The Legend Says ...

The beginnings of Ptujska Gora are wrapped in a mystery, since the church isn't directly mentioned in any of the historical documents. The indirect written sources, however, are consistent with the legend of its origin, which has been preserved in oral tradition to the present day. The legend says that a Lord at the Wurenberg (Vurberk) castle had an only child, a blind daughter. One day, when praying to the Mary, the blind girl saw a light in the distance – on a hill near Ptuj – and she miraculously healed. She asked her parents to take her to the place where she saw the light. The grateful father took her there and decided to build a church in honor of the Virgin Mary. One of the sources, confirming that the church was built by the order of the Lord of Ptuj, is a travel diary of Paolo Santonino (1487).
In 2010, Ptujska Gora celebrated 600 years of the founding of the church. As a memory of the legend, Marta Mikolič designed a statue of the blind girl looking toward the hill.



The most important data on the founding of the church have been obtained from inventory registers of the archive of the Lords of Stubenberg at the Vurberk castle dating from the years 1467, 1498 and 1543 in which the documents are registered merely in the form of short regests (registers). The inventory includes the regest of the document by which pope Boniface granted Ulrik Walsee permission to build a church on Ptujska Gora. Considering the pontificate of pope Boniface IX (1389-1404) and the time of death of Ulrik IV Walsee in 1400 it can be dated between the years 1389 and 1400. Between 1390 and 1397/98, Ulrik IV Walsee was a guardian to his under-age cousin Bernard, Lord of Ptuj, who was considered the founder of the church on Ptujska Gora. The most significant for the dating of the completion of the church and the founding of the main benefice proved to be the regest of the deed with which Otto, priest at St. Laurence, permitted Bernard, Lord of Ptuj, to post his own curate at Ptujska Gora.

I still haven't bought a tripod, but it's about time I do. :/