Zabočevo near Borovnica

Succursal church of St John the Baptist

Heritage record number: 1651

List of paintings

Stage 1 (Zabočevo near Borovnica) right-arrow

Zabočevo was first mentioned as early as 1260. The church, which was first referred to as late as 1526, was probably the baptismal church of the ancient parish of Cerknica on the border with Ljubljana’s Šempeter ancient parish, located in the area of the Spanheim seigniory.[1]

________________________________________

[1] HÖFLER 2016, p. 272; HÖFLER 2017, p. 143; Historična topografija 2021, p. 1721.

The east-facing, vaulted, single-nave church features a chancel terminated by three sides of an octagon, a sacristy on the southern side, and a belfry in front of the western façade. The oldest part of the building is the rectangular nave, which, judging from the medieval frescoes that have been uncovered, dates back to the beginning of the 14th century at the latest. The belfry was probably constructed in the 16th century, while the church was thoroughly modified in the first half of the 18th century.[1]

________________________________________

[1] MAROLT 1929, pp. 130–132; HÖFLER 2001, p. 224.

Two layers of medieval mural paintings were uncovered in 1967. France Stele identified the image of St Christopher, in particular, as one of the earliest such examples in Slovenia and dated it to the beginning of the 14th century.[1] The research did not continue until as late as the 1990s when Robert Peskar discussed the medieval murals on the exteriors of churches in central Slovenia in his diploma thesis and, for the first time, pointed out that the remains of the figure to the right of St Christopher – probably the patron saint of the church, St John the Baptist – dated to the same stage.[2] A more meticulous stylistic analysis of the mural was first carried out by Tanja Zimmermann in her dissertation. She placed it in the second quarter of the 14th century or towards the middle of the century (c. 1340–1450),[3] and Janez Höfler also adopted this dating.[4]

 

Historična topografija 2021
Historična topografija Kranjske (do leta 1500), Ljubljana 20212 (Slovenska historična topografija, 1), https://topografija.zrc-sazu.si/sht/files/SHT-Kranjska_web2.0.pdf.

HÖFLER 2001
Janez HÖFLER, Srednjeveške freske v Sloveniji. 3: Okolica Ljubljane z Notranjsko, Dolenjsko in Belo krajino, Ljubljana 2001.

HÖFLER 2017
Janez HÖFLER, Gradivo za historično topografijo predjožefinskih župnij na Slovenskem. Kranjska, Ljubljana 20172, http://www.viharnik.com/content.php?IDb=89.

MAROLT 1929
Marijan MAROLT, Dekanija Vrhnika. Topografski opis, Ljubljana 1929 (Umetnostni spomeniki Slovenije, 2).

PESKAR 1991
Robert PESKAR, Srednjeveške poslikave zunanjščin cerkva v osrednji Sloveniji, Ljubljana 1991 (diploma thesis typescript).

PESKAR 1996
Robert PESKAR, Srednjeveške poslikave cerkvenih zunanjščin v Sloveniji/Mittelalterliche sakrale Außenmalereien in Slowenien, Gotika v Sloveniji. Nastajanje kulturnega prostora med Alpami, Panonijo in Jadranom/Gotik in Slowenien. Vom Werden des Kulturraums zwischen Alpen, Pannonien und Adria/Il gotico in Slovenia. La formazione dello spazio culturale tra le Alpi, la Pannonia e l’Adriatico (ed. Janez Höfler), Ljubljana 1995 [1996], pp. 309–319, 321–329.

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

STELE 1972
France STELE, Gotsko stensko slikarstvo, Ljubljana 1972.

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

________________________________________

[1] STELE 1969, pp. 25, 134 (a full-page photo of the St Christopher mural before the restoration works is published on p. 43, fig. 19); STELE 1972, p. X. On the occasion of its uncovering, Ivan Komelj identified the painting as Romanesque, though this was not published anywhere, see Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, folder Zabočevo, 175/1967.
[2] PESKAR 1991, pp. 10, 24, 40.
[3] While she did not give any specific arguments for this, her analysis seemed to be based on a poorer reproduction of the state of preservation at the time, as she no longer discerned the top of the saint’s staff and incorrectly stated that the remains of the second St Christopher on the left were older (it is actually a more recent layer of the painting from the beginning of the 15th century, which the workers chipped off during the restoration in the 1960s), see ZIMMERMANN 1996, pp. 168, 232; Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, folder Zabočevo, 175/1967.
[4] HÖFLER 2001, p. 225.

In 1967, Janko Koncilja, the parish administrator of Borovnica, reported on the uncovering of the mural paintings on the northern wall of the nave’s exterior to the Institute for Monument Protection. He also informed the Institute that the more recent layer of murals (as well as the medieval St Christopher, of which only the right hand holding a staff had been preserved to the left of the earlier mural) had been chipped off during the renovation of the façade a few years earlier. On the instructions of the conservator Ivan Komelj, the paintings were restored by Franc Kokalj.[1] According to Robert Peskar, undeterminable fragments of murals could also be found on the southern wall of the nave.[2]

________________________________________

[1] Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, folder Zabočevo, 175/1967. Although in the documentation, Ivan Komelj underlines the high quality and importance of the uncovered mural, which also led to its immediate restoration, the uncovering and the interventions were not published in the Varstvo spomenikov magazine.

[2] PESKAR 1991, p. 83.

It is possible that the Zabočevo murals influenced the mural paintings from the middle of the 14th century in the succursal church of St Oswald in Leskovec.

Gallery

Floor plan with paintings

Zabočevo near Borovnica, Succursal church of St John the Baptist, 2024 (last updated 30. 8. 2024). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/spomenik/church-of-st-john-the-baptist-2/ (8. 7. 2025).
Cookies and privacy settings

License