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TO THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION
BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA
GUIDEB
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1st FLOOR
1 GORGEOUS GORENJSKA 2 LIFE IS A PRISON, TIME A MERCILESS EXECUTIONER 3 BUILDING CASTLES IN THE CLOUDS 4 THE PROVINCE OF CARNIOLA HAS NO TOWN MORE BEAUTIFUL 5 I´LL GO A-WANDERING WITH YOU 6 THINGS WILL LOOK BRIGHTER FOR THE CARNIOLANS 7 THE IRON IS COMING NEARER 8 LONG LIFE TO ALL NATIONS 9 BE MINE, BE MINE 10 THE WOMEN OF UPPER CARNIOLA HAVE LONG BEEN FAMED FOR THEIR BEAUTY 11 PROJECTION HALL: Good Luck, Kekec!
12 ATTIC AS I RESTLESSLY WANDER HERE AND THERE, FRIENDS KEEP ASKING “WHERE, OH WHERE?”
12.1 EARLY 20TH CENTURY 12.2 WORLD WAR ONE 12.3 BETWEEN THE WARS 12.4 SECOND WORLD WAR 12.5 TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA 12.6 THE NEW SLOVENIAN STATE
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BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA
GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE CREATION OF THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION “BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA” IN KHISLSTEIN CASTLE
1 BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA
2 LIFE IS A PRISON, TIME A MERCILESS EXECUTIONER
3 BUILDING CASTLES IN THE CLOUDS
4 THE PROVINCE OF CARNIOLA HAS NO TOWN MORE BEAUTIFUL
5 I’LL GO A-WANDERING WITH YOU
6 THINGS WILL LOOK BRIGHTER FOR THE CARNIOLANS
7 THE IRON IS COMING NEARER
8 LONG LIFE TO ