Gradec

Gradec, later known as Slovenj Gradec, lies in the Mislinja valley in the southeastern Alps. Its name, meaning a small castle in Slovene, appears in a deed of 1091. It belonged to the Duchy of Styria from 1180, and the noble Windisch-Graetz family took its name from this place. The parish church of Saint Elizabeth was recorded in 1235; beside it stands a Gothic chapel of the Holy Spirit with mid-fifteenth-century frescoes. German and Slovene names reflect the town's place within the multilingual lands of the Habsburgs, while its church served communities in the surrounding valley.