Haloze
Encyclopedia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. It is in the northeast of the country, in the Lower Styria
Lower Styria
Lower Styria or Slovenian Styria is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of Lower Styria in its historical boundaries amounts to around 705,000 inhabitants, or 34.5% of the population of Slovenia...
region.
General characteristics
Haloze is a hilly area, running roughly east-west bounded by the border with CroatiaCroatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
to the south and the Dravinja
Dravinja
The Dravinja River is the largest tributary of the Drava River in Slovenia. It is long. Its source is on the Pohorje Massif southwest of Mount Rogla about 1,150 m above sea level. The river passes Zreče, the town of Slovenske Konjice, the ruins of the fort at Zbelovo, Poljčane, Makole, Štatenberg...
and Drava
Drava
Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...
rivers to the north. In total, it comprises approximately 300 km² (115.8 sq mi), where around 21,000 people live in seven municipalities (Cirkulane
Cirkulane
Cirkulane is a settlement and a municipality in Haloze area of Slovenia. It lies between the right bank of the river Drava and the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region.The parish church in the village...
, Gorišnica
Gorišnica
Gorišnica is a settlement and a municipality in Slovenia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region....
, Majšperk
Majšperk
Majšperk is a settlement and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Drava statistical region. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to 1261 in relation to the 13th-century Majšperk...
, Podlehnik
Podlehnik
Podlehnik is a settlement and a municipality in the Haloze hills in eastern Slovenia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region....
, Videm
Videm
Videm is a settlement and a municipality in Slovenia. It includes part of the flatlands to the south of Ptuj and extends beyond the river Dravinja into the Haloze hills to the south. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria...
, Zavrč
Zavrc
Zavrč is a settlement and a municipality in Haloze area of Slovenia. It lies between the right bank of the river Drava and the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region....
, and Žetale
Žetale
Žetale is a village and a municipality in eastern Slovenia, on the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Drava statistical region.-History:...
). From its western end near Makole
Makole
Makole is a settlement and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies in the valley of the river Dravinja. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. It belonged to the Slovenska Bistrica municipality until 2006 when it became an independent municipality. The municipality is...
, it runs in a relatively narrow southwest-northeast belt as far as Zavrč
Zavrc
Zavrč is a settlement and a municipality in Haloze area of Slovenia. It lies between the right bank of the river Drava and the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Podravska statistical region....
, about 40 km (24.9 mi) in length as the crow flies. Its western part is wooded with thick beech
European Beech
Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.-Natural range:...
and pine forests, while its eastern part has been a noted viticultural
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
area since Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times.
Geology
While Haloze has a similar climate to the rest of the Drava Valley, it is rather different geologically. Its soils are generally mid-TertiaryTertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
based on dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
rock. Lying in the southern part of the Drava Valley, the Haloze Hills rose before the drying-out of the Pannonian Sea
Pannonian Sea
The Pannonian Sea was a shallow ancient sea located in the area today known as the Pannonian Plain in Central Europe. The Pannonian Sea existed during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, when three to four kilometres of marine sediments were deposited in the Pannonian Basin.-History:The Pannonian Sea...
entered its final phase in the middle of Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch, about 600,000 years ago. The water ruptured its way through the modern Đerdap Gorge
Iron Gate (Danube)
The Iron Gates The gorge lies between Romania in the north and Serbia in the south. At this point, the river separates the southern Carpathian Mountains from the northwestern foothills of the Balkan Mountains. The Romanian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Turkish, German and Bulgarian names literally mean...
on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
River and flowed rapidly away, causing the strong erosion of poorly consolidated sandstone and thus steep hillsides. Haloze's highest peak is Jelovica
Jelovica
Jelovica is a village in the municipality of Pirot, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 113 people....
, at 623 metres (2,044 ft).
Dialect
The Haloze dialect is one of Pannonian dialectsPannonian dialect group
The Pannonian dialect group , or northeastern dialect group, is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Pannonian dialects are spoken in northeastern Slovenia , and among the Hungarian Slovenes.-Phonological and morphological characteristics:Among other features, this group is...
of spoken Slovene. See Slovene dialects.
Wine
Haloze is one of the seven districts of the Podravje wine region, with the others being LjutomerLjutomer
Ljutomer is a municipality in northeastern Slovenia, some 40 km east of Maribor. Traditionally it was part of the region of Styria. It is now included in the Pomurska statistical region....
-Ormož
Ormož
Ormož is a town and municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the Drava River and borders with Croatia on the opposite bank of the river....
, Radgona-Kapela, Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
, Prekmurje
Prekmurje
Prekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...
, Srednje Slovenske Gorice, and Šmarje-Virštanj.
Viticulture in Haloze was started by the Celts as early as the 4th century BC, and spread with the arrival of the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
also continued the tradition as wine played an important role in their ceremonies. The Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
tribes who later settled in Haloze took on the cultivation of vines from their predecessors.
Vineyards here mostly line the upper hillsides, as the lower slopes are often kept in excessive shade. The traditional tilling of horizontal lines of vines included the backbreaking task of carrying soil from the lowest row to the top. As the rows were tilled from the top down, the soil tended to slide downslope, and to upkeep the vineyards properly, the soil collected at the bottom had to be returned to the top. With vertically planted vineyards on less steep slopes, this work is no longer as necessary as it once was, but on most sites, grass is allowed to grow between the rows to minimize erosion.
White wines dominate the area. Laski Rizling is the most frequently planted grape, which is mainly used to produce medium dry, slightly syrupy, wine. However, dry Laski Rizling is also produced. Other popular white wines include Traminec, Beli Pinot, Sauvignon
Sauvignon blanc
Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French word sauvage and blanc due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France., a possible descendant of savagnin...
, and Renski Rizling. The only red produced in significant quantities is Modri Pinot. Haložan is a blend of locally produced Laski Rizling, Sauvignon, Beli Pinot, and Sipon that ages quite well. It is often mixed with water to make spritzer
Spritzer
A spritzer is a tall, chilled drink, usually made with white wine and seltzer or club soda.-Origin and variations:Spritzer is derived from the variant of the German language spoken in Austria, where the drink is very popular. It is used alongside the equally common form Gespritzter A spritzer is a...
.
Most of the wines grown in Haloze are produced, stored, and bottled in Ptuj
Ptuj
Ptuj is a city and one of 11 urban municipalities in Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Podravje statistical region...
in the neighbouring Srednje Slovenske Gorice area.