Selo pri Žirovnici

Selo pri Žirovnici (pronounced [ˈsɛːlɔ pɾi ʒiˈɾoːu̯nitsi]) is one of ten villages in the Municipality of Žirovnica in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. It lies on the slopes of the Reber range between Žirovnica and Zabreznica and is more or less a continuous settlement with Zabreznica. There are open fields south of the village.

Name

The name of the settlement was changed from Selo to Selo pri Žirovnici in 1953.

Church

The church of St. Cantius was first mentioned in 1468 and is a Baroque structure with a belfry from 1764, but there is evidence that it replaced an earlier Romanesque structure. Fragments of 15th-century frescoes survive on the southern wall. The interior of the church was renovated in 1955.

Mass grave

Selo pri Žirovnici is the site of a mass grave from the period immediately after the Second World War. The Selo pri Žirovnici Mass Grave (Slovene: Grobišče Selo pri Žirovnici), also known as the Pohar Meadow Mass Grave (Grobišče Poharjev travnik), is located in a meadow next to a fence separating it from a pasture, northeast of the house at Selo pri Žirovnici no. 114. The grave site is marked by raised earth. It contains the remains of six Croatian soldiers murdered between 14 and 18 May 1945.

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement.

In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practise subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church. In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts, and development of many trades. The trend of urbanization continues, though not always in connection with industrialization. Villages have been eclipsed in importance as units of human society and settlement.