The adjective form Šmarjetna developed through contraction of the informal name of the saint: *šent Marjeta > *Šn̩t-marjeta > *Šm̩marjeta > Šmarjeta.

[2] The hamlet of Gradišče on the southwest slope of the hill has the remnants of prehistoric structures, attesting to early settlement of Šmarjetna Gora.

The Ortenburgs later restored the castle and carried out raids against Okroglo and Stražišče, which belonged to the Bishopric of Freising.

Near the castle there was an auxiliary building resembling a manor; it had a turret and bore the year 1653, but was destroyed in the 1895 earthquake.

It has a flat coffered ceiling and murals in the apse, a 1615 painting of the Holy Sepulchre by Matija Plainer, and a panel on the north wall describing the famine of 1817.