We would like to introduce to you one of the well-known people of Kranj, Simon Jenko – poet and writer.
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→ The most important Slovenian poet of the second half of the 19th century
→ A poet who wrote about topics with a tension between romanticism and realism
→ Author of short stories that have psychological outlines and humorous irony
→ Author of the informal Slovenian anthem Naprej, zastava Slave (Forward, Flag of Glory)
→ He was buried in Kranj and several institutions in the city are named after him.
Simon Jenko was born on October 27, 1835, into a family of farmers in the village of Podreča between Sava and Sora rivers, south of Kranj. He attended primary school in Smlednik and Kranj and then enrolled in the Franciscan secondary school in Novo mesto, for which he was financially supported by his uncle, a priest. He completed his secondary school education in Ljubljana, where he began to write poems and publish them in the secret student newspaper Vaje that brought together young writers called vajevci. At the request of his parents, he enrolled in theology school in Klagenfurt. But as he did not wish to become a priest, he went on to Vienna to study law after one year, but did not complete his studies. He received a Knafelj scholarship and worked as a home tutor. He regularly wrote poems with themes of love and patriotism, particularly famous among them being Naprej, zastava Slave and Adrijansko morje. In his poetry, he moved further from being influenced by Prešeren’s poems and was more inspired by the German poet Heinrich Heine. He also wrote prose, where he included precisely psychologically outlined characters and irony, especially in the novels Tilka and Jeprški učitelj. In 1863, he got a job as a law trainee in Kranj, worked for a while in Kamnik and then returned to Kranj. In 1865 he published his only collection of poetry, Pesmi (Poems), which was not well received. He fell ill with encephalitis in Kranj and died on 18 October 1869, shortly before his 34th birthday.
Although the memory of France Prešeren is particularly present in Kranj, his successor Simon Jenko has not been forgotten. As early as 1873, a marble tombstone with a portrait medallion was ceremonially unveiled in his honour at the city cemetery, where he was buried and where now the Prešeren Grove is located.
The monument was made free of charge by father and son Janez Sr. and Janez Jr. Vurnik from the Radovljica stonemason’s workshop. In 1923, the National Reading Room in Kranj had a memorial plaque erected on the house where he lived and died, on the corner of Tomšič Street and Pot na kolodvor.
Several institutions in the city have been named after him, including the Simon Jenko Elementary School and the Simon Jenko Bookstore, which also feature busts of the poet. In the Kranj City Library, you can borrow Ivan Pregl’s novel Simon iz Praš, which chronicles the poet’s life journey.
There was once a Jenko memorial room in the Prešeren House, which no longer exists today, but now the Jenko residence has a small exhibition and is located in the house where he used to live. The poet’s name also lives on through the Jenko Award given by the Slovenian Writers’ Association for the best poetry collection in the last two years.
The poet is also commemorated in his native village of Podreča: in the middle of the village, on the site of the house where he was born, there is a monument with a bust, and nearby there is a walking trail named after the teacher of Jeprca.
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