With the founding of the Novo Mesto collegiate chapter in 1493, the political authority of the Hapsburg dynasty shifted to the Novo Mesto area, while economic currents from Venice and Aquileia were redirected from the Mirna-Trebnje area towards Novo Mesto and on down the valley of the Krka River. The income of the canons was in the first place tied to the influx of funds from the parishes incorporated in the collegiate chapter. At the time of the founding of the chapter, the parish of Šentrupert was one of the richest in the territory of present-day Slovenia. The trunk on which the chapter grew was the Šentrupert parish, which fed it with its income for four centuries. The heirs of Jacob Auersperger – first provost of Novo Mesto, parish priest of Šentrupert and archdeacon of Dolenjska – made great efforts to ensure the division of the prosperity of the Šentrupert parish with the Novo Mesto chapter. Because of this, the provosts became entangled in lengthy law suits. Only Jurij Frančišek Ksaver pl. Marotti, provost of Novo Mesto from 1715 to 1740, over two hundred years after the founding of the collegiate chapter, intervened significantly in the conditions of the Šentrupert parish by building a pilgrim church in honour of his patron saint Francis Xavier at Vesela Gora.
The church has an octagonal ground plan to which a sanctuary is added on the western side and side chapels on the southern and northern sides. The two bell towers stand outside the central ground plan and are set diagonally in respect of the main axis. Together with the domes they create the impression of a picturesque architectural mass that represents a unique architectural solution in the period in which the Baroque was flowering in Slovenia. The church also boasts fine contemporary fittings, with a high altar – a so-called frame altar – from the circle of the Novo Mesto gilt altar workshop, paintings by Slovenia’s principal Baroque painters – St John Nepomucene by Fortunat Bergant, The Death of St Joseph and St Francis de Sales by Valentin Metzinger, and frescoes by Anton Tušek, the only examples of Baroque fresco painting by this artist. Göbl’s remarkable organ, built in 1751, still stands in the organ loft.