

In the 14th century, the church in Hajdina, dedicated to St. Martin, was vicariate church within the organisational framework of Hoče parish. In 1398, Bernhard of Ptuj obtained legal rights over the church which he had rebuilt in the first decade of the 15th century. Skilful stonecutters, engaged to build the pilgrimage church at Ptujska Gora, were asked to fulfil the task. The only remnant of rebuilding works accomplished under Bernhard is the presbytery which was incorporated as a side chapel into a new church building in the 19th century. The so-called short-choir had only one rib-vaulted bay ending in a five-sided octagon. The ribs descend onto consoles and six capitals carved in the shape of fantastic heads having human and animal features. Such figures were quite common in the central-European architecture and statuary work in the 14th and 15th centuries, but the ones in Hajdina are rather exceptional in their liveliness showing a great deal of masters’ imagination.