St. James Church and the Jesuit College, Ljubljana
YUGOSLAVIA, 1954, showing 17th century Ljubljana, now the capital of
Slovenia.Scott 410
SLOVENIA, 1994, the 75th anniversary of the University of Ljubljana,
Scott 221
The image on the above Yugoslav stamp is based on an etching by J. V. Valvasor in his Die Ehre dess Hertzogthums Crain (Nürnberg 1689): a large townscape of Ljubljana from the 17th century. In the center foreground is the spire of the Church of St. James, built by the Jesuits in 1613-1616, to the church's left by a quarter of the stamp is the octagonal chapel of St. Francis Xavier, built between 1667 and 1670, and about them are the buildings of the Jesuit college. Jesuits arrived in Ljubljana in 1597 and began offering secondary education at once. In 1704 philosophical studies (including mathematics) were added and then theology and canon law. But the college was not authorized to issue degrees, a university prerogative. After the Suppression in 1773, the state took over the Jesuit school. After various incarnations it was replaced in 1919 by the University of Ljubljana, which might be regarded as the successor to the original Jesuit institution of higher education.
In the center of the 1689 etching and the stamp is the old Cathedral of St. Nicholas pulled down in 1701. A new cathedral to replace it was built in 1701-1706 by the Jesuit architect Br. Andrea Pozzo, SJ.
