Friday, 4. 4. 2025

Ljubljana has the first park named after a same-sex couple

Between Prijateljeva ulica and Cimpermanova ulica in Prule, the Ada Škerl and Sonja Plaskan Park, the first park in Slovenia named after a same-sex couple, was inaugurated on the occasion of the 101st birthday of the poet Ada Škerl.

The Ada Škerl and Sonja Plaskan Park consists of a green area surrounded by apartment buildings between Praprotnikova ulica, Zvonarska ulica, Prijateljeva ulica and Cimpermanova ulica streets. The park has a children's playground, two table tennis tables, a sports island, a monument to the fallen in the National Liberation War and benches. The decision to name the park was made by the City Council of the City of Ljubljana on 21 October 2024, at the suggestion of the Committee for Naming Settlements and Streets. The initiative to name the park came from the poet and editor Brane Mozetič and the director of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dr. Oto Luthar.

Ada Škerl was a poet who stirred up the prevailing literary scene at the time with her first poetry collection Shadow in the Heart in 1949, but whose historical role as the founder of Intimism is still not acknowledged in Slovenian literary history. Sonja Plaskan was Ada's life partner for as many as 49 years. Among other things, they co-authored several literary translations.

The first naming of a park after a same-sex couple represents an important historical milestone not only in the history of the LGBTIQ+ movement in Slovenia, but also in the historiography of the contribution of Slovenian female artists to science and art, in the allocation of the historical place they deserve.