Not only did Joze Plečnik’s architecture transform Ljubljana where he lived and worked, he also left his mark on the town of Kamnik too, in many places and in many different ways. From churches, the train station, the bridge across the Nevljica River to gravestones, a hunting lodge and furniture. Plečnik’s working life actually began with making furniture when he worked as a carpenter in his father’s workshop. It wasn’t until 1900 at the age of 28 that his career as an independent architect began in Vienna. Some twenty years later, after a decade in Prague where a wide range of projects were completed, did he return to his birthplace of Ljubljana.



His first creation in the Kamnik region was the royal hunting lodge along the Kamniska Bistrica where it still stands today. Plečnik was a deeply religious man and was commissioned to work on many churches. In the Kamnik region his work can be found at the St Anne Church and Tunjice, Franciscan monastery, the Parish Church in Šutna and St. Benedict Church in Stranje. After heavy damage was done to the ancient church of St. Martin in Šmartno during the second world war, Plečnik put forward a design for its renovation. However, this was not to be, the designs were not approved and renovations did not commence until a year after his death in 1957. One of his former students did work on it and some of the architectural elements of the church echo Plečnik’s style.