A small park in the leafy Ljubljana borough of Prule has been named in memory of a lesbian couple, poet Ada Škerl and translator Sonja Plaskan, the first time a public space in Slovenia will bear the name of homosexual persons.

The naming of the park confirms that Ljubljana is a "democratic and emancipated city that respects personal liberty and equality of individuals, regardless of their political, religious, ideological or sexual orientation," reads the local decree passed by the city council on 1 July.

The proposal had been put forward two years ago by the poet and gay rights activist Brane Mozetič, and Oto Luthar, the director of the Research Centre at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a distant relative of Plaskan's.

Mozetič told the newspaper Dnevnik that he had researched Škerl's life and found evidence she had been living with Plaskan for many years.

"With Luthar's help, I came across letters written by Škerl that made it sufficiently clear what kind of relationship this was," Mozetič said.

The couple lived close to the park that now bears their name. It is located near the Prulček live music venue.

Škerl (1924-2009) was best known as a poet, a member of the Slovenian post-WWII poetic movement known as intimism that eschewed the dominant social realism of the time in favour of lyrical poems about love, disappointment and suffering.

She spent most of her career as a language editor on national radio.

Plaskan (1922-2000) was a translator of literature.