[4] Rajhenav was formerly a compact ribbon village along the road from Kočevje to Koprivnik, with a trail connecting it to the Rog Sawmill.

It became the first natural area in Slovenia to receive official protection in 1892, when 51 hectares of virgin forest were sectioned off and named after Rajhenav.

The geography creates a temperature inversion, providing a habitat for spruce, mosses, and other typical high-elevation plants because of the cold air that pools there.

On 15 August 1942, Italian forces shot 20 to 30 civilians about 700 meters from the village and then disposed of the bodied in karst sinkholes.

On 26 June 1943 the Partisan Tomšič Brigade carried out a successful attack against an Italian military contingent near the village.

The square bell tower with a late-Baroque onion-dome roof and four clock faces was probably added to the northwest side of the original structure in the 19th century.

During the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian army removed the church's three bells, which were cast in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Samassa foundry in Ljubljana.