Blanca, Sevnica
Name
Blanca was attested in written records in 1309 as Blanitz. The name is derived from *Blanica, a diminutive of the obsolete noun *blana (cf. Czech blana 'meadow, pasture', Belarusian balona 'empty land before a village', Bulgarian blana 'lawn, meadow'). The name therefore originally refers to the local geography.
History
Prehistoric burial mounds were found in the area in 1892, testifying to early settlement. A school was established in 1874. During the Second World War, a ferry across the Sava in Blanca was used to main contact with Partisan units in Lower Carniola. A civic center was built in 1949, and a fire station in 1954. The settlement was supplied with running water from the Lopatec Reservoir in 1966.
Hydroelectric Plant
A new run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant on the Sava was built in the settlement between 2005 and 2008. It has an average yearly capacity of 144 GWh, corresponding to approximately 1% of current electricity production in Slovenia.
Notable people
Notable people that were born or lived in Blanca include:
- Janez Boštjančič (1844–1892), journalist
- Drago Flis (a.k.a. "Strela") (1921–?), People's Hero of Yugoslavia
- Hinko Likar (1860–1925), technical writer and beekeeper
- Anton Omerza (1900–1938), communist volunteer in the Spanish Civil War
References
- ^ Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
- ^ Sevnica municipal site
- ^ Savnik, Roman (1976). Krajevni leksikon Slovenije, vol. 3. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 388.
- ^ Snoj, Marko (2009). Etimološki slovar slovenskih zemljepisnih imen. Ljubljana: Modrijan. p. 64.
- ^ Lower Sava Hydroelectric Power Plants Co. official site Archived September 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine