Celje

Celje, German: Cilli, German pronunciation: is the fourth-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje (Slovene: Mestna občina Celje).

The town of Celje is located below Upper Celje Castle (407 m or 1,335 ft) at the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley, and at the crossing of the roads connecting Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje, and the Central Sava Valley.

It lies 238 m (781 ft) above mean sea level (MSL).

Name

Celje was known as Celeia during the Roman period.

Early attestations of the name during or following Slavic settlement include Cylia in 452, ecclesiae Celejanae in 579, Zellia in 824, in Cilia in 1310, Cilli in 1311, and Celee in 1575.

The proto-Slovene name *Ceľe or *Celьje, from which modern Slovene Celje developed, was borrowed from Vulgar Latin Celeae.

The name is of pre-Roman origin and its further etymology is unclear.

In the local Slovene dialect, Celje is called Cjele or Cele. In German it is called Cilli, and it is known in Italian as Cilli or Celie.

History

Early history

The settlement was known in the Celtic times and to Ancient Greek historians as Kelea findings suggest that Celts coined Noric money in the region.

Once the area was incorporated in the Roman Empire in 15 BC, it was known as Civitas Celeia. It received municipal rights in AD 45 under the name municipium Claudia Celeia during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius (41–54).

Records suggest that the town was rich and densely populated, secured with the walls and towers, containing multi-storied marble palaces, wide squares, and streets. It was called Troia secunda, the second; or small Troy.

A Roman road through Celeia led from Aquileia (Sln. Oglej) to Pannonia. Celeia soon became a flourishing Roman colony, and many great buildings were constructed, such as the temple of Mars, which was known across the Empire.

Celeia was incorporated into Aquileia c. 320 under the Roman Emperor Constantine I (272–337).

The city was razed by Slavic tribes during the Migration period of the 5th and 6th centuries, but was rebuilt in the Early Middle Ages.

The first mention of Celje in the Middle Ages was under the name of Cylie in Wolfhold von Admont's Chronicle, which was written between 1122 and 1137.

The town was the seat of the Counts of Celje from 1341 to 1456, with princely status from 1436.

It acquired market-town status in the first half of the 14th century and town privileges from Count Frederick II on 11 April 1451.

After the Counts of Celje died out in 1456, the region was inherited by the Habsburgs of Austria and administered by the Duchy of Styria.

The city walls and defensive moat were built in 1473.

The town defended itself against Turks and in 1515 during great Slovene peasant revolt against peasants, who had taken Old Castle.

Many local nobles converted to Protestantism during the Protestant Reformation, but the region was converted back to Roman Catholicism during the Counter-Reformation.

Celje became part of the Habsburgs' Austrian Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1867, after the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War, the town became part of Austria-Hungary.