The Parish Church of St Lawrence was first mentioned in 1184. The village takes its name from it. In 1191 it became a parish church. Nothing is known about the Romanesque church from the first half of the 12th century, but more information is available about its Gothic successor.
First mention of the church
On 21 September 1184, Pope Lucius III confirmed to Abbot Pilgrim of St Paul that the monastery had the right to all the possessions it held and would yet acquire, among them the church in Radomlje with its forest.
The church first mentioned by the name of St Lawrence
Patriarch Gotfrid of Aquileia granted the request of Abbot Peregrin of St Paul and donated to the monastery the Church of St Lawrence in Radomlje (sancti Laurentii de Radmil), which had been built on monastery land and in the monastery forest. Together with the church, the patriarch also ceded to the monastery all tithes and rights.
Architecture of the church
According to Dr Sergej Vrišer, the high altar, the two altars by the triumphal arch, the altar of St Anthony of Padua in the northern chapel, the pulpit and the statues on the oratory are believed to be the work of the renowned Maribor sculptor Jožef Holzinger.
Between 1870 and 1907 the exterior of the church was renovated once more, and the wall that had enclosed the church complex until 1868 was removed.
The interior of the church was renovated in 1988 – 1991.
The exterior of the church retained its appearance until the most recent renovation in 1998, when the Institute for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage Maribor began the structural and conservation restoration of the exterior.
Independence and establishment of the Parish of St Lawrence
Until 1214, Lovrenc belonged in ecclesiastical and administrative terms to the mother parish of Hoče. The archiepiscopal see for the territory south of the Drava was the Patriarchate of Aquileia. In 1214 Abbot Ulrik of St Paul succeeded in separating the territory between the Pohorje streams Lobnica and Velka, together with the Church of St Lawrence, from the mother parish of Hoče. On 24 October 1214, Patriarch Wolfger of Aquileia announced that a dispute had arisen between the Abbot of St Paul and the parish priest of Hoče over the Church of St Lawrence in Radomlje (Radimlach). As the two parties could not reach an agreement, they called in arbitrators and left the final decision to them. It was decided that the monastery of St Paul had to cede to the parish priest of Hoče one mark of annual income in Bezena, while the monastery retained all rights over the Church of St Lawrence with all its appurtenances in the territory between the Lobnica and the Velka. Since Patriarch Wolfger had also established from the charters of his predecessors that the monastery had owned the Church of St Lawrence for 60 years, he separated it from the parish of Hoče and granted it to the monastery.
