»Ribenca, the most beautiful market town in Carniola«

Market town of Ribnica up to the elimination of market-town autonomy in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

Ribnica in Lower Carniola was one of major and significant market towns in Carniola, based on a distinctly non-agrarian economy and particularly the widespread fur industry. What distinguishes Ribnica from other market towns is that it emerged directly from a village during the colonisation of the neighbouring Kočevje area in the first half of the fourteenth century. Although Ribnica was one of the few Carniolan market towns with well-developed autonomy, the latter never reached the same degree as in some other areas. In the early Modern Period, the market town also experienced population fluctuations and faced the greatest disaster in 1778, when it nearly burned to the ground, but then soon recovered. At the end of the eighteenth century, Valentin Vodnik rightly described it as: »Ribenca, narlepši terg na Krajnskim« [Ribnica, the most beautiful market town in Carniola].