Today's Municipality of Lukovica became an independent local community nine years ago. It lies in the valley called Črni graben. The black-coloured Perm clay-slates from the Radomlja river have given the valley of Črni graben its name. It covers villages from Prevoje by Šentvid in the west to Trojane in the east.
The centre of the present municipality is Lukovica. In the past people used to establish themselves mainly on the nearby slopes and by the roadside since the narrowness of the valley did not let the establishment and development of a big centre. Today the majority of its population of 5,120 lives in smaller places.
The archaeological finds in this area lead us to the time of the Ice Age man, Celts, Romans, Turks and French. Each of these masters from the past has left their mark on the people and villages. The valley of Radomlja has been from old one of the most important traffic connections between the west and east. The most important proof of one's stay in the valley was left by the Romans who built through the main road connecting Aquileia and Celeia. Traffic has given lively pulse to Črni graben since ancient times. The roads with merchants brought prosperity and suffering at peace and at war respectively. At present there are two roads leading through the valley: the main road and the motorway which is still under construction.
The first written mention of our villages mainly dates back to the beginning of the 14th century. Villages like Lukovica and Prevoje by Šentvid were first mentioned already in 1304. Due to the shortage of the living place and difficult conditions of husbandry on mostly hilly area, the inhabitants of Črni graben have been forced to find their work in bigger industrial centres in the vicinity. Although in the past our villagers made their living from the soil and still feel a strong attachment to their land, our soil wasn't rich enough to survive big families. That's why we have but few big farms today. Our municipality strives to develop environment and people friendly agricultural activities.
If you drive through the valley, you will be greeted by idyllic hilltop village churches where people of this area took refuge while seeking for help and consolation. Two pearls of the Slovene sacral heritage need our special attention: St.Agnes Church in Golčaj with its Renaissance panelled ceiling and Gothic church of St. Lukas in Spodnje Prapreče.
To lead a life worth living, the inhabitants of Črni graben had to do their best, many things depended on their own ingenuity and they were full of ideas from old. They developed different domestic crafts in order to keep up their standard of living and to overwhelm daily distress. At the same time these cottage industries and other activities, some of them are being imitated and revived here, gave the farmers the opportunity to have fun and be together. They used to weave, make straw-plaits and doormats for there personal use, straw-hat-production also prospered. Our people especially liked to gather to do some farm work like husking. Their work was accompanied by song and dance. Long winter evenings were suitable to tell stories about the Turks, the French, and the like. People still remember the stories about Rokovnjači, the people from the edge of society who put up resistance against the French and had their posts between Kolovec and Trojane. This outlaw's figure called 'rokovnjač' can be found on our municipal flag and blazon, traditional tourist entertainment called Rokovnjaški napad (Outlaw Holdup) also reminds us of those times.
Many important personalities: writers, poets, craftsmen and musicians left their mark on our rural life.
While arriving at Brdo you were first greeted by the castle where Janko Kersnik, the writer, notary and mayor of Lukovica was not only born, but also spent most of his life. Janko Kersnik is a representative of poetic realism.
Spodnje Loke is a birthplace of a writer Fran Maselj Podlimbarski, the poet Jovan Vesel Koseski was born in Spodnje Koseze and in Prevoje Jakob Zupan, another poet, was born. All of them added a piece of stone into the mosaic of the Slovene literature and our recognition. Two musicians, France Marolt and Oskar Dev, created in Črni graben as well.
The Municipality of Lukovica has only appeared on the map of Slovenia for eight years, but in these nine years many things have changed for the better. Our life is enriched with cultural performances which are looked after by many cultural and tourist associations. We sing gladly in choirs, meet each other on recreation grounds, take part in fire fighting associations, listen to the Lukovica Brass Band with pleasure, or we set off on a daily trip along our foot ways, etc. Our little ones go to the Kindergarten Medo while pupils attend the Primary School Janko Kersnik. Libraries have been brought back to life and with the development of infrastructure, economy, cultural and sociable life we try to enrich our people's life and make it easier for them.
While arriving at Brdo, which is by the locals called Kersnik's Brdo, you were greeted by four big buildings: the castle, the Primary School Janko Kersnik, the parochial church of Assumption and of course the Beekeeping Centre of Slovenia whose guests you are today. We wish that you feel the beat of our municipality and get to know the history of these places and above all to make acquaintance with the people who live here.


