Straža

Succursal church of St Thomas

Heritage record number: 2630

 

List of paintings

Stage 1 (Straža) right-arrow

The village of Straža was first mentioned in 1250.[1] The first reference to the church dates back to the year 1667. Until 1883, it was a succursal church of the Mirna Peč parish,[2] while in 1884, it became a part of the parish of Vavta vas.[3]

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[1] KOS 1975, pp. 578–579; Historična topografija 2021, p. 375.
[2] HÖFLER 2017, p. 213.
[3] DRAŽUMERIČ 2010, p. 222.

Judging from the stylistic features of the preserved murals, the church of St Thomas dates back at least to the second quarter of the 14th century, but it was probably built as early as the 13th century. It encompassed the present nave, of which only parts of the triumphal arch and the north-western corner, where the entrance to the choir loft is nowadays located, are medieval. During the research and restoration between 1987 and 1993, a shallow Romanesque apse was uncovered and partially preserved.[1] The medieval building was probably without a belfry, while the nave part was covered with a flat wooden ceiling. Major alterations followed in the Early Modern Period, when, in the second half of the 17th century, the present polygonal altar area with a simple groin vault was added to the church, while the northern, southern, and western nave walls were rebuilt.[2] The most important intervention in the church’s interior was the construction of the present barrel vault in the nave and choir loft in 1895. In 1851, the older church belfry was supposedly replaced or at least raised. Sometime before 1910, a shed was added to it on the western side and then removed during the 1990 renovation. In 1926, the paving was replaced and the church was newly whitewashed. During the works in 1992, the door in the southern wall of the nave was walled up and the remains of the apse were presented as a low balustrade or a bench in front of the high altar.[3]

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[1] As the triumphal arch narrows towards the east, the potential existence of a Romanesque apse was already considered by Ivan Komelj in his unpublished and undated topography of Lower Carniola (the typescript is kept at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Novo mesto regional unit).
[2] The addition of a new chancel before the 18th century, when the church also received the present high altar of 1721 (the year on the predella), is indicated by the ogivally shaped area of the wall beneath the groin vault, the two side altars that supposedly date from the 17th century, and a tombstone bearing the year 1681, built into the nave paving. Three digits of a certain year are also preserved on the apex of the nave part of the triumphal arch. Unfortunately, it is precisely the second digit that is missing (the first one is 1, followed by a space, while the third one may have been 9 and the last one 2).
[3] DRAŽUMERIČ 1991, pp. 151–158; DRAŽUMERIČ, PESKAR 2016, pp. 393–400. The information about the interventions carried out in the 19th and 20th century is based on the parish chronicle of the village of Vavta vas. The extract was prepared by the parish priest Gregor Dolšak and is kept at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Novo mesto regional unit.

Marinka Dražumerič, who oversaw the restoration works, did not specifically define the murals when she published the first article about the works in 1991. She merely mentioned the uncovering of an older and younger male figure – probably belonging to a procession painted across the entire apse. Only in the caption that accompanied the photo did she identify them as medieval.[1] Around the same time, the mural was also analysed somewhat more meticulously by Tanja Zimmermann and Robert Peskar. The former placed it in the Carinthian art milieu of the second quarter of the 14th century and compared it with the mural in the succursal church of St Margaret in Remschenig, Austria, identifying the figures as St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist.[2] Meanwhile, Robert Peskar, who participated in the uncovering and renovation,[3] placed the mural between the Romanesque and Gothic periods or in the time after 1300. In the Slovenian territory, he found parallels especially with Vrzdenec. He identified the surviving figures – tentatively, with a question mark – as the apostles John and Peter and as part of the Twelve Apostles series. On the fragments found on the western side of the triumphal arch, he also identified a saintly figure in a long cloak painted in reddish tones on the left, while arcades of some sort were painted on the right.[4] Similarly as Robert Peskar, Janez Höfler assumed that the preserved figures represented the apostles John the Evangelist and Peter and that they had once belonged to the line of apostles. Based on the style and decorative patterns, he dated the mural to the second quarter of the 14th century.[5]

 

DRAŽUMERIČ 1991
Marinka DRAŽUMERIČ, Gorenja Straža, cerkev sv. Tomaža, Varstvo spomenikov, 33, 1991, pp. 151–158.

DRAŽUMERIČ, PESKAR 2014
Marinka DRAŽUMERIČ, Robert PESKAR, Sakralna dediščina v občini Straža, Straža. Kraj topline, zelenja in modrine (ed. Stane Granda), Straža 2014, pp. 375–422.

Historična topografija 2021
Miha KOSI, Matjaž BIZJAK, Miha SERUČNIK, Jurij ŠILC, 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.

KOS 1975
Milko KOS, Gradivo za historično topografijo Slovenije (za Kranjsko do leta 1500), 2, Ljubljana 1975.

PESKAR 1997
Robert PESKAR, Gotsko stensko slikarstvo na Dolenjskem in v Beli krajini. Nova odkritja/Gothic Murals in Dolenjska and Bela krajina. New Discoveries, Varstvo spomenikov/Journal for the Protection of the Monuments, 37, 1997, pp. 69–96.

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

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[1] DRAŽUMERIČ 1991, pp. 154–155.
[2] ZIMMERMANN 1996, pp. 56, 156, 199.
[3] DRAŽUMERIČ 1991, p. 158, n. 9.
[4] PESKAR 1997, pp. 70, 76, 86, 93–94.
[5] HÖFLER 2001, pp. 89–90.

The church was completely renovated between 1987 and 1993. The murals were restored by Marko Butina.[1]

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[1] DRAŽUMERIČ 1991, pp. 151–158; DRAŽUMERIČ, PESKAR 2016, pp. 394–396.

Gallery

Floor plan with paintings

Straža, Succursal church of St Thomas, 2024 (last updated 30. 8. 2024). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/spomenik/church-of-st-thomas/ (8. 7. 2025).
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