Introduction
Here stood the prehistoric settlement. Many object speak about the lives of the inhabitants: axes and tools, potsherds and weights for loom.
In
the Late Iron Age a new way of burying appeared - barrow mounds.
Between Pusti Gradac and Veliki Nerajec there were at least seven. They
had a round or oval ground plan, a diameter of 20 m and they were 3 m high.
Most of them were turned over at the begining of the 20th century.
The items found here (ceramics, jewellery, iron weapons) were sold to the
Nature-science museeum in Vienna.
The antique burial ground, between the village Šipek and the already mentioned meander of the Lahinja, presents the third archeological site in the area. It was discoverd in the beginning of the 20th century when locals found some ojects and threw them away.
Pusti Gradac is first mentioned in written source at the end of the sixteenth centuryja, when a castle was standing at the meander. The castle itself was ruined already centuries ago, evrything left of it is a picture in Valvasors "Die Ehre des Herzogtums Krain" and the local church.On the head portal of the church there are written the year 1638 and a sign that sais that the church was built on the order of Matej Plasman, one of the former owners of the castle.
The first equipment of the Church of All Saints (Cerkev Vseh svetnikov) is today completly destroyed. The interior of the church is painted with stars and crosses, rectangles and other decoration.
In Pusti Gradac there is also Klepečev saw mill. The interesting thing about the mill is that the mill wheels can't be seen, because they are hidden behind a woden wall protecting the water from freezing. The mill, built after World War I, is still working.