Celje

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Celje (German Cilli, Hungarian Cille) (46.24° North, 15.27° East ^(WG), 241 m, mean height above sea level (MSL) 304 m) is the third largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the Southwestern Lower Styria (Jugozahodna Spodnja Štajerska) and the administrative seat of the municipality of the same name. It is located under the Upper Celje Castle (407 m) at the confluence of the rivers Savinja (also in some older English texts Sann), Ložnica and Voglajna (with its tributary Hudinja) in the lowest part of the Savinja valley. On April 7, 2006 Celje became the seat of the newly created diocese of Celje, which was created by Pope Benedict XVI. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Maribor.

Image:Celje - pogled z gradu.JPG

Image:Celje-grb.png
The Celje escutcheon.

Image:Celje-grb s.png
The Celje municipal coat-of-arms.

1 Symbols
2 History
3 Subdivisions
- 3.1 Settlements
- 3.2 Districts and local communities
4 Demographics
5 Education
6 Law and Government
- 6.1 Mayor or City Executive
7 Communications
8 Miscellaneous
9 Famous Celje citizens or people born in Celje
10 References
11 External links

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Symbols

The escutcheon of Celje originates from the Counts of Celje.

The coat of arms of Celje has been integrated into the Slovenian national arms in 1991. The same coat-of-arms was selected for the national arms immediately after the 1st World War in 1918, when Slovenia together with Croatia and Serbia formed the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

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History

The first urban settlement appeared in the halstatt era.

The city was known in the Celtic times as Kelea when Celts used to coin money here and later on in the Roman Empire as Civitas Celeia. Settlement got its municipal rights in 46 under the name municipium Claudia Celeia during the reign of the Roman caesar Claudius (10 BC-54, reigned 41-54). Written records allege it was rich and densely populated, secured with the walls and towers, full of multi-storey marble palaces, wide squares and streets. It was called the second or small Troy - Troia secunda. A Roman road through the Celeia led from Aquileia (Oglej) to Pannonia.

Celeia soon became one of the most flourishing Roman colonies, and possessed numerous great buildings, of which the temple of Mars was famous throughout the whole empire. Celeia was incorporated with Aquileia circa 320 under Roman Emperor Constantine I. (272-337).

During the great migrations of the fifth and sixth century, the city was razed. In the early Middle Ages was again renewed. The first mention of Celje in the Middle Ages was under the name of Cylie in Admont's Chronicle, which was written between the years 1122 and 1137.

Celje acquired market-town status in the first half of the 14th century and town rights on April 11 1451 by orders from the Count of Celje Frederic II (Friderik II).

Image:Celje-1441.JPG

Image:Celje Vodni stolp.jpg

Image:Celjski grad.JPG

In 1473 the city walls and defensive moat were build.

The first train of the route Vienna - Trieste of the so-called South Railway came to Celje on April 27 1846. In the end of the 19th century and in the early 1900s, Celje was a strong center of German denationalization. At this time, Celje was also known as Celle. A symbol of this remains in the Celjski dom (the Celje hall), which was once called the German house, (German Deutsches Haus), built in 1907. In 1896 the Narodni dom (the National hall) was built, which today hosts the seat of a township. In 1900 Celje had 6,743 citizens. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica still names Celje with a German name Cilli.

Image:Celje-rscd.png

Image:Celje Celjski dom 001.jpg

Image:Celje Railway station.jpg Image:Celje 1938.jpg Image:Celje 2004 001.jpg

Within a few years, citizens of Celje (Slovenian Celjani, singular Celjan, Celjanka, adjective celjski, celjska) split into German and Slovenian sides. Each citizen was forced to define himself. With 1st World War underway, each person needed to take sides. All the way to the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, two mottos were present in the political and social scene: in German "Hie Deusche - hie Slowenen"; in Slovenian "Svoji k svojim" ("Every man to his own"). Because of Celje and Celje citizens and Slovenian parallel classes at Celje gymnasium 1895 even fell Austrian government of Alfred, Prince of Windisch-Graetz. That was those days a real precedent.

First telephone in the city was mounted in 1902 and the city was electrified in 1913.

During the 2nd World War Nazis committed a lot of war crimes to the civilians at a war prison called the Stari pisker ("Old pot") and in the surroundings such as Frankolovo, where they had hung many Slovenian patriots on trees. A book of a prisoner's last letters from Stari pisker was published after the war. On April 19 1941 Nazi politician and SS chief leader Heinrich Himmler visited Celje and among other he inspected the Stari pisker. Three days before infamous Gestapo men came to Celje.

Image:Celje Vojna in mir.jpg

The toll of the war was terrible. The city had had 20,000 citizens (including nearby towns) and lost 575 people, mostly between the ages of 20 and 30. More than 1500 people were deported to Serbia or into the interior of the German Third reich. Around 300 people were interned and around 1000 people imprisoned in Celje prisons. An unknown number of the citizens of Celje were forcibly mobilized in the German army. Many were children. Around 600 "stolen children" were taken to Germany for Germanization. A monument in Celje entitled "Vojna in mir" ("The war and the peace") exists to commemorate these times.

