A passport stamp issued at the border with Croatia
Rigonce is a ribbon village on the border with Croatia. It lies on the right bank of the Sotla River shortly before its confluence with the Sava River. Rigonce is divided by the rail line into two hamlets; the part to the north is known as Zgornje Rigonce (literally, 'upper Rigonce'), and that to the south as Spodnje Rigonce (literally, 'lower Rigonce'). The Rigonce Plain (Slovene: Rigonško polje) lies west of the village and extends almost to Dobova. There are fields and meadows south of the village. There is sandy soil closer to the river, and a mixture of loamy-sandy soil elsewhere.[4]
History
During the Second World War, the residents of the village were evicted in the fall of 1941 and Gottschee Germans were resettled in the houses[4] as part of the Rann Triangle (German: Ranner Dreieck). At that time, there were plans to rename the village, together with neighboring Loče, Verdreng after an evacuated Gottschee village.[5]
On one single day, 25 October 2015, about 4,000 refugees crossed the border and entered Slovenia during the European migrant crisis.[6]
^ abcdeSavnik, Roman (1976). Krajevni leksikon Slovenije, vol. 3. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 44.
^Polšak, Anton. 1996. Ponemčevanje slovenskih krajevnih imen v Okrožju Brežice v letih 1941–1945. Časopis za zgodovino in narodopisje 67(2): 205–235, p. 223.
,_Bre%C5%BEice.jpg)