LUKOVICA near Domžale has been since 1995 the seat of municipality which geographically covers the territory of Črni graben. The 19th c. brought to Lukovica both cultural and economic development; having been shaped as a market and surrounded by old homes of people who used to make a living by transporting goods by draft animals, was all due to Martin Sever. In the centre there is an old Mary's shrine, made in 1899 in memoriam of the murder of Empress Elizabeta; later on, it was also used to cut in the names of fallen and missing persons from World war I. One of the fortifications (Ad Publicanos) of the Roman road Emona - Celeia stood there. Not far from Lukovica, in the Podpeč quarry, the objects from the Halstatt and the La Tene era were discovered. In Podpeč there had been a tollhouse once, since 1573 also a post station for regular messengers and later for messengers on horses. The Stara pošta building (old post station) is still nowadays preserved; more than 300 years ago J. V. Valvasor introduced it in his book Slava vojvodine Kranjske, saying that it was the only post house in »the first fifth« of Carniola, where one could be politely and comfortably waited on. The inns and stores in Lukovica are nowadays still famous for their hospitality. Here we can find the factory Mojca, a smaller branch of the shoe-factory Planika from Kranj, and the first sanitary station to be built in Slovenia, in 1926. In the beginning of the 20th c. the notary Janko Rahne had his villa built on the hillock in the hamlet Selo, the villa offered the painter Ivan Grohar much space to work and a suitable aboad for three months.

The castle in BRDO near Lukovica used to be a local courthouse, notary, taxoffice and a gendarmerie in the 19th c. In 1552 Ivan Lamberg, the owner of Črnelo and Jablje, started building the castle - the entrance portal bears a memorial plate with his name - his son Andrej finished the works. This magnificient Renaissance castle with its four tracts, angle towers and arcades in the courtyard, was later on given a new representative staircase and a park with a pond, both on behalf of the proprietors Apfaltern. Several times the castle was damaged during peasant rebellions or elemental disasters, in 1943 it was also burned down. It offered shelter to Felicijan (the son of Trubar) and to Janko Kersnik, our famous writer, publicist and politician, who was not only born here, but also spent his whole life creating and working as a notary in this very building - to his memory we can find a plate built into the southwestern tower. Janko Kersnik was a representative of poetic realism; he used storytelling as a device and a bit of idealism to depict the way of life in Črni graben. The elementary school at Brdo, with its two local branches in Krašnja and Blagovica, is proud to bear his name. The parochial church of the Assumption is a Baroque building built in 1719 where originally used to be a castle chapel. The main altar bears a painting which is probably the work of A. Cebej; in the chapel of St. Peregrin there are some frescoes of F. jelovšek who in 1755 also painted in the little chapel in Rokovnjaški gozdiček. A Cothic statue of St. Mary with the child, made in the 15th c. by a Friulian, is still nowadays kept in the National Gallery in Ljubljana. The Rokovnjaški gozdiček offers its place year after year for traditional tourist entertainment the so-called »the attack and night of the outlaws«.

PREVOJE near Šentvid is a roadside settlement with the homes of the owners of and transporters with draft animals, and was gradually shapcd with the dcvclopment of transit. The remains of the Roman road and an aqueduct were discovered there. In the house of Anton Trstenjak, Jakob Zupan, the editor and cofounder of Čbelica, was born. The folk storyteller Urška Lončar from Prevoje worked as a nanny at the castle Brdo and was thus able to convey all kinds of folk songs, fairy tales and superstitions to the writer Janko Kersnik.

ŠENTVID near Lukovica got its name after a patron St. Vitus. where once used to be a Gothic church, is nowadays a Baroque one; T. W. Bačnik , the parish priest, had it built in 1749.The style of the preserved furnishings is Baroque. A chaplain and an art historian Ivan Veider had the church completely restored before world War II; in 1995 it was renovated again. Next to the church there is a cultural centre, northwest to it there used to be, until World War II, the first building put up for the educational needs of Črni graben inhabitants. South to Šentvid, on a low terrace, there lies the village IMOVICA, which got its name after a larder used as a storage place for the subject taxation to the feudal lord. The taxation was probably gathered and preserved by the predecessors of the Breška domačija (ancestral home). The house gives impression of a solid home of a free individual with all its equipment still preserved.

SPODNJE KOSEZE: the settlement dates back to the time of »kosezi« (rural landowning class) and feudal colonization; it is situated on a hilly area away from the main roads. In the hamlet Gorenje there is a Baroque church of St. Lawrence with the altars from the 18th and 19th c. In the house of Bokše, Jovan Vesel Koseski (1798-1884) was born; he was a poet, a translator, a contemporary of our poet France Prešeren and the author of our first sonnet Potožba (lamentation).

SPODNJE PRAPREČE is a clustered settlement south to Lukovica. The church of St. Luke from the beginning of the 16th c. consists of three naves ,which are arched in complete; it has a Gothic presbytery with pilasters visible from the outside. The church was designed by the constructor Štefan whose family was in 1524 depicted in the fresco in the main nave. The fresco in the presbytery shows that the main donnor to the church were the squires Herisch from Brdo near Lukovica. In the Baroque period both side triumphal arches were walled in, instead the Baroque altars were erected.

GRADIŠČE near Lukovica was named after a prehistorical site which was turned into a fortification by the Romans. In many tombs the objects from the Hallstatt era were found, such as: amber necklaces, iron knives, swords and some cookware. On top of the hillock stands a one-nave, late-Gothic church of St. Margaret from the beginning of the 16th c; under its whitewash the original frescos are hidden. The facade is decorated with frescos of St. Cristopher and other saints. The belltower also served as fortified tower; ramparts around the church, which were used in defence against Turkish invasions, are also partly preserved.

RAFOLČE, lying at the torrential brook Vrševnik, is a picturesque settlement with a renovated Baroque church of St. Catherine.

ZLATO POLJE is a settlement at the foot of Malošenjska planota (a plateau); broadly speaking it also covers the whole area of the plateau, that is, all the villages on top of it: Podgora, Brezovica, Trnovče, Mala Lašna, Obrše and Preserje. During world War II the whole settlement, together with the school and church of St. Mary Magdalene from 1770, was devastated. The church and most of the villages were rebuilt.

KOMPOLJE is a village, situated under the remains of a former castle, playing its role as a guardian of the trade route through Črni graben; the castle was ruined already in Valvasor times. On top of the Kompoljski hrib (hill), 522 metres high, there once used to be a prehistorical settlement, where they found a bronze helmet, some Scythian arrows and a fibula.

KRAŠNJA is a pleasant starting point for the trips to Limbarska gora, Krajno Brdo and Vrh above Krašnja. It is the oldest religious and educational centre in Črni graben and it was mentioned as a parish already in 1363. The present-day church of St. Thomas was in the 18th c. built on the origins of an even older church. The altar paintings were made by J. Šubic; the angels at the main altar were the work of sculptor F. Zajc; St. Andrew in the side chapel and Way of the Cross were painted by L. Layer. In Krašnja, a writer, a poet and a translator Josip Podmilščak - Andrejčkov Jože (1845-74) was born; he rewrote the stories of the outlaws (the socalled »rokovnjači«) and the people who transported goods by draft animals (the so-called »furmani«). SPODNJE LOKE is a birthplace of a writer Fran Maselj Podlimbarski (1852-1917); his house bears a plate to his memory. In his novel Gospodin Franjo he reacts sharply towards the Austrian autocratic regime.

BLAGOVICA, a clustered settlement between rivers Radomlja and Zlatenščica, was built on the origins of an Antique fotification, which used to be a Roman necropolis (six graves were uncovered); the name Ajdovski or Poganski britof (graveyard) reminds us of it. The former castle of Blagovica, dating back to the 14th c., was owned by the Patriarchs of Aquileia. It was managed by the knights of Bla;govica and later inherited by the Auerspergs (counts). During the period of Turkish invasioms it was ruined, only the castle chapel, which was built in 1345, remained untouched for sonne time. Its place is now taken by a parochial church of St Peter from the middle of the 18th c. The socalled Pskarjeva hiša (house), four hundred years old, is a living proof of the former transit traffic; it is a former home of a man who made his living by transport of goods by draft animals, the so-called »furman«. To the south and above the settlement there is GOLČAJ (690 metres), with the oldest church in Črni graben, dedicated to St. Agnes.The original Romanesque walls (the southern and the northern one) are still preserved and they show a semicircle window above the side gates. The church was later on renewed on several ocassions. Its interior was hiding Romanesque origins of a one-nave temple with square presbytery. The painted Renaissance ceiling is just being renovated. The in 1423 poured-in Venetian bell also points to the estimable age of the church. Golčaj is also one of the spots of the European foot way (E-6), which comes from Limbarska gora and continues towards Učak and Trojane.

ČEŠNJICE lies on the sunny slope under Rakitovec. The original parochial church of St. Mary of Carmelite was during Turkish invasions fortified with the ramparts which are partly still preserved. The present-day church was consecrated in 1755. The Baroque side altars are decorated with the paintings of the Holy Family and St. Florian, both of them work of L. Layer. The facade of Kašnikova hiša (house) presents a fresco dating back to 1787.

ŠENTOŽBOLT is a roadside settlement at the foot of Trojane; its name derives from the name of its patron, St. Oswald .The originally Gothic church was in 1825 built anew; the main altar is Iate-Baroque and the painting of St. Jerome at the side altar was created by L. Layer. In front of the church a three hundred -year-old lime tree is growing, next to it there is a chapel built on the remains of an old charnelhouse. After Ljubljana and Graz had been linked by regular post, the »furman« homes were places were additional horses were put to a carriage since 1882, to be able to climb the Trojane slope. In the beginning of the 18th c. in Rudolfova hiša (house) a posting station was opened and then in 1872 transferred to Trojane.

TROJANE is situated right underneath the pass Učak; this fact makes it the easiest way leading from Ljubljanska kotlina (depression) to Savinjska dolina (valley). The Old Roman people built through these parts the main road Aquileia - Emona - Atrans (Trojane) - Celeia. Roman Atrans was an important transit, military, postal and trade spot, fortified with ramparts leading near the settlements V Zideh and Podzid (the names of the two settlements refer to the remains of the Roman ramparts). Archeological finds remind us of a Roman settlement which was probably destructed by Attila; they were: headstones, votive stones, pieces of statues, pottery, glass and also some Roman coins, which had enriched the collection of J. V. Valvasor. The first reference to Trojane as a Slovene settlement dates back to 1228. In the 18th c. the road to Vienna again made it an important traffic and post station with a tollhouse having been mentioned already around 1400. In the Antique period Trojane were situated at the border between ltaly and Noricum; in the Middle Ages the regional border between Gorenjska and Štajerska led its way more to the East, near Zajasovnik. V ZIDEH underneath Trojane there is a church of St.Mohor and Fortunat with a Gothic presbytery, consecrated in 1499, with the golden Baroque allar and a nave later reconstructed in the Baroque style. The southern wall of the presbytery presents the remains of a Gothic fresco: Crucifixion with Mary, St. John and St. Catherine, all work of master Leonard. In ZAVRH near Trojane the architect Niko Kralj was born in 1921; he has been one of the pioneers of industrial design in Slovenia.