Loče

The river Dravinja with its tributaries has shaped a varied landscape in the western part of the Dravinjske gorice, where Loče lies. Slopes strewn with vineyards, orchards and forest give a wonderful backdrop to the hiking trails, while history reveals itself behind the walls of the Žiče Charterhouse. The Carthusians from the mother monastery in France in fact built their first monastery in a non-Romance land around 1160 precisely at Žiče. Not far from Loče, on the slope of Zbelovska gora, are the ruins of a 12th-century castle, and on a rise above the settlement stands the Zbelovo manor from the 16th c. From the botanical point of view a speciality of the area is the žički grobeljnik, a madwort which in Slovenia grows only near the Žiče charterhouse.