Navje

Neoclassical arcade on Navje cemetery in Ljubljana.

Navje, formerly known as St. Christopher's Cemetery (Slovene: Pokopališče Sv. Krištofa) is a memorial park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad district, just behind the Ljubljana railway station.

Between the early 18th century and the 1930s, the wider area was used as the central cemetery of Ljubljana. In 1936, a new cemetery was established, known as Žale, and most of the graves were moved there. A small portion of the old cemetery was transformed in a "pantheon" of famous Slovenes. The memorial park was designed by the architects Jože Plečnik and Ivo Spinčič. Already in 1932, Plečnik had proposed building a monumantal church on the same site, which would include a crypt with tombs of famous Slovenes. The project, planned together with his student Edvard Ravnikar, was however rejected, and so Plečnik proposed the creation of Navje.

Between 1936 and 1940 several graves and tombstones of notable personalities were moved into the park, but because of the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 the project was never completed. Many of the tombs planned to be moved into Navje, such as Prešeren's, Trubar's, Maister's and Rusjan's, were not brought in, while many tombs of unimportant individuals, planned to be moved to Žale, have remained in the park. Plečnik's plans to enlarge the park were never carried out. After World War II , the park was largely neglected and renovation took place only in the 1990s, although work is still going on in the surroundings.

Famous tombs

Notable people buried in Navje include:

• Anton Tomaž Linhart (1756-1795), Playwright and historian
• Valentin Vodnik (1758-1819), Poet and editor
• Janez Nepomuk Hradecky (1875-1846), Mayor of Ljubljana (1820-1846)
• Jernej Kopitar (1780-1844), Philologist
• Josef Ressel (1793-1857), Bohemian engineer and inventor of the naval propeller
• Gašpar Mašek (1794-1873), Slovene-Czech composer
• Josef Blasnik (1800-1872), Editor
• Matija Čop (1797-1835), Philologist and the closest friend and collaborator of the poet France Prešeren
• Janez Bleiweis (1808-1881), Politician, known as "The Father of the Nation"
• Emil Korytko (1813-1839), Polish ethnologist and political activist
• Luka Jeran (1818-1898), Roman Catholic priest and missionary, founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco in the Slovenia
• Jurij Flajšman (1818-1874), Composer
• Karel Dežman (1821-1889), Historian and politician
• Anton Nedvĕd (1829-1896), Slovene-Czech composer
• Fran Levstik (1831-1887), Writer and political activist
• Josip Stritar (1836-1923), Poet and literary critic
• Josip Jurčič (1844-1881), Novelist and editor
• Simon Rutar (1851-1903), Historian
• Fran Maselj Podlimbarski (1851-1917), Author and officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army
• Anton Aškerc (1856-1912), Poet
• Edo Šlajmer (1864-1935), Physician, founder of modern surgery in Slovenia
• Ivan Grohar (1867-1911), Painter
• Anton Korošec (1872-1940), Politician

Coordinates: 46°3′37.98″N 14°30′42.67″E / 46.06055°N 14.5118528°E / 46.06055; 14.5118528