Trnovec

Succursal church of St George

Heritage record number: 3516

List of paintings

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The church of St George in Trnovec above Blanca near Sevnica is not mentioned in the Middle Ages.[1] However, the settlement where it is located is mentioned as a village with farms already in the Salzburg Urbarium of 1309.[2] The reference indicates that this area was inhabited as early as the High Middle Ages.[3] Before the church in the village of Trnovec became a succursal church of the Josephine parish in Zabukovje, it had belonged to the Sevnica parish. As is evident from Paolo Bisanzio’s list of Carniolan parishes from 1581 and Polydor of Montagnana’s list of Styrian parishes from 1592–1595, it had already been a part of this parish at the end of the 16th century.[4]

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[1] ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 229; HÖFLER 2004, p. 228.
[2] HÖFLER 2004, p. 228.
[3] ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 229; HÖFLER 2004, p. 228.
[4] HÖFLER 1982, pp. 39, 75; HÖFLER 2004, p. 228.

The church of St George stands on a small hill in the municipality of Sevnica. It is a correctly oriented single-nave church featuring a short chancel with polygonal termination. The building is surrounded by a low stone wall. Both the chancel and the nave are vaulted – the former with a rib vault, while the nave features a barrel vault with pendentives. On the western side of the church is an octagonally terminated belfry with biforas featuring a portico with a square floor plan in its lower part. The sacristy is located along the chancel’s southern wall.[1]

The Romanesque origins of the church are indicated by its dedication and the still-preserved nave part of the church, which was originally lower and covered by a flat wooden ceiling. It also featured two small semi-circular windows in the southern wall.[2] The nave’s early origins are also indicated by the surviving early 14th-century mural paintings on its interior northern and exterior southern walls.[3] During the 17th century, the church underwent significant architectural changes when the present chancel was added to the nave and when the sacristy and the western belfry were also probably constructed, followed by the vaulting of the nave in the middle of the century.[4] The mural on the nave’s interior southern wall and the fragments in the chancel also date from this century.[5] Of the church’s furnishings, three 17th-century altars have been preserved.[6]

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[1] Cf. ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 229; PODKRIŽNIK 2001, p. 138; HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[2] PODKRIŽNIK 2001, p. 138. For a sketch of the reconstruction of the southern exterior of the Trnovec church with semi-circular windows, see Ivo Grčar’s drawing, published by KREMPUŠ 2001, p. 139. ZADNIKAR 1982, p. 561, suggests that the nave was originally concluded by a semi-circular apse. In 1998, two ancient spolia were discovered in the ground floor part of the corners of the nave’s western exterior wall; see KREMPUŠ 2001, pp. 139–140.
[3] ZADNIKAR 1982, p. 561; HÖFLER 2004, p. 229; PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29. Cf. Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino, Zapiski Marijana Zadnikarja, Trnovec nad Sevnico, s. p., available at: https://situla.gov.si/SI_INDOK_ZAP_z002-1257.html (28 January 2022).
[4] PODKRIŽNIK 2001, p. 138. ZADNIKAR 1982, p. 561, dates the construction of the belfry to 1736.
[5] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 30.
[6] A brief description of the altars can be found in Marijan Zadnikar’s notes, see Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino, Zapiski Marijana Zadnikarja, Trnovec nad Sevnico, SI_INDOK_ZAP_z002-1257, s. p., available at: https://situla.gov.si/SI_INDOK_ZAP_z002-1257.html (28 January 2022); cf. BRAZ 1976, p. 280.

The mural was first discussed by Marijan Zadnikar, initially in 1956 in his field notes and then once again in 1959 in a report published in the Varstvo spomenikov journal.[1] The report documents the discovery of the St George Fighting the Dragon scene during an experimental probing of the nave’s northern wall.[2] Marijan Zadnikar also mentioned a fragment of St Christopher on the southern exterior of the church, and Valter Braz is the only other author who referred to it.[3] Today, the fragment on the nave’s exterior is no longer discernible. Ivan Komelj is another expert who mentions the St George scene in his report on the works carried out on the mural.[4] In 1969, France Stele included the Trnovec St George scene in his overview of painting in Slovenia between the 12th and 16th centuries, titled Slikarstvo v Sloveniji od 12. do 16. stoletja. In the book, he identified it as one of the oldest depictions of this motif in Slovenia, together with the examples from the churches of St John the Baptist in Bohinj and St Cantianus in Vrzdenec near Horjul.[5] Tanja Zimmermann also wrote about the St George scene as part of the 1996 presentation of the Trnovec murals.[6]

During the restoration works that took place from 1998 to 2004, several fragments of the mural on the eastern part of the nave’s northern wall were uncovered: a small figure of St Michael bestowing blessings in the St George Fighting the Dragon scene; the motif of the princess pointing at the window of the painted architecture; and a fragment of a cross with a crucified figure.[7] Based on the uncovered fragments, it was established that the entire northern wall of the nave must have been painted once.[8] Nataša Podkrižnik presented a possible interpretation of the iconographic programme of the Trnovec mural as a representation of the victory of Christianity over paganism.[9] The scene of St Michael weighing souls was first identified and described by Janez Höfler in 2004 as part of the presentation of the Trnovec church in a book on medieval mural painting in eastern Slovenia.[10] He defined the fragments uncovered until that point as examples of chivalric Romanesque style, compared them stylistically with the depictions of High Medieval knights in the 13th-century German historical manuscripts, and dated the mural to around 1300 based on the motif of the Archangel Michael with scales. This interpretation has also been adopted by the more recent relevant literature.[11] Meanwhile, Tomaž Lazar discussed the Trnovec mural as an artistic source for studying the High Medieval protective combat equipment.[12]

BRAZ 1976
Valter BRAZ, Trnovec, Krajevni leksikon Slovenije (ed. Roman Savnik), 3, Ljubljana 1976, pp. 279–280.

