On town square, with its characteristic medieval layout, you will find the most important buildings of the historic part of the town, including the Church of St Nicholas, the commandery and the provostry. The square is also home to the birthplace of sculptor Alojz Gangl (1859\u20131935) and writer Engelbert Gangl (1873\u20131950), the former Wach Pharmacy (1886), which features a relief of the Holy Trinity \u2013 the patron of pharmacy \u2013 built into its fa\u00e7ade, and the first National Reading Room in the Dolenjska region (1865).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At its far end, Mestni trg narrows and leads to the largest town square \u2013 Trg svobode (Freedom Square), which is crowned at its highest point by the castle. Metlika Castle stands on the highest point of a promontory between the Obrh and Bojica streams. It was first mentioned in medieval documents in 1338, although its origins are likely much older. Inside the castle is a spacious courtyard surrounded by arcades. Today, it houses the Tourist Information Centre, \u0160turm Castle Cellar, a wedding hall, a wine-growing collection, a lapidarium, the Gangl Gallery for temporary exhibitions, and since 1951, the Bela Krajina Museum. During the summer, the courtyard hosts cultural events under the title \u201cCome to the castle in the evening\u201d, while in May it becomes the venue for Slovenia\u2019s largest wine festival, Vinska vigred, and in October the celebration of the first wine, Mlada portugalka, takes place. In the park in front of the castle, you will find busts of notable figures from Bela Krajina, a memorial plaque dedicated to those who fell or were victims of the Second World War from all settlements in the municipality, a monument to the Bela Krajina partisan, a bust of Tito and four national heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the building of the former Sokol gymnasium, used by the Metlika Sokol society before the Second World War, you will find the Slovenian Firefighting Museum Dr Branko Bo\u017ei\u010d. In front of the museum, a commemorative plaque set into stone marks the founding of the first firefighting brigade in Slovenia. Also worth mentioning is a graft of the oldest vine in Slovenia \u2013 the Blue Franconian (modra kav\u010dina) from Maribor. Nearby stands a building bearing the inscription \u201cFirst Dolenjska Savings and Loan Bank\u201d. The youngest square in the old town centre is Partizanski trg (Partisan Square), located in an area that lay outside the town walls in the Middle Ages. The most prominent building here is the former primary school, built in 1886, where the director Osip \u0160est (1893\u20131962) was born. During the Second World War, the building served as an officers\u2019 school. On the opposite side of the square stands the birthplace of the Navratil brothers. The elder, Ivan Navratil (1825\u20131896), was a renowned linguist and ethnologist, and today the Metlika folklore group is named after him, while the younger, Anton Navratil (1832\u20131897), was a national awakener. This square is also home to the birthplace of Primarius Dr Mirko \u010cerni\u010d (1884\u20131956).<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1453,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-1443","kulturne-znamenitost","type-kulturne-znamenitost","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metlika-turizem.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kulturne-znamenitost\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metlika-turizem.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kulturne-znamenitost"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metlika-turizem.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kulturne-znamenitost"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metlika-turizem.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metlika-turizem.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}