Memorial symbols to Simon Jenko

Abstract

The article is about monuments erected to the memory of Simon Jenko (1835–1869) the author of the lyrics for the unofficial Slovene anthem "Naprej, zastava slave!". The reading society in Kranj of which members were numerous friends and acquaintances of Simon Jenko, took care of a solemn funeral of Jenko, sent his literary heritage to the Slovenska matica in Ljubljana, and gave initiative for the poet’s (half public) tombstone, which was solemnly unveiled in the year 1873 at the cemetery in Kranj. At its sixtieth anniversary in 1923, the Reading society in Kranj placed a memorial plate on the house in which Simon Jenko passed away. In 1929, his compatriots raised a memorial in Podreča on the place of Jenko’s birth house. At the hundredth anniversary of Jenko’s birth in 1935, a grand solemnity was arranged at the memorial. The memorial was renewed in 1955 when the poet’s bust statue was raised as well.