After the end of the war, the new government took advantage of existing anti-tank trenches, dug around Celje by the retreating Germans, employing them as mass graves. They were filled with soldiers of the colaborrationist Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian armies as well as civilians who had opposed the Communist movement during the war; the purpose was to physically eliminate any potential political opposition. On the pretext of collaboration with the enemy, the Yugoslav National Army executed more than 30.000 - mostly Croat - prisoners in the Celje area, without any judicial process. The bodies were buried in hidden mass graves in Celje; the exact number is still not known. At the concentration camp at Teharje, some 5.000 Slovenians, hundreds of them still minors, were murdered within the two months after the end of the war, again without trial. After the concentration camp was abolished in 1950, the local authorities established a huge industrial dump on the gravesite, concealin the evidence under a vast hill of toxic waste. After the fall of the authoritarian regime in 1990, when discussing facts pertaining to the the massacre was no longer taboo, the Slovenian government decided to build a memorial to the victims of Teharje.

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Subdivisions

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Settlements

The urban municipality is divided into 39 settlements (naselja):

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Districts and local communities

The settlement Celje has 10 districts (mestne četrti) and the municipality 9 local communities (krajevne skupnosti):

Districts

Center
Dečkovo naselje
Dolgo polje
Gaberje
Hudinja
Karel Destovnik Kajuh
Lava
Nova vas
Savinja
Slavko Šlander

Local communities

Aljažev hrib
Ljubečna
Medlog
Ostrožno
Pod gradom
Škofja vas
Šmartno v Rožni dolini
Teharje
Trnovlje

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Demographics

Today (2002) Celje itself has 47,660 citizens:

men: 22,744,
women: 24,816,
households: 18,410;
mean number of household members: 2,6;
apartments: 19,578;
buildings with apartments: 8,090.

The Celje municipal festival is on April 11.

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Education

Celje does not have its own university, although some college educational system is present quite a long time.

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Law and Government

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Mayor or City Executive

The current Mayor of Celje is Bojan Šrot.

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Communications

Postal number: SI-3000 (from 1991). (Old one: 63000 (between 1945-1991)).

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Miscellaneous

Celje's region is frequently shaken by minor earthquakes.
In colloquial Slovenian Celje is locally called Cjele or Cele, giving it a special modulation, spoken mainly by its citizens.
Since Celje is the partner city of the German city Grevenbroich it may sometimes happen that strange questions will occur all around, such as this one from one guestbook:

Celje ist Partnerstadt von Grevenbroich, warum ist alles in englisch geschrieben ???

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Famous Celje citizens or people born in Celje

Emerik Bernard (1937 - ) - painter,
Jolanda Čeplak (1976 - ) - athlete,
Anica Černej (1900 - 1944) - poetess, author and schoolmistress,
Janez Drozg (1933 - 2005) - film director
Janez Drnovšek (1950 - ) - politician, statesman and 3rd president of Slovenia,
Thea Gammelin (1906 - 1988) - paintress, (born in Braunshaupten),
Cvetko Golar (1879 - 1965) - poet and author,
Andrej Hieng (1925 - ) - author,
Romana Jordan Cizelj (1966 - ) - physicist and politician,
Jelko Kacin (1955 - ) - politician,
Alma Maksimiljana Karlin (1889 - 1950) - traveller, author, poetess and collector,
Janez K. Lapajne (1937 - ) - geophysicist and seismologist,
Janez Lapajne (1967 - ) - film director,
Vladimir Levstik (1886 - 1957) - author and translator,
Vita Mavrič - chanteuse and singer,
Vatroslav Oblak (1864 - 1896) - Slavist,
Janko Orožen - historian,
Darinka Pavletič-Lorenčak - (1924 - ) - painter and graphic artist, poet, honorary citizen of Celje
Oto Pestner (1956 - ) - musician and singer,
Andreja Rihter museum working woman and ministress of culture of Slovenia,
Lojze Rozman (1930 - 1997) - actor,
August Friderik Seebacher (1887 - 1940) - painter and graphic artist,
Josip Tominšek (1872 - 1954) - Slavist and mountaineer.

See List of Slovenians.

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References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.

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External links

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Slovenia \| Slovenian regions	Image:Flag of Slovenia.svg
Urban municipalities: Celje \| Koper \| Kranj \| Ljubljana \| Maribor \| Murska Sobota
Nova Gorica \| Novo Mesto \| Ptuj \| Slovenj Gradec \| Velenje

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Categories: 1911 Britannica | Cities in Slovenia

Slovenia \| Slovenian regions	Image:Flag of Slovenia.svg
Urban municipalities: Celje \| Koper \| Kranj \| Ljubljana \| Maribor \| Murska Sobota
Nova Gorica \| Novo Mesto \| Ptuj \| Slovenj Gradec \| Velenje

Celje

From Free net encyclopedia

Contents

Symbols

History

Subdivisions

Settlements

Districts and local communities

Demographics

Education

Law and Government

Mayor or City Executive

Communications

Miscellaneous

Famous Celje citizens or people born in Celje

References

External links

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