It is the seat of the Municipality of Ravne na Koroškem, and the largest town and the capital of Slovenia's Carinthia region.

The name of the settlement was changed from Guštanj (from German Gutenstein) to Ravne na Koroškem in 1952 on the basis of the 1948 Law on Names of Settlements and Designations of Squares, Streets, and Buildings as part of efforts by Slovenia's postwar communist government to remove German elements from toponyms.

[2][3] Part of the Duchy of Carinthia from 976, King Henry II of Germany granted the area to the Bishops of Bamberg in 1007.

[4] The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Giles and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor.

One of Nostradamus's quatrains that is localized to southeast Europe has the following couplet: "Cry sera grand par toute EscalvonieLors naistra monstre pres & dedans Ravenne"A cry will be great across Esclavoniawhen will be born the monster in and near RavenneMario Reading translates the third line as "throughout enslaved-Slovenia," finding no other meaning and stipulates that the town will be either the conception or birthplace of the third and last Antichrist.