Once while travelling throughout his empire, Emperor Franc Jožef came to Halar Hill. He gazed around the Šmarje Valley and told his attendants, "Behold this heavenly beauty! So little in my empire can compare to this."
Šmarje pri Jelšah lies in the hilly region of the Upper-Sotla area, at the confluence of four streams. It was first mentioned as Sancta Maria as far back as 1236, and gained the status of market town in 1871. Šmarje pri Jelšah played an important administrative role in the SHS monarchy. In 1958, two other municipalities – Rogaška Slatina and Kozje – were annexed to Šmarje, the main municipality at the time, and by the end of 1994 Šmarje pri Jelšah had become the centre of a large new municipality, which was then divided into six smaller ones. The boundaries of the existing municipality were drawn by the end of 1994, but the place itself has retained its former administrative function and is today the administrative unit of Šmarje pri Jelšah.
Many culturally aware Slovenes lived and worked in Šmarje pri Jelšah, among them Franc Skaza, the co-founder of the first Slovene printing press in Maribor; the lawyer Dr Hugo Kartin, the founder of the Šmarska loan society; Dr Josip Vošnjak, author and nationalist; and Marica Strnadova, a well known Slovene poet at the turn of the 20th century. In 1883, Anton Aškerc arrived at the Šmarje parish to take over the position of chaplain. He remained there till 1889, during which time he played an extremely important role in the battle against the German sympathizers and succeeded in many ways. Among other things, he gave a Slovenian feel to the legend of the construction of the Sv. Rok (St Roch) church, which is written beneath the fresco of ancient Šmarje in the presbytery. Aškerc was also the first secretary of the reading society founded in 1883, which subsequently implemented the cultural expansion of this area. In the society, members were able to read newspapers and books, and also organizing farces and singing games. Anton Aškerc, while working in Šmarje, wrote the remarkable cycle Stara Pravda and prepared the collection Balade in romance for publication.