»Ako nisi kristjan ne hodi blizo, in nič se ti ne bo zgodilo«

Uprizoritve procesij sv. Rešnjega telesa v Ljubljani od 16. stoletja do druge svetovne vojne

Abstract

The article deals with the historical development of Corpus Christi processions between the 16th century and the Second World War in Ljubljana. The processions represented the dominant collective memories over the course of more than three centuries and thus reflected the political and ideological beliefs of a specific time and space. The article focuses on the role of the Corpus Christi processions as reminders of Hapsburg victories against the Ottomans in the Hapsburg monarchy and later in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Selective reconstruction of the memory of the fight against the Ottomans served as a basis for interpreting future social and political conflicts: the fight against the Reformation, Protestantism and “heresy” in the 17th century, the political struggle against liberal political thinking and “liberals” in the 19th century, and the national fight against ethnic Germans, who were marked as “nemčurji” (a derogatory term for renegades) and later a “struggle” against Serbian–Croatian assimilation in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The examination of the historical development of processions offers an insight in the relationship between collective memory and identity during both the construction of the Hapsburg monarchy as well as the construction and structuring of the Slovenian nation.