Today’s correctly oriented building shows a relatively uniform appearance from the first centuries of the Modern Period. It consists of a single-nave space featuring four cross vaults of different dimensions and, on the western side, a west gallery or choir loft supported by two columns. The chancel consists of a slightly irregular (trapezoidal) square cross-vaulted bay terminating simply in three sides of an octagon. A belfry with a low extension on its western side is located along the chancel’s northern wall, while a single-storey sacristy is located on the southern side next to the junction between the nave and the chancel. The main portal is inscribed with the year 1705, while the side portal, located approximately in the centre of the nave’s southern wall, bears the year 1661. The archival information suggests that the abbot of Žiče planned the construction of a chapel or a succursal church in Žiče or its surroundings at least as early as 1305. To this end, he was allegedly able to obtain at least a conditional permission in 1308. By the end of the 14^th century or the year 1392, the building had certainly been erected in the village, as a reference to the succursal church of St Peter in Žiče dates back to that point.[1] Due to many adaptations in the Modern Period, in 1909, Augustin Stegenšek assumed that nothing remained of the original medieval building.[2] However, more recent research – including, most notably, precisely the discovery of medieval murals on the southern wall of the nave – has revealed that this is not the case. Given the murals, which can be dated to the second quarter of the 14^th century based on their style, and Ivan Curk’s observations (from before 1967, which means that he was still unaware of the murals) that the present western wall is also medieval (although Curk did not provide any specific arguments for this assumption),[3] we can conclude that most of the present nave is still medieval. Initially, the nave was probably lower and not vaulted. The photographic documentation, assembled during the conservation and restoration works in 1967, indicates that an jesogival Gothic window was once located above the present southern portal. The top of its arch was at about the level of St Christopher’s left hand, but it was once again covered with plaster once the works were completed later that year.[4] Research from the year 2002 revealed that a simple Gothic side portal was apparently preserved under the plaster of the northern wall.[5] As can be concluded from the architectural details on the southern side of the belfry, which was probably added to the medieval church in the 16^th century, the chancel had originally been much lower. A passageway has been preserved on the first floor, while above it, traces of the original double-pitched roof are still visible, suggesting that the original altar area was so much lower that a special corridor had to be constructed to access the attic from the belfry.[6] For the first half of the 14^th century, a smaller chancel, consisting of five sides of an octagon, would not have been unusual for a succursal church in the territory of today’s Slovenia. It is also not surprising that, apparently, the building did not yet have a belfry in the Middle Ages, although the 2006 report describes the belfry loopholes as Gothic.[7] The church was probably substantially rebuilt when the southern portal was constructed around 1660/1661. At that time, the nave was probably raised and vaulted, the west gallery or choir loft was added, the window openings were changed to rectangular, semicircular, and round, while the old chancel was completely demolished and replaced by the present one. At this stage, the original Gothic portal in the western wall was probably still preserved and was not replaced until 1705, when the belfry was also apparently raised and covered with a bulbous roof. The parish chronicle shows that in the 18^th century, an extension was added to the basement west of the belfry, which served as a mortuary. Around that time, the sacristy was also raised by one storey, where an additional chapel was furnished.[8] During the last restoration, which began in 2002, the church exterior was given its present appearance with the removal of the mortuary and the reconstruction of the painted quoins from the 17^th and 18^th centuries.[9]

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[1] STEGENŠEK 1909, p. 166; MLINARIČ 1991, p. 75.
[2] STEGENŠEK 1909, p. 166.
[3] CURK 1967, p. 74.
[4] Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine Slovenije, Območna enota Celje, photo library, Žiče, ž. c. sv. Petra, box 2, photos 4, 5 (Ivan Stopar, September 1967, negative A150/19, 31).
[5] BADOVINAC 2006, p. 196.
[6] STEGENŠEK 1909, p. 166; CURK 1967, p. 74.
[7] BADOVINAC 2006, p. 196.
[8] STEGENŠEK 1909, p. 16; CURK 1967, pp. 72, 74; 600 let župnijske cerkve sv. Petra v Žičah 1992, s. p. According to a parish chronicle transcription, the extension next to the belfry was constructed in the 18^th century when the bell tower was raised, while the chapel above the sacristy was furnished in 1890.
[9] BADOVINAC 2006, p. 196.