HÖFLER 1982
Janez HÖFLER, Trije popisi cerkva in kapel na Kranjskem in slovenskem Štajerskem s konca 16. stoletja, Ljubljana 1982 (Viri za zgodovino Slovencev, 6).

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

KOMELJ 1966
Ivan KOMELJ, Trnovec nad Blanco, Varstvo spomenikov, 10, 1966, p. 68.

KREMPUŠ 2001
Robert KREMPUŠ, Trnovec, Varstvo spomenikov. Poročila, 38, 2001, pp. 138–140.

LAZAR 2008

Tomaž LAZAR, Likovni viri za vojaško zgodovino poznega srednjega veka. Stensko in tabelno slikarstvo na Slovenskem in v sosednjih deželah. 2. del, Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino, n. s. 44, 2008, pp. 139–160.

LAZAR 2021

Tomaž LAZAR, Oklepi iz Narodnega muzeja Slovenije. Zaščitna oprema od visokega srednjega do zgodnjega novega veka, Narodni muzej Slovenije, Ljubljana 2021.

PODKRIŽNIK 2001
Nataša PODKRIŽNIK, Trnovec, Varstvo spomenikov. Poročila, 38, 2001, pp. 137–138.

PODKRIŽNIK 2006
Nataša PODKRIŽNIK, Trnovec, Varstvo spomenikov. Poročila, 42, 2006, pp. 169–170.

PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a
Nataša PODKRIŽNIK, Podružnična cerkev sv. Jurija v Trnovcu. Najstarejša ohranjena upodobitev Jurija na konju v boju z zmajem na Štajerskem, Varstvo spomenikov, 42–43, 2007, pp. 28–37.

PODKRIŽNIK 2007 b
Nataša PODKRIŽNIK, Šentjur na Polju. Cerkev sv. Jurija, Varstvo spomenikov. Poročila, 43, 2007, pp. 207–209.

STELE 1969
France STELE, Slikarstvo v Sloveniji od 12. do 16. stoletja, Ljubljana 1969.

ZADNIKAR 1959
Marijan ZADNIKAR, Trnovec nad Blanco, Varstvo spomenikov, 6, 1959, p. 121.

ZADNIKAR 1982
Marijan ZADNIKAR, Romanika v Sloveniji. Tipologija in morfologija sakralne arhitekture, Ljubljana 1982.

ZELIČ 2015
Oskar Zoran ZELIČ, Odtisi stoletij od visokega srednjega veka do danes, Občina Sevnica (ed. Oskar Zoran Zelič), Sevnica 2015, pp. 111–203.

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

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[1] Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino, Zapiski Marijana Zadnikarja, Trnovec nad Sevnico, s. p., available at: https://situla.gov.si/SI_INDOK_ZAP_z002-1257.html (28 January 2022); ZADNIKAR 1959, p. 121.
[2] ZADNIKAR 1959, p. 121.
[3] Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino, Zapiski Marijana Zadnikarja, Trnovec nad Sevnico, s. p., available at: https://situla.gov.si/SI_INDOK_ZAP_z002-1257.html (28 January 2022); cf. BRAZ 1976, p. 280.
[4] KOMELJ 1966, p. 68.
[5] STELE 1969, p. 90.
[6] ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 229.
[7] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29; cf. HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[8] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29.
[9] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29. In 2006, Nataša Podkrižnik’s article on the church of St George in the village of Šentjur na Polju (PODKRIŽNIK 2006, pp. 169–170) was mistakenly published under the name of St George’s church in Trnovec. The error was highlighted by PODKRIŽNIK 2007 b, pp. 207–209.
[10] HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[11] HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[12] LAZAR 2008, pp. 140–141; LAZAR 2021, p. 65.

Between 1955 and 1957, during an experimental probing of the northern wall of the nave, a well-preserved but damaged image of St George as a horseman was found under the plaster, which was then removed.[1] Despite the newly discovered murals, the church was not restored until the end of the century – 1998, to be precise – as part of the monument conservation action programme of the Celje Regional Unit of the Institute for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage.[2] At that point, a mural was also discovered on the wall with the portrayal of St George, described in the report only as the remains of the legend of St George scene.[3] However, these were most probably parts of the subsequently identified scene of St Michael weighing souls. The most recent restoration works were carried out in 2004, when it was determined, among other things, that the entire interior northern wall of the nave had been painted.[4] The right part of the composition with St George, the scene under the Archangel Michael, and a fragment of the cross with a crucified figure were newly uncovered,[5] along with the Baroque image of the Mother of God on the triumphal arch and a fragment of a certain motif on the nave’s southern wall. Nataša Podkrižnik assumed that the latter was a remnant of a representation of the four seasons.[6] Consecration crosses in the nave and modest details of murals in the chancel were also uncovered.[7] The restoration of the murals was overseen by Jasna Radšel.[8]

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[1] KOMELJ 1966, p. 68; ZIMMERMANN 1996, p. 229; HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[2] PODKRIŽNIK 2001, p. 137.
[3] HÖFLER 2004, p. 229.
[4] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29.
[5] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29.
[6] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, pp. 29–30.
[7] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 29.
[8] PODKRIŽNIK 2007 a, p. 28.

Gallery

Floor plan with paintings

Trnovec, Succursal church of St George, 2024 (last updated 3. 10. 2024). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/spomenik/succursal-church-of-st-george/ (24. 5. 2025).
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