Celje

Celje (241 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.

The Celje scutcheon. Its municipial coat-of-arms has been integrated into the Slovene 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. The scutcheon originates from the Celje counts[?].

Table of contents 1 History 2 Demographics 3 Education 4 Law and Government 4.1 Mayor or City Executive 5 Communications 5.1 Funny things about Celje 6 Famous Celje citizens or people born in Celje 6.1 External links

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. Setllement got its municipal rights in 46 under the name municipium Claudia Celeia during the reign of the Roman caesar Claudius, (41 - 54). Antique Celeia had to be a wonderfull city. 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 Celje count Frederic II (Friderik II).

Celje southwards on the picture from 1441. The river Voglajna on the left flows into the river Savinja, which streams then to its outfall to the river Sava. On the right of the river Savinja an island can be seen. Even today a ward overthere is called the Otok ("An Island").

In 1473 the city walls and defensive moat were build.

The first train of the route Vienna - Trieste in a 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 6743 citizens. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica still names Celje with a German name Cilli.

An old postcard of the railway station and the Celjski dom on the right.
The Celjski dom at night.

Within a few years, citizens of Celje (Slovene Celjani, singular Celjan, Celjanka) split into German and Slovene 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 Austrian monarchy in 1918, two mottos were present in the political and social scene: in German "Hie Deusche - hie Slowenen"; in Slovene "Svoji k svojim" ("Every man to his own"). Because of Celje and Celje citizens and Slovene parallel classes at Celje gymnasium 1895 even fell Austrian government of Alfred Windischgraetz. 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 crimes to the civilians at a prison called Stari pisker ("Old pot") and in the surroundings such as Frankolovo, where they had hung many Slovene 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. There days before infamous Gestapo men came to Celje.

The balance of war was terrible. The city had 20,000 citizens (with nearby towns) and lost 575 people, mostly young ones between 20 and 30 years old. More than 1500 people were ejected to Serbia or into the interior of the German Third reich. Around 300 pople were interned and around 1000 people prisoned in Celje prisons. An unknown number of the citizns 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 war, Celje attained a stable economy and a growing industrial base. This status was shaken in the late 1990s when many healthy companies crumbled.

Demographics

Today, Celje has around 70,000 citizens. The Celje municipal festival is on April 11.

Education

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

Law and Government

Mayor or City Executive

The current Mayor of Celje is Bojan Šrot.

Communications

Postal number: SI-3000. (Old one: 63000)

Funny things about Celje

• In colloquial Slovene Celje is 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 ???

Famous Celje citizens or people born in Celje

• Anica Černej[?] (1900 - 1944) - poetess, author and schoolmistress,
• Thea Gammelin[?] (1906 - 1988) - paintress, (born in Braunshaupten[?]),
• Alma Karlin[?] - traveller and author,
• Vita Mavrič[?] - chanteuse and singer,
• Vatroslav Oblak[?] (1864 - 1896) - Slavist,
• Janko Orožen[?] - historian,
• Oto Pestner[?] - musician and singer,
• Josip Tominšek[?] (1872 - 1954) - Slavist and mountaineer.

See List of Slovenes.

Partly from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica

External links

• Some more general information on the Lord's or Prince's town: http://www.rcc-irc.si/celje/
• The Celje municipial flag by Željko Heimer (1999-09-24): http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/si-011