The confines and development of the Kozjansko Regional Park were defined in 1981, when the law on the Trebče Memorial Park was adopted in memory to Josip Broz Tito who was born in nearby Kumrovec in Croatia, but spend his childhood in Bistrica ob Sotli and Javeršek Homestead. In 1991 when Slovenia gained independence and parted from Yugoslavia park was under juristiction of the state that was in 1996 renamed into Kozjansko Park The Park as it is today is defined in the 1999 Law on Nature Preservation. 206 square kilometres of mountainous sub-Alpine and largely forested terrain covering Rudnica, Bohor, Vetrnik and Orlica, combined with the plains of the Sotla basin, the vineyard-dotted hills of Virštanj, Bučka gorca and the hills of Bizeljsko and Pišece, give the Kozjanski Regional Park a particular identity. Important heritage sites include Podsreda Castle, Javeršek Homestead, Levstik Mill and the Slovene-Bavarian House with its Bavarian Room, Library and multi purpose space in which exhibitions are organised. The Podsreda Nature Trail has also been established within the Park. Every year Kozjansko Apple Celebration is organised. It is an international event where locals and their European partners, ecological farmers, craftsmen, societies present their products on a fair and promote sustainable development of country side with focus on ecology.
History of the region is quite rich. Park has 5 castles and 32 churches. In Bistrica ob Sotli big The Slovenian-Croatian peasant revolt started in 1573 with the program to abolish the nobles and start peasant state. They lost after a long fight and retributions were fierce, 3,000 peasants died in the battle, thousands of captives were hanged or publicly tortured. Special feature of Slovenian landscape are small curches on the top of nearly every hill. Beautiful pedestrian routes lead from one to another Svete Gore are especially nice to go to. Kozjansko Park succefully combines nature, heritage and culinarics.
Projects
Kozjansko Park collaborates successfully in many international development projects, and is partner in numerous European projects.
In year 2002 Phare 2000 program supported project Forming Sustainable Tourism Products and Services in Kozjansko they managed to educate and employ young local intellectuals and started promoting regional products, cultural and natural heritage.
Interreg IIIA program neighbouring program (Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary) where Kozjansko Park was partner in the project where their responsibility was to take action and protect biotic diversity of high-trunk orchards and the aesthetic value of the landscape (2003- 2007).
In Transromanica (INTERREG IIIB/CADSES, 2003-2006) aim was to establish tourist route connecting important Romanesque monuments from Slovenia through Italy, Austria and Germany. In Kozjansko Park Podsreda Castle is one of best preserved Romanesque castles in Slovenia.
LIFE Nature is an EU program that helps to fund the preservation actions for natural habitats and free-living flora and fauna. The project took 3 years, to the end of 2003. It brought along numerous improvements in preservation of cultural landscape and habitats in Kozjansko region.
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