Golež House

Practically all older residents of Laško know the house beside Cesta na Svetino, not by its street number but as ‘Golež House’, after the older Laško couple who lived there. Mrs Golež in particular was well known for her active role in community life.

The house is regarded as the oldest surviving house in Laško. It is an exceptionally rare and valuable gem of small-town architecture, taking us directly back to the late 16th or early 17th century. Although it was declared a cultural monument in 1973, for many years it concealed its greatest secrets because thorough investigation was initially impossible while the owner still lived there. Later professional probes of walls and ceilings revealed that it had been built ‘in one piece’ — a remarkably complete masterpiece illustrating the domestic culture of the early Renaissance.

The exterior immediately reveals the building's rich and complex history. The ground floor is solidly built of stone, while the upper floor combines timber and partial masonry beneath a steep plain-tile roof, three-hipped on the north side and half-hipped to the south. A picturesque wooden gallery surrounds the northern timber section, its floor structure tied into the building's primary timber frame, while three massive masonry buttresses support the roughly rendered southern façade.

The real historical magic lies inside the fully cellared building. In the southern cellar is an impressive stone vault with a deep barrel and lunettes characteristic of the early 17th century, while the passage to the northern cellar is marked by a now-blocked stone portal with a slightly pointed arch. Together with the ceiling profiles, it points to the 16th century and late-Gothic influence. Upstairs, original timber walls and a profiled wooden ceiling lie beneath later plaster, while the door to a smaller room retains original iron fittings with Renaissance-style forged hinges and a spring lock. A former black kitchen adds special character: its stone vault rises all the way into the attic, where an old wooden granary was later inserted between the structural beams.

In the past, a civic initiative sought to preserve and revitalise the house under the concept ‘People of Laško in Europe – Europe in Laško’.