TheNeoclassical arcade porch at Navje Memorial Park
Navje Memorial Park (Slovene:Spominski park Navje), the redesigned part of the formerSt. Christopher's Cemetery (pokopališče pri sv. Krištofu), is a memorial park inLjubljana, the capital ofSlovenia. It is located in theBežigrad district, just behind theLjubljana railway station.
St. Christopher's Cemetery wasblessed in May 1779 byJohann Karl von Herberstein, theBishop of Ljubljana, and was located in the area of today'sExhibition and Convention Centre.[1] Between the late 18th century and the early 20th century, it was the central town cemetery. In 1906, a new cemetery was established next toHoly Cross Church and most new burials gradually took place there. After 1926, burials no longer took place at St. Christopher's Cemetery, and it was destroyed in 1955 together with the two churches associated with it in order to create afairground for the 7th Congress of theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia.[2][3][4][5] The various remains that were gathered from the site were transferred to a nearby common grave at what was intended to be the Baraga Seminary, and onlyJernej Kopitar andIvan Tušek were actually reburied in Navje.[6]
In the 1930s, a small portion of the old cemetery, including the arcade porch that was built around 1865,[7] was transformed in a "pantheon" of famousSlovenes. The memorial park was designed by the architectsJože Plečnik andIvo Spinčič in collaboration with the gardener Anton Lah. Already in 1932, Plečnik had proposed building a monumental church on the same site, which would include acrypt with tombs of prominent Slovenes. The project, planned together with his studentEdvard Ravnikar, was however rejected, and so Plečnik proposed the creation of Navje Memorial Park.
Between 1936 and 1940 several gravestones and tombstones of notable personalities were moved into the park, but because of theAxisinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 the project was never completed. Many of the gravestones planned to be moved into Navje Memorial Park, such as those ofPrešeren,Trubar,Maister, andRusjan, were not brought in, and many graves of unimportant individuals, planned to be moved toŽale, have remained in the park. Plečnik's plans to enlarge the park were never carried out. AfterWorld War II, the park was largely neglected[8][9][10] and renovation took place only in the 1990s.
^Kladnik, Darinka (1996).Mestna hiša v Ljubljani: pomembni dogodki v zgodovini mesta [Ljubljana Town Hall: Significant Events in the Town History] (in Slovenian). Viharnik. p. 58.ISBN9789616057059.
^Benedik, Metod, & Angel Kralj. 1998.Škofijske vizitacije Tomaža Hrena. Ljubljana: Inštitut za zgodovino Cerkve pri Teološki fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, p. 339.
^Kolar, Ivan (1958)."Literarni sprehod po Ljubljani".Jezik in slovstvo.3 (7): 314. RetrievedJuly 23, 2020.Na stavbišču za projektirano in v kolobarju zidano 'Baragovo semenišče' so kosti umrlih prekopali v skupno jamo .... Tu sta ostala v svojem grobu samo Ivan Tušek in Jernej Kopitar ...
