Market town of Jesenice – since when, why or indeed a market town?

Abstract

Jesenice, the administrative and economic centre of the Upper Sava Valley, is one of the dozen settlements in Car-niola that did not obtain their market town title until the early Modern Period. Whereas the first hitherto known reference to Jesenice as a market town was contained in Valvasor’s Topography of Carniola (1679), we now know of an earlier reference (1672) which should, however, be taken with reservation. The use of the notion market town was modestly introduced in the seventeenth century, mainly as a result of the seigniory Bela Peč ( Weissenfels) having transferred its seat into a mansion in Jesenice. From Valvasor onwards, the market town title appeared in cartograph-ic and local history sources, but not in administrative and other materials. In practice, it was practically non-existent, as Jesenice functioned like an ordinary village settlement, despite lying in the direct vicinity of major ironworks at Plavž and Sava. The place was officially classified as a market town only at the end of the nineteenth century.