Sevnica is a town on the left bank of the Sava River in central Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Sevnica. It is one of the three major settlements in the Lower Sava Valley. The old town of Sevnica lies beneath Sevnica Castle, which is perched on top of Castle Hill, while the new part of town stretches along the plain among the hills up the Sava Valley, forming another town core at the confluence of the Sevnična and Sava rivers.NameThe settlement was first attested in written records in 1275 in German as Liechtenwalde . The Slovene name is probably derived from a hydronym referring to Sevnična Creek . This name is derived from the adjective selьnъ 'belonging to a settlement, village'. The Slovene name is not connected to the German name, which refers to deciduous woods. In the past the German name of the town was Lichtenwald.HistoryFor centuries, the town of Sevnica was situated on the border of two historical regions of the Habsburg Empire: Carniola and Styria. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to 1275 by its German name Lichtenwalde. At that time, it was one of the most important settlements in the Windic March (or Slovene March). In 1322 it acquired the status of a market town, with extended market rights in 1513. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, it suffered greatly from frequent Ottoman raids and never fully recovered its previous wealth. In the 16th century it was an important center of Protestant reformation in the Slovene Lands; the Slovene Lutheran author Jurij Dalmatin also preached in the town.