Velike Poljane

Succursal church of St Thomas the Apostle

Heritage record number: 2648

List of paintings

Stage 1 (Velike Poljane) right-arrow

Poljane was first mentioned in 1264. The first reference to the church as a new building dates from 1363. Thus, it was probably erected around the middle of the 14th century by Count Otto of Ortenburg, the owner of the Ribnica seigniory, which included Velike Poljane. In 1363, Lodovico, the Patriarch of Aquileia, requested that Otto of Ortenburg establish a vicariate at the church and place it under the authority of the parish priest of Ribnica. Judging from an archival record from 1465, which refers to the church as a pharr – which, in the context of the time, meant a church with a priest, i.e. both a vicarage and a parish – this is probably indeed what happened. However, the vicarage was abandoned by the second half of the 16th century at the latest. The dedication to St Thomas was first mentioned in 1423.[1] The (late) medieval significance of the church of St Thomas, considered one of the oldest and most important churches in the once extensive parish of Ribnica, is also evidenced by its painted decoration. In 1899, St Thomas’s became a succursal church of the parish of Velike Poljane, which was incorporated into the parish of Ribnica in 2020.

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[1] HÖFLER 2001, pp. 201–202; HÖFLER 2016, pp. 267–268; HÖFLER 2017, p. 162–163; Historična topografija 2021, pp. 1632–1633.

The abovementioned document of 1363 refers to the church of St Thomas as new, so it was probably built in the middle of the 14th century. The nave part, which originally featured a flat wooden ceiling, has been preserved from this stage. In the middle of the 17th century, the older altar area was replaced with a simple polygonal and groin-vaulted chancel, while a belfry, whose ground floor served as the sacristy, was added to the north of the chancel. After the addition of the chancel, the original triumphal arch opening, which was probably pointed, was converted into a semi-circular one.[1]

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[1] HÖFLER 2015, p. 155; ARH KOS 2018, pp. 2–3.

The two layers of medieval mural paintings on the triumphal arch wall and the exterior of the nave are thought to have been partially uncovered or known at least as early as the beginning of the 1960s.[1] Ivan Komelj made the first attempt at defining them in art-historical terms. He identified two layers on the southern exterior and on the triumphal arch. The latter was supposedly from the early 15th century.[2] Jure Mikuž focused mainly on what are now the most famous fragments from the 16th century or on the so-called Croatian group.[3] Thus, the first to meticulously examine the earliest two layers was Janez Höfler, who, judging from the bordure and the stylistic features, placed them in the time when the church was constructed: the mid-14th century. Meanwhile, he dated the murals on the church’s exterior to the period around 1400, based especially on the Cosmatesque bordure typical of the so-called Gorizia Workshop.[4]

 

ARH KOS 2018
Mojca ARH KOS, Predlog za razglasitev za kulturni spomenik lokalnega pomena. Velike Poljane – cerkev sv. Tomaža, Ljubljana 2018, https://www.ribnica.si/files/other/news/114/188735Predlog%20ZVKD%20sv.%20Toma%C5%BE.pdf.

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 2016
Janez HÖFLER, O prvih cerkvah in župnijah na Slovenskem. K razvoju cerkvene teritorialne organizacije slovenskih dežel v srednjem veku, Ljubljana 20162, http://viharnik.com/downloads/Oprvihcerkvah_2izdaja.pdf.

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

KOMELJ 1966
Ivan KOMELJ, Dvajset let odkrivanja srednjeveških fresk, Varstvo spomenikov, 10, 1965 [1966], pp. 39–76.

MIKUŽ 1973
Jure MIKUŽ, Slikarstvo hrvaške skupine v šestnajstem stoletju na Slovenskem, Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino, n. s. 10, 1973, pp. 13–29.

MIKUŽ 1978
Jure MIKUŽ, Nova dognanja o slikarstvu hrvaške skupine, Zbornik občine Grosuplje, 10, 1978, pp. 163–169.

ŽELEZNIK 1965
Milan ŽELEZNIK, Velike Poljane pri Ribnici, Varstvo spomenikov, 9, 1965, p. 247.

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[1] ŽELEZNIK 1965, p. 247.
[2] KOMELJ 1966, p. 68.
[3] MIKUŽ 1973, p. 24; HÖFLER 2001, p. 202.
[4] HÖFLER 2001, pp. 202–203.

In the 20th century, despite the initiative of the local population to replace the roof in the early 1960s, the church almost fell into ruin, which was only prevented by the conservation and restoration works initiated in the second half of the 1980s.[1] At that time, all murals were gradually uncovered, cleaned, and consolidated, but unfortunately, the works were not completed. Despite several warnings that the condition of the murals is deteriorating, no restoration has yet taken place.

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[1] ŽELEZNIK 1965, p. 247; MIKUŽ 1973, p. 24; MIKUŽ 1978, p. 163; HÖFLER 2001, p. 202.

Gallery

Floor plan with paintings

Velike Poljane, Succursal church of St Thomas the Apostle, 2024 (last updated 30. 8. 2024). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/spomenik/church-of-st-thomas-the-apostle/ (13. 3. 2026).
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