erected in 1751 in thanks for turning away plague and fire.

In 1803 the Prince-Bishopric of Freising was mediatised by the German Mediatisation and Škofja Loka finally fell to the Austrian duchy of Carniola.

Geography

Škofja Loka lies at an elevation of 354 metres (1,161 ft). Its old centre stands on river terraces, and comprises Town Square (Plac) and Lower Square (Lontrg). On a plateau above the town stands Loka Castle, which houses the Loka Museum. Above the castle rises Krancelj Hill (475 metres or 1,558 feet). North of the town centre is Kamnitnik Hill (414 metres or 1,358 feet high), known for its conglomerate rock.

Culture

Škofja Loka is the birthplace of the Škofja Loka Passion Play (Latin: Processio locopolitana), the oldest play in Slovene. It was a penitentiary Passion procession in the form of a play, performed on Good Friday each year until 1751. The text in its current form was written around 1715 by the Capuchin Father Romuald (Lovrenc Marusič), based on an older tradition. It presents Jesus's suffering. In 1999, the play was revived with amateur actors. Two further reprisals took place in 2000 and 2009, with more planned.

Since 1967, the Grohar Visual Art Colony is held each year in Škofja Loka. Before the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, both the Serbian town of Smederevska Palanka and the town of Škofja Loka held Grohar art colonies, run by an art teacher from an elementary school, Olga Milošević, in Smederevska Palanka. Now, after the split of SFR Yugoslavia, the two towns are twin towns.

The Škofja Loka Capuchin monastery at Capuchin Square (Slovene: Kapucinski trg) in the old part of the town was built from 1707 until 1713. It keeps a library with about 30,000 books, among them about 5,200 of older date. The most prominent, in addition to the Škofja Loka Passion Play, are a copy of Jurij Dalmatin's Bible (the first translation of Bible to Slovene, 1584), the Dictionarium quatuor linguarum (the first multilingual dictionary of Slovene, 1592), two volumes of the Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (a detailed description of the central part of Slovenia and Istria; 1689), some 16-century copies of Plato and Aristotle, and Aesop's fables, a compendium by Johann Zahn of mathematics and natural history from the end of the 17-century, titled Specula physico-mathematico-historica, and others.

Twin cities

• Smederevska Palanka, Serbia
• Maasmechelen, Belgium

External links

• Škofja Loka. A map and basic data. Geopedia.si (V1). Retrieved 13 March 2012.