The Municipality of Mokronog-Trebelno, which covers 71 km² and is home to 3,000 inhabitants in 43 settlements, occupies an important geographical position. Its exposed aspect was demonstrated in the period when this area was settled. Rich archaeological finds attest to dense settlement in prehistoric, Roman and early Slovenian times. From the late Bronze Age we are familiar with the sizeable settlements of Križni Vrh and Žempoh. Since the beginning of the early Iron Age this area has been one of the most densely settled in Slovenia. Major centres and princely seats were at Brezje pri Trebelnem and Križni Vrh and Žempoh nad Slepškom and Ostrožnik pri Mokronogu. During the rise of the Hellenic period the Slovenian lands saw the formation of strong cultural groups that achieved supremacy for some time in continental Europe. The Mokronog finds from the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. are most illustrative for an understanding of the Celtic Tauric group, and after them their legacy is named the “Mokronog Group”.
The pleasant local climate accompanied the evolution here from the Middle Ages of two central settlements, which have maintained their character as vital hubs up to the present: Trebelno in the Raduljsko hills and Mokronog in the Mirna Valley. Mokronog, the administrative centre of the municipality, which is mentioned as the third of a total of 19 Dolenjska towns and markets of medieval origin, first had its parish centre in Gorenje Mokronog. Upon the first attested mention of the market in 1279, on a steep slope in the direct vicinity of the original castle at Mokronog, in Gorenje Mokronog, stood the ossuary and Chapel of Sv. Mihael (St Michael). The Municipality of Mokronog-Trebelno is a part of central Slovenia, or more precisely central Dolenjska, which stretches out along the Mirna Valley and the Raduljsko hills, and has a distinctly accessible landscape, set in a varied environment at the meeting point of the Alpine, Dinaric and Pannonian regions. This is the area that Prežihov Voranc had in mind when he wrote about a ''land of gentle romanticism with innumerable churches and castles, vineyard slopes and cottages, small hills and valleys, where the good people live an easy, carefree life, they drink their cviček wine and sing, they walk God's paths and hunt dormice – a land of poetry which other Earthlings may envy''.