Turkish Incursions
which was also described by Paolo Santonino who visited the settlement in 1467.
The church was therefore heavily fortified. The name Črna Gora, or in English
Black Mountain, derives from a legend about Mary and showing the way she
protected Gora from Turks by sending a big black cloud over the settlement. In
1447 Ptujska Gorais became a market with its own judicature, annual fairs and
weekly market days and so successfully competed with Ptuj. A small remainder of
that time is the old market hall. The pilgrimage church of St. Mary is one of
the most beautiful and important cultural and historical monuments that Gothic
art created on Slovene soil. Ptujska Gora had numerous different crafts but
after the war, most of them died out. From 1951 to 1957 the church was closed.
Ptujska Gora is a cloddy settlement on the top of the area Savinsko with its
core around the parish church of St. Mary (Sv. Marija), the twn´s greatest
peculiarity and one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Slovenia. A bit
lower we find a plague monument reminding people of 1682 when this hirrible
disease came stealthily upon this area. In the hamlet Podlože near Ptujska Gora
a sepulchral mound from the 7th and 6th century B.C. can be visited. Once also the
Roman road ran through it. Among vineyards at Janški Vrh there is a church of
St. Janez Krstnik dated in the 15th century. The local community of Ptujska
Gora comprises the settlements Ptujska Gora, Podleže, Doklece, Slape, Janški
Vrh, Stogovci and Bolečka vas and numbers 1097 inhabitants. The most important
events in Ptujska Gora are certainly the church festivals attracting several
pilgrims and tourists. The four most important ones are the Whitsuntide (last
Sunday in May), the Assumption (August 15th), the so called Šentvorca (in the
month July) and the Nativity of Our Lady (September 8th).
