| Dr. France Prešeren (1800-1849), the poet Today France Prešeren is known as the greatest Slovene poet. He was born on the 3rd of December 1800 to a peasant family in Vrba na Gorenjskem. After graduating from the Vienna law faculty he worked in Ljubljana as a lawyer with Dr. Blaž Crobath. Most of his poems were written there. The last years of his life, Prešeren lived in Kranj. In 1846 he was admitted as a provincial barrister in Kranj, and opened an independent practice here. He died of illness in Kranj on the 8th of February 1849. In Kranj the memory of the poet France Prešeren is marked in various ways. The grave of the poet is in Prešeren’s grove. On Prešeren Street in the old town centre is the memorial museum of Dr. France Prešeren; it is located in the house where the poet worked and lived in the last years of his life. On the first and the second floor of Pavšlar’s house, on the square Glavni trg 18 in Kranj, there is the Prešern Prize-winners gallery. In front of Prešeren’s theatre stands a bronze sculpture of the poet, created by Frančišek Smrduj and Peter Loboda. Since 1969 the Academic choir France Prešeren Kranj has worked in Kranj, and also an elementary school and municipal awards in the field of art and culture are named after the poet. The Municipality of Kranj celebrates its municipal holiday on the date of the poet’s birth, 3rd of December, while various events also take place on the 8th of February, honouring the anniversary of the poet’s death.
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