This area, known in German as Gottschee, was settled in the late 14th century by the Carinthian Counts of Ortenburg initially with colonists from the Ortenburg estates in Carinthia and Tyrol, and by other settlers who came from Austrian and German Dioceses of Salzburg, Brixen and Freising.
Rog | Prem Rog | Kočevski Rog |
His father's family was of Italian and Slovene origin, their original surname was Kopriva and they originated from Koprivnik (Nesseltal) near Kočevje in the Kočevski Rog (Hornwald) region of Lower Carniola (present-day Slovenia).
The area is confined by the Gorjanci and Kočevski Rog mountain ranges in the north and west and the Kolpa River in the south and east, which also forms part of the border between Slovenia and Croatia.