Honouring Rudolf Maister Day, a holiday marking the day in 1918 when General Rudolf Maister took control of Maribor and in effect secured what later became Slovenia's northern border, Defence Minister Karl Erjavec laid a wreath on the general's monument at the entrance to the Defence Ministry building on Thursday.

On the occasion Erjavec said that "Slovenians can be very proud of this man, who is so very important in Slovenian military history".

According to Erjavec, Maister was not only a soldier, officer and general, but also a poet and therefore a "complex and versatile person".

He decided to defend Maribor and the northern border "because he was a visionary and because he recognised a moment of historic importance for the fate of the country", Erjavec said.

"Maister in fact made the first step towards Slovenian statehood," Erjavec added.

A ceremony marking the day was also held today in Maribor. The event saw special "Rudolf Maister Awards" being conferred on the first speaker of the democratically elected Slovenian parliament France Bucar, the retired Ljubljana Archbishop and Metropolitan Alojzij Sustar and museum adviser Lojze Penic.

Maister is seen as one of the most prominent military personalities in Slovenian history. It is largely owing to him that Maribor, Slovenia's second-largest city, and the northeast of Slovenia became part of the new Yugoslav state rather than Austria following the break-up of the Austrian Hungarian Empire.

Maister was in command of the regional headquarters at the end of World War I and in 1918 assumed command of Maribor and the Slovenian part of Carinthia. He set up a Slovenian army of 4,000 soldiers, disarmed the German Schutzwehr security service, and disbanded the army of the German city council.

The general then occupied Slovenian ethnic territory, establishing the northern border between Austria and Yugoslavia that was later ratified by the Saint Germain Peace Treaty. The same border still divides Slovenia and Austria today.

Rudolf Maister Day is one of the three new holidays, none designated a bank holiday, passed by the parliament in 2005.