“I Too Was Pushed So Mercissely Against The Hard Stones, And Today I Would Search For The Border In Vain.”

From old names to house numbers in Šoštanj Square

Abstract

The original publication of the article “Every street, square and road, even if it has only one house, must have a name” in 2017, published in Zgodovina za vse, is updated in this article with recent findings and a more detailed interpretation of the sources. The Šoštanj Market Square under the castle of the same name is a settlement which, until the industrial age in the second half of the 19th century, was not different from other squares in Lower Styria. Despite the poor preservation of relevant sources and the consequent lack of scientific research on the period from the 16th to the 19th century, the present paper is an attempt to deal with the old place names and the introduction of house numbers within the Šoštanj municipality because of the state reforms during the reign of Maria Theresia and her successors.