Coat of arms of the Rastern family in Žalec
ŽALEC, ST. NICHOLAS' CHURCH
Location of the coat of arms: tombstone
The coat of arms of the Rastern family—ennobled in 1724 and raised to baronial rank in 1787—depicts the scene of a traveler resting on a green hill, which plays with the family’s name, as the word rasten in German means rest. The Rasterns were once believed to be of Slovenian descent, originally bearing the family name Počivalnik or Počivalšek (also signifying a man resting).
The family was founded by Johann Georg Raster, who at the turn of the eighteenth century occupied influential positions in Ljubljana’s town administration—those of internal town councilor, chamberlain, and hospital master. His three marriages produced at least seventeen children, among them the son Leopold Zacharia (1684–1754), whose office as deputy accountant of the provincial estates earned him the title of nobility in 1724, along with permission to expand his family name with the predicate von Rastern.
However, the Rastern coat of arms, which is still visible in St. Nicholas’s Church in Žalec, belonged to neither Leopold Zacharia nor any of his descendants, but to his brother (Paul) Ferdinand (1689–1737), a parish priest in Žalec, who died in early March 1737. Although Ferdinand was not granted nobility, he used both the predicate de Rastern and the family coat of arms, which was carved in his tombstone with the still clearly legible inscription: SISTE VIATOR ET LEGE: / HIC IACET / A. R. PRAENOBILIS AC DOCTISSIMUS / D. FERDINANDUS DE ROSTERN / QUONDAM / PAROCHUS ET COMMISS.US IN SAXENFELD / QUI / ANNO 1737 2 MARTII PIE IN DNO OBIIT / NIHIL / NOBIS VIATORIBUS MAGIS PRODEST / QUAM FREQUENS MEDITATIO / DE NOVISSIMIS: / DE QUIBUS NEMO NIMIS PAUCI SATIS / COGITANT / ITAQUE ASSIDUO / MEMORARE NOVISSIMA TUA / ET OMNI MOMENTO MONUMENTI / MEMENTO.
While carving the inscription, the stonecutter evidently forgot the word cogitant and subsequently inserted it with a caret at the very bottom of the tombstone.
Sources:
Curk, Jože: Topografsko gradivo. 2, Sakralni spomeniki na območju občine Žalec. Celje: Zavod za spomeniško varstvo, 1967, pp. 114.
Marolt, Marijan: Dekanija Celje, 2. del: Cerkvene umetnine izven celjske župnije. Maribor: Zgodovinsko društvo, 1932, pp. 132–133.
Preinfalk, Miha: Plemiške rodbine na Slovenskem, 18. stoletje, 2. del: Od Del-Negrov do Škerpinov. Ljubljana: Viharnik, 2022, pp. ***