Rečica ob Savinji, a market village with a pillory

What to see in Rečica, the pillory

The municipality explains that Rečica appears in records from the 12th century and as a market in the 14th. Later in the 16th century, Janez Tavčar, Bishop of Ljubljana, bought the manor house on the square and, on 2 February 1585, confirmed the village’s market rights along with a court of its own. That court did its business in Slovene, as the townsmen’s oath in a document from 1788 shows.

What’s left of that petty justice is the pillory, a pillar of shame in the middle of the square. According to the municipality it’s one of twelve still standing in Slovenia, because most were knocked down in the name of progress. Rečica’s was moved for a few decades and returned to its old spot at the end of the 20th century. I find pieces like this more telling than plenty of castles, because they show how a village actually lived.

Fitting it in

Rečica sits right beside Mozirje, with its flower park and the Golte cable car, and Nazarje, with Vrbovec Castle. From here it’s a drive up to Gornji Grad and the Logar Valley. To the east lies Šmartno ob Paki.

Tavčarjev dvor and the churches

Close by is Tavčarjev dvor, a 16th-century Renaissance stone house the bishop bought in 1590. It keeps its two stone doorways and a double window on the back wall, escaped the great fire of 1799 and has been a listed monument since 1987. St Cantius’s Church on the square did burn in that fire and was almost entirely rebuilt. Beside its front wall lies the grave of the parish priest and poet Jožef Lipold, who wrote the raftsmen’s song. At Šentjanž, St John the Baptist’s Church, recorded in 1347, has a Roman tombstone and an altar to Mithras set into its bell tower.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Rečica ob Savinji before prices climb.

Nature on the doorstep

On the southern slope of Golte, the Suha stream has cut a narrow gorge between rocks that stays cool in summer and is nearly always dry. In the square, under the lime tree by the Bohač house, the village holds its main festival, Večer pod trško lipo.

496 residents and nearly 77,000 nights

According to SURS, the village has 496 residents and the municipality 2,300 on 1 January 2026, across twelve settlements. In 2025 it logged 17,621 arrivals and 76,947 overnight stays, more than four nights per guest. A stopover village doesn’t produce numbers like that. Camping Menina does, at Varpolje, a family-run campsite on the Savinja with its own river-fed lake, rafting, an adventure park and a spa. It works as a base for people spending a week in the upper valley.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Rečica ob Savinji and choose by the reviews.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Rečica ob Savinji before prices climb.