Celje

The third-largest city in Slovenia, below Upper Celje Castle at the meeting of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica and Voglajna, where the roads from Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje and the Central Sava Valley cross. It was Celeia in the Roman period, and the name has been written a great many ways since, Cylia in 452, Zellia in 824, Cilli in 1311, Celee in 1575. The modern Slovene form descends through proto-Slovene from Vulgar Latin Celeae, and the name itself is pre-Roman, with an etymology still unclear. The first settlement here appeared in the Hallstatt era.