Vrhe near Slovenj Gradec

Succursal church of St Agnes

Heritage record number: 3338

List of paintings

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The Church of St Agnes at Vrhe (also called Brdinje) near Slovenj Gradec was first mentioned in a document from 1367, when the parish priest Markvard, also known as Parthamer, who worked in Šmartno near Slovenj Gradec, received permission from the Patriarch of Aquileia to erect the church of St Agnes.[1] On this occasion, it was also stated that it could be built with the assistance of the inhabitants of Kotlje and that a priest had to be installed whom the faithful would support with donations.[2] No vicariate was established at that time, though, which is evident from the fact that the Patriarch explicitly demanded that the church remain without a cemetery and be subordinate to the local parish church in all matters.[3] The church was founded as a chaplaincy of the ancient parish of Šmartno pri Slovenj Gradcu. Later, it became a succursal church of the parish of St Margaret in Kotlje; then it was part of the Josephine parish in Sele near Slovenj Gradec; while today, it is maintained by a parish priest working in Ravne.[4]

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[1] GREGOROVIČ 1993, p. 41; OTOREPEC 1995, p. 247; ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 102; HÖFLER 2004, p. 83; HÖFLER 2016, p. 142. For a transcription of the entire document in the original Latin language, see VALENTINELLI 1858, p. 489.
[2] HÖFLER 2016, p. 142.
[3] HÖFLER 2016, p. 142. In this document, the church is called the Chapel of St Agnes and St Primus and Felician in Kotlje. However, it has been established that this is, in fact, the church of St Agnes at Vrhe near Slovenj Gradec; see HÖFLER 2004, p. 83; HÖFLER 2016, p. 142.
[4] HÖFLER 2004, p. 83.

The church is a single-nave building with a rare two-sixth termination of the chancel, supported by three slightly wider buttresses.[1] The nave has a flat wooden ceiling and an ogival triumphal arch leading into a rib-vaulted chancel. The ribs with a deeply grooved profile simply conclude at the wall with flat keystone at their junction. Two of the five bays – i.e. both eastern bays above the diagonal walls – are shaped like vault caps.[2] The chancel is lit by three windows in the southern wall and both diagonal walls. Due to the construction of a secondary Gothic window in the southern wall and the enlargement of the windows in both diagonal walls in the 19th century, the murals were destroyed in these places.[3] On the western side, the church features a belfry with a single-storey portico. A sacristy was added to the northern side of the church.

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[1] GREGOROVIČ 1993, p. 42.
[2] GREGOROVIČ 1993, p. 42.
[3] KOVAČIČ 1984, p. 307; HÖFLER 2004, p. 84.

The uncovering and restoration of the medieval mural in the Vrhe church was reported by Bine Kovačič in 1984,[1] while its first art-historical treatment can be found in Tatjana Špitalar’s diploma thesis.[2] The latter pointed out the stylistic parallels with Friulian painting and the preserved murals in Carinthia and placed the period of its creation to around 1370. In 1993, Tanja Gregorovič placed the Vrhe mural in the circle of South Tyrolean painting of the middle and third quarter of the 14th century, thus rejecting the hypothesis regarding the Friulian models, proposed by Tatjana Špitalar.[3] Janez Höfler also wrote about the mural.[4]

 

GREGOROVIČ 1993
Tanja GREGOROVIČ, Freske na Brdinjah nad Kotljami in njihov umetnostnozgodovinski položaj, Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino, n. s. 29, 1993, pp. 41–52.

HÖFLER 2004
Janez HÖFLER, Srednjeveške freske v Sloveniji. 4: Vzhodna Slovenija, Ljubljana 2004.

HÖFLER 2016
Janez HÖFLER, O prvih cerkvah in župnijah na Slovenskem. K razvoju cerkvene teritorialne organizacije slovenskih dežel v srednjem veku, Ljubljana 20162, available at: http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-XT3D6JUK.

JAVORNIK 2008
Simona JAVORNIK, Srednjeveško slikarstvo v koroških cerkvah, Kronika, 56/2, 2008, pp. 185–194.

KOVAČIČ 1984
Bine KOVAČIČ, Umetnostni spomeniki. Brdinje, Varstvo spomenikov, 26, 1984, p. 307.

KRIŽNAR 2006
Anabelle KRIŽNAR, Slog in tehnika srednjeveškega stenskega slikarstva na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 2006.

LAVRIČ 2015
Ana LAVRIČ, Bratovščine na Slovenskem pod zavetniškim plaščem Marije in svetnikov, Patriae et Orbi. Essays on Central European Art and Architecture/Študije o srednjeevropski umetnosti (edd. Ana Lavrič, Franci Lazarini, Barbara Murovec), Ljubljana 2015, pp. 475–527.

MENAŠE 1994
Lev MENAŠE, Marija v slovenski umetnosti, Celje 1994.

OTOREPEC 1995
Božo OTOREPEC, Gradivo za slovensko zgodovino v arhivih in bibliotekah Vidma (Udine) 1270–1405, Ljubljana 1995 (Viri za zgodovino Slovencev, 14).

ŠPITALAR 1986
Tatjana ŠPITALAR, Novo odkrite gotske freske na slovenskem Štajerskem na področju Zavoda za spomeniško varstvo Maribor, Ljubljana 1986 (diploma thesis typescript).

VALENTINELLI 1858
Giuseppe VALENTINELLI, Nonnula documenta quae ad historiam referentur quarundam ecclesiarum remotis partibus existentum et ad Aquilejensem Diocesim olim spectantium, quoque ex libris cancellarium patriarchalium P. Jos. Bianchi excerpsit manu propria. Utini 1858, Notizenblatt. Beilage zum Archiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsforschung, 8, 1858, p. 489.

ZIMMERMANN 1995
Tanja ZIMMERMANN, Stensko slikarstvo poznega 13. in zgodnjega 14. stoletja, Gotika v Sloveniji (ed. Janez Höfler), Narodna galerija, Ljubljana 1995, pp. 221–223.

ZIMMERMANN 1996
Tanja ZIMMERMANN, Stensko slikarstvo poznega 13. in 14. stoletja na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 1996 (doctoral dissertation typescript).

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[1] KOVAČIČ 1984, p. 307. The author of the report also identified the individual iconographic motifs.
[2] ŠPITALAR 1986, pp. 9–12.
[3] GREGOROVIČ 1993, p. 50; see also the author’s subsequent publications: ZIMMERMANN 1995, p. 222; ZIMMERMANN 1996.
[4] HÖFLER 2004, pp. 83–86.

Bine Kovačič uncovered and restored the mural in the first half of the 1980s.[1]

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[1] KOVAČIČ 1984, p. 307.

Gallery

Floor plan with paintings

Vrhe near Slovenj Gradec, Succursal church of St Agnes, 2024 (last updated 17. 10. 2024). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/spomenik/church-of-st-agnes/ (8. 7. 2025).
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