The building of chapels was the result of people's spiritual needs and distress and their faith in divine assistance. We do not know exactly when people began building with them or at whose initiative. The oldest surviving chapels in the area date from the 17th century, while the oldest monuments are from the 15th century. At first they were erected in memory of some misfortune already past. Later, people erected them in the hope of warding off natural and other hardships before they happened. They believed that with God's help bad things could be made matter and that they could protect themselves from every evil. Many chapels and monuments were erected in thanksgiving for a prayer that had been answered. These are known as votive signs and chapels. Some mark paths, directions, crossing-points or crossroads, while for others the stories of their purpose are long forgotten. All, however, are "tiny calls of the past", part of human creativity that shapes and at the same time enriches the living environment.
The chapels lived their small yet full lives right up until the Second World War. The chapels in the Mirna Valley would burst into life at least once a year, in May, when the entire village would gather around them for May devotions. During this month the chapels were beautifully decorated with flowers. Traditionally, a village chapel would be looked after and decorated by one woman from the village her entire life. When she became too old she would entrust the task to a younger relative. Three Šentrupert chapels had an important role in the most important procession, the Corpus Christi procession in May. The procession was composed as follows: First came the children, carrying the cross; then came men with banners, the singers and the clergy, girls dressed in white dresses with wax wreaths on their heads, and finally the women. The procession made its way from the parish church to the plague memorial on the Šentrupert plain, from there to the cross below Vesela Gora, and then to the little chapel which the local people made especially for this occasion out of branches and pine wood somewhere on the plain, and then back to Šentrupert to the chapel of St Florian and the chapel of Our Lady (no longer standing) by the Jaklič Inn. After the Second World War there was no longer a procession of this form. The plague memorial on the plain, the first stop of the Corpus Christi procession, is also known locally as the Rakovnik chapel. According to legend, the lord of Rakovnik Castle had it built at a time of a great plague when the dead were buried outside the cemetery surrounding the parish church in the centre of the village because this was already too full. Up until the Second World War, the memorial was looked after by the owners of Rakovnik Castle. The evening before the Corpus Christi procession, girls decorated it with garlands of lipca, a linden-like plant growing in the woods, and with pine wood. During the procession the Gospel was read here.
The second station of the Corpus Christi procession was at the chapel of St Florian. The villagers built it in around 1870 after the village was afflicted by a terrible fire in which twenty-two families lost all their property. Shortly after this event, the villagers collected the money to build a chapel dedicated to St Florian, the patron saint of firemen and protector against fire. The chapel was built by Italian masons who at that time were building a new house for a rich merchant and farmer by the name of Knez. The portrait of the saint dressed in Roman armour, with a burning Šentrupert beneath his feet, was painted by Matija Bradaška.
Just how great the fear of fire was, is illustrated by the fact that right up until the Second World War Šentrupert employed a night watchman who was paid for by the municipality. At night he would do his round of the village every hour and sing out appropriately, for example: "Eleven o'clock has struck, the night watchman has done his round. Ware fire, ware light, St Florian help us!"
The Corpus Christi procession halted by the chapel of St Florian, while on St Florian's Day, 4 May, fire-fighters would gather outside the chapel after Mass and recite litanies of all the saints and the Our Father and sing hymns. On the eve of this feast day it was the custom to pray outside the chapel all night. The chapel is still decorated with flowers every day, and on Saturday evenings and before feast days the faithful light candles in it.
The third chapel by which the Corpus Christi procession halted was the chapel of Our Lady. This was demolished shortly after the end of the Second World War. The local people say that it was among the richest chapels in the Mirna Valley. Every chapel was built for a reason, but people no longer remember all of them. All without exception, however, have a known function. Believers turned to God in times of spiritual distress.
People also turned to the saints in the case of the various hardships that could affect a farming community (livestock diseases, poor harvests, bad bargains, etc.). In Straža below Vesela Gora stands the chapel of St Notburga, the patroness of agricultural work. In order to ensure a rich grape harvest, the vineyard owners of Oplenk built a chapel and dedicated it to St Martin. Market traders on their way to Vesela Gora would stop at the chapel in Trstenik and commend themselves to St Anthony of Padua, in the hope of good bargains and healthy livestock.
The column supporting a statue of a Black Madonna on Vesela Gora was also erected as the result of a vow. Today, when pilgrims no longer pass this way, it is forgotten and overgrown, and is almost invisible from the road. The statue was apparently put up by the owner of the manor house in Vesela Gora in thanks for his rescue from a sinking ship and a safe return home. Around the column his family placed a wooden booth and benches where people could pray. Before the Second World War, a procession from Vesela Gora made its way to the votive column of the Black Madonna at Pentecost and for the Feast of the Assumption.
Field monuments are a constituent element of local symbolism and aesthetics. They are a typical decorative element of the landscape. They were erected as the result of spiritual needs, distress and faith in divine assistance. They are of simple workmanship and contain the intention of the sensitive, devout human being. They emphasised different aspects of belief and marked the sites of misfortunes, plague and decisions. Chapels have a liturgical function and represent an alternative liturgical space for the village community. They are also important as features of the village skyline and for connecting village houses and characterising the appearance of the village. A specific feature of this landscape is a crucifix in a wooden niche.