Črnomelj (Stonič castle)
Tschernembl - Stonitschhof

17th century

Črnomelj along with Metlika is in a document dated in 1407 for the first time attested as a town but is referred to as a mrket in all other documents from 15th century. In the same year archduke Albreht who issued the document quartered knights and soldiers in the town and at the same time gave the orders to encompass the town with strong defensive walls. This was a good decision because in following October its defenders succesfuly held the line against Ottomans who have attacked the city for the first time. Also all of the following attacks by the Ottomans were not succesful and thus the crescent moon has never ruled over Črnomelj.

Town walls of Črnomelj was on many places reinforced by towers and one of them is a part of present day Stonič's castle. It is a group of three once individual buildings at the end of »Na utrdbah« street including a vaulted passage towards a castle. It is a singlestoreyed building at »Glavna ulica« (»Main street«), twostoreyed building at present day »Na utrdbah« street and former tower of defense walls above Dobličica river. Southwestern town's defense tower which was similar to the latter was possible to identify in former outbuilding and also on Clobucciarich's sketch of Črnomelj and also on Valvasor's copper engraving.
The three mentioned buildings were gradually combined into a single organism and it looks like that this was finalized in 1768. This is the year in a keystone of Baroque portal which is inside of vaulted passage leading to Stoni's castle. Only then were formerly leveled ceilings vaulted as modern research suggests and some rooms on the first floor got simple stuccos on their ceilings.
Not a lot is known about former owners of the building. Its first knows owner was Bartolomeus Skodler who was mentioned in protocol of building plots of Franciscan cadastre and in 1860 it was bought by Mathias Stonitsc - Stonič after whom the building got its name. It was owned by Stonič family until 1968 when it was sold.
Construction works in 19th and 20th century were mostly limited to adapting architectural elements to their new functional needs. Its character was fundamentally not altered but aesthetically it was much degraded.
Stonič's castle which nowadays holds two apartments on principle does not belong into the area of castle architecture because it never held a position of feudal post. In 2003 the castle was proclamed as a cultural monunemt of local importance.
(quoted)

* Stonič's castle can be found in written sources at the beginning of 17th century but on the page www.kolpas.si we will find an information that on the location of present days Stonič house once a castle of German knight family was standing also named Črnomelj. It was supposedly erected in 1165. I believe that this case it is not correct and actually Črnomelj castle was ment in the text, which is located over the way of Stonič castle.

Literature:
Stopar, Ivan, Dr.: "Grajske stavbe v osrednji Sloveniji - V. Dolenjska (Bela Krajina), Viharnik, Ljubljana, 2007 (ponatis), ISBN 978-961-6057-40-0
Contact details:
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Web links:
Stonič castle (crnomelj.si)
Shows and entertainment:
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GPS coordinates:
N 45° 34.244' E 15° 11.546'

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View from other direction
Vault
Portal into »Bife pod Velbom« with carved year 1768
Closeup of masonry structure


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