The medieval market town of Gutenwerd was located in a bend of the River Krka, in the plain of Šentjernejsko polje, and flourished between the 12th and the 15th century. It formed part of the Freising diocese in Bavaria, but was often enfeoffed to different lords such as the Counts of Andechs and Dukes of Babenberg. More than 100 documents from the mid-13th century to the year 1500 mention Gutenwerd, its toll station and ferry across the Krka, a judge and the seat of blood justice, a parish priest, the church of St Nicholas and individual inhabitants. In the first half of the 13th century, the town had a mint of silver Friesacher pfennigs, which shows its trading and connections along the important route between northern Italy and Hungary. Its inhabitants were merchants and craftsman, nobility and clergy, as well as urban farmers and gardeners. In 1473, it was devastated by the Ottoman Turks and never recovered. Its remains were overgrown, only the church of St Nicholas survived.

The deserted settlement was rediscovered by a team of archaeologists from the National Museum in Ljubljana, investigating at Otok pri Dobravi. Their excavation (1967–1984) unearthed the remains of timber and stone houses, the foundations of a Romanesque church and a cobbled road. In the church of St Nicholas, they found the foundations of its Romanesque and Gothic predecessors, as well as 44 graves from the late medieval and early modern periods. They excavated the remains of ironworks, tanning pits and fireplaces. Thousands of pottery sherds, different tools and objects made of clay, iron, copper, bronze, brass, stone, bone, antlers, glass and leather document the daily life in the Middle Ages better than any other archaeological site in Slovenia. As an exceptional example of cultural heritage, Gutenwerd holds great potential for further archaeological and other scientific research.