Združenje zgodovinskih mest Slovenije

Sl. Konjice

The town of flower and wine

This town, with its thousand-year-old central square layout, is a model of friendliness and tidiness. It boasts many awards as the most beautiful town in Slovenia, and in the European competition Entente Florale it won a gold medal, placing it alongside the best-kept towns of Europe. This charming town lies below the mysterious mountain of Konjiška Gora and the winegrowing hills of Škalce in north-eastern Slovenia.

FROM STREAM TO HERBS AND WINE

Slovenske Konjice is inextricably tied to nature: to the stream in the town, to the vineyards on the hills and to the herbalist tradition. Several features bear witness to this:

Stari Trg – the medieval town square, through which runs the Gospodična stream; the houses in the square are a telling indicator of the more than 860 year history of the square;

Trebnik Mansion – herb gardens and a herbal preparations shop in the mansion in the middle of the park below the imposing mountain;

Old Castle – the ruins of the residence of the lords of Konjice on Konjiška Gora; it has a renovated defensive tower and part of the walls from the 12th century;

Škalce – a hilly area with vineyards, a wine road and golf course just above the town; Žiče Monastery – a medieval charterhouse dating from 1160 in the picturesque valley of St. John the Baptist, not far from the centre of town; an exhibition of Žiče manuscripts, herb gardens and the Viva Sana herbal preparations, plus the Otakar sparkling wine cellar;

Gastuž – the oldest Slovenian inn, dating from 1467, right by Žiče Monestery.

SELECT AND OF THE PEOPLE

Allow yourself to be impressed with the outstanding gallery exhibits and the authenticity of the ethnological collections:

Riemer Municipal Gallery – with a collection of paintings by famous masters from the early Renaissance to the present day, and a collection of antique furniture, including 200-year-old white salon furnishings from Miramare Castle;

Museum Collection of Military Objects from the Austro-Hungarian Period – a private collection of museum objects, especially from the period of the First World War;

Dravinjska Dolina Firefighting Museum – more than 560 exhibits demonstrating the development of organised fire protection below the Pohorje mountains;

Muzejček Zrno – the “Kernel Museum” along the wine road in Škalce is in a little wooden house from the 17th century, and offers a collection of old tools for processing ears and grain, baking devices and bread-making tools;

Heritage House in Mlače – a rich ethnological collection in the village of Mlače;

Pust House – ethnological collection of old farm tools and a collection of objects from the Second World War at nearby Tolsti Vrh.

GREEN: ŽIČE ALYSSUM

Along the way towards the Carthusian Monastery of Žiče is a natural growing area of žički grobeljnik, an endemic alyssum flower which thrives in Slovenia only in the quarry at Žiče and in some places around it. It is a rare and endangered plant subspecies. The growing area is a protected natural monument. Don’t pick any of the precious plants. Take them with you in the form of a photograph!

THE DRAGON OF KONJIŠKA GORA

Konjiška Gora is supposedly hollow inside, and at its bottom is a lake guarded by a terrible dragon. Each spring the people of Konjice gave it a gift of a beautiful girl so the town would not be flooded by water from the lake. But when they wanted to give the dragon Marjetica, the lovely daughter of the count, in rode the brave knight George. He fought and vanquished the dragon, and saved the Konjice residents from the dangers of the mysterious mountain.

TIC Slovenske Konjice
Stari trg 27, SI-3210 Slovenske Konjice
T: +386 (0)3 759 31 10
F: +386 (0)3 759 31 11
M: +386 (0)51 444 141
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www.knjiznica-slovenskekonjice.si