Jesenice

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Občina Jesenice

Area:

75.8 km²

Population

21,620

- males

10,686

- females

10,934

Mayor:

Boris Janez Bregant

Average age:

41.09 years

Residential areas:

24.99 m²/person

- households:

7,968

- families:

6,197

Working active:

10,890

- unemployed:

1,861

Average monthly salary (August 2003):

- gross:

238,858 SIT

- net:

152,216 SIT

College/university students:

618

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, census of 2002.

Jesenice is a town and a municipality in Slovenia, on the Slovene side of the Karavanke mountain range, south of Austria. It is known for the biggest Slovenian steel making company and its ice hockey club. It got its name from ash tree (jesen in Slovenian language). The history of Jesenice is tightly knit with ironworks and metallurgy, since those have been only until recently the driving forces of Jesenice development in practically all departments.

1 Geography and climate
2 History
3 Sightseeing and notable places
4 Notes
5 Born in Jesenice
6 External links

[edit] Geography and climate

Jesenice lies in the Upper Carniola region, in the Gornjesavska Valley. It is surrounded by the Karavanke mountain range to the north and by Mežakla to the south; across the Karavanke lies the Austrian town of Villach. The resort town of Kranjska Gora is 15 kilometres northwest of Jesenice, while Bled lies 10 kilometres to the southeast. Other nearby villages and towns include Mojstrana, Hrušica and Žirovnica. The popular village of Planina pod Golico is 5km north of Jesenice. Jesenice's climate is transitional between temperate and continental with influences of alpine.

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

The German name for Jesenice is Assling and was first mentioned in a 1004 document in which Bled (Veldes at that time) was also mentioned. There were no settlements there at that time, however. The name Assling only marked the area on Jesenica stream bank. Later, a settlement slowly started to grow around the church of St. Lenart nearby.

There are few sources dealing with the early history of Jesenice, mostly focusing on ironworks. The oldest is a set of mining rights posted by the House of Ortenburg from the year 1381. This document proves that the first settlements were indeed founded on the southern side of the Karavanke (not in the Sava valley) due to necessities for wood, water energy and iron ore. With the development of new iron-extracting techniques, the necessities for water energy grew larger and small streams on Karavanke slopes could not fulfil this need. That was the reason that the ore-extracting industry was relocated to the valley in 1538, creating the basis for what was to become Jesenice. This industry continued to exploit resources from mines up in the Karavanke.

The members of House of Ortenburg were the most prominent rulers in that area from the 11th century onwards. In the 13th century they reached the peak in terms of land property, encompassing almost all of the Sava valley from its spring to the confluence with Sora river. The oldest settlement in Jesenice municipality was Koroška Bela, founded in the 13th century. Koroška Bela had no neighbouring settlements up to the 15th century. The House of Ortenburg promoted colonisation of the Gornjesavska valley, especially that of ore-rich areas. Throughout the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the small settlements of Plavž, Sava, Murova and Javornik (along with Koroška Bela) were created. On April 13, 1929 they were all incorporated into the town of Jesenice by the order of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

KID industrial plants in 1905

[edit] Industrial growth from 19th century to WWI

The settlements mentioned above evolved independently of each other until the arrival of the railway at the end of 19th century; they were only connected by a gravel road. The inhabitants made a living not only by mining or ironworking but by agriculture and stockbreeding as well.

Different iron foundries were under different owners (Zois, Ruard and Bucelleni families) and did not collaborate. Nevertheless, they were evolving very quickly; that continued until the arrival of capitalistic liberalism. Jesenice iron foundries were very out-of-date when compared to different foundries around the world. The need for their modernisation became apparent, but that required vast financial resources, which neither Zoises, Ruards nor Bucellenis possessed. They received help from Ljubljana bankers, the Luckmann family. They agreed to modernize the iron foundries but demanded the foundation of a new shareholder company, which was later named Kranjska Industrijska Družba (KID) (Carniolan Industrial Company). KID was founded on September 18, 1869. Besides the Luckmann family, the Zois family was the first to join the company, with Ruards following three years later. In the following years, the company expanded its activities to the Tržič ironworks and Croatia (Topusko). This was also the first time that all Upper Carniolan ironworks were joined under common leadership, with management administration in Ljubljana and business administration in Jesenice. The greatest achievement of KID was discovery of process for obtaining ferromanganese in a smelting furnace. This innovation brought KID a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 and worldwide fame. Jesenice ironworks received status of a pioneer and technical inventor in ironworks history.

KID was also the basis for a future ironworks facility which provided jobs for the next 130 years and still does today. The new facility started expanding quickly - it went over from middle-ages-like iron foundries to up-to-date ironworks buildings in just a few years. Slowly, the market town of Jesenice grew to proper town of Jesenice almost exponentially with the great influx of people searching for new jobs.

[edit] Political, cultural and social life at the beginning of 20th century

The notable events in that time were the foundation gymnastics associations of Sokol in October 2, 1904 and Orel in February 18, 1906. Both associations were in constant competition.

Other associations founded at that time were the choir, a reading club, a wind band, the Workers' Catholic Association and formation of three parties: clerical, liberal and social democratic. All three parties established their own cultural and gymnastics associations, setting about national, political and cultural struggle. Germans had a great influence in Jesenice at that time; Orel and Sokol were founded as counterweight, both being national-oriented, Orel somewhat more clerical.

In 1904, rolling mills were relocated from Jesenice to Javornik (at the far east end of today's Jesenice). Stockholders wanted to cover the expenses of relocation by lowering workers wages, which led to the first strike in Jesenice, including about 400 workers. The strike lasted six weeks, with strikers only partially achieving their goal.

In 1870, first railway tracks were led through Jesenice and construction of railway station followed soon after. In this way, Jesenice became much more connected with the world and capable of larger exports to other parts of the world. In 1905, construction of the Karavanke-Bohinj railway was started. This was a very complicated project, since it demanded the drilling of two tunnels: one to Austria through the Karavanke and the other through the Kobla mountain in Bohinj for better access to Italy. The tunnels were successfully drilled and the railway was solemnly opened to traffic by the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

[edit] 1918-1945

During WW1, the ironworks mainly manufactured military products. The town of Jesenice only suffered one bombing attack with no casualties at all. The end of WWI put things in a different perspective - on December 1, 1918, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed and new markets were opened. Due to its border position, Jesenice became an important traffic junction in terms of travel and transportation. A grammar school was established in 1914. The first boys' and girls' school was established in 1920, renamed in 1935, and from then on able to offer higher education. There was no grammar school in Jesenice before the end of WWII (it was established in 1945). For its own professional cadre needs, KID established an apprenticeship school in 1938. Between the wars, Jesenice was also the center of all kinds of small trade. A tradesman's union was formed in 1920.

Development of ironworks continued; in 1937, 4567 workers were affiliated to a greater or lesser extent with KID.

Italy occupied Jesenice on April 11, 1941, with the Germans taking over eight days later. That resulted with immediate arrest of some of the worker leaders, educated and culture-affiliated individuals, and all Roma people, forced immobilization and recruitment following soon after. The Germans were aware of the strategic and industrial importance of Jesenice, so they began with assimilation quite quickly, introducing lessons in schools only in the German language, germanizing public signs, etc. These measures lead to the formation of the Partisan movement in Jesenice.

As was the case during WWI, steel making industry was again diverted to German military needs. Since most of the population joined the resistance, the now-German management started importing French workers, which were followed by Italian workers after the Italian capitulation.

On March 1, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Jesenice underwent the most tremendous bombing in its history (by Allied forces), which came in two waves. There were many casualties.

[edit] 1945-today

The WWII era was followed by a new economic golden age. Soon after the war, another two smelting furnaces were put into operation. The Jesenice ironworks became one of main steel manufacturers for rebuilding the newly-founded Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and started employing more people than ever before. Many new industrial buildings were built, boosting production manyfold. With this age of prosperity, Jesenice started getting the shape that still has today. Massive building of apartment buildings, houses and residential sections took place, as the population became larger than ever before. Cultural, sports, school, medical and traffic infrastructure was built. Jesenice became the center of black metallurgy in Slovenia. Introduction of electrical steel processing marked the era of manufacturing steel of higher quality and in greater quantities. At its peak in 1970s, the ironworks employed more than 8000 people.

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, economic policies changed and Jesenice ironworks could not compete with the much more developed metallurgy in the West. The second problem was the loss of raw material resources, located in the former SFRY. This led to massive layoffs and emigration of people in search of new jobs. The ironworks currently employs around 1350 workers, but has undergone massive modernisation. It is currently on the level of other steel making companies throughout the world. However, since the declaration of Slovenian independence in 1991, Jesenice became much less dependent on metallurgic industry and is currently developing in other areas of economy.

Jesenice is presently undergoing massive urban reconstruction with the help of EU resources. A new city centre is being built in the former industrial part of town. Two shopping malls have already been built, besides the new city hall. The current projects include rebuilding of some old parts of town and sport facilities, as well as another high school.

[edit] Sightseeing and notable places

Places to go in Jesenice are: The Museum of history of steel production in Jesenice, numerous sightseeing places scattered all over the nearby countryside and the Hockey hall. Young people may also find interesting pubs Dozivetje, Domina and Teater.

There are also two high school institutions in Jesenice. The first one is ŽIC (Železarski Izobraževalni Center) - (Ironworks Educational Centre), which offers 4-year courses in technical and medicine vocations. The other is Gimnazija Jesenice (Jesenice High School), with a 60-year tradition.

For a peaceful walk or cycle ride, head up the hill to Planina pod Golico where you can find swathes of white daffodils in the Springtime.

Jesenice, view from the east

Coat of arms of Municipiality Jesenice

Jesenice

[edit] Notes

Jesenice is not to be confused with vilage of Jesenice, which lies in the east of Slovenia in the municipiality of Brežice, nor with the town of the same name in Czech Republic [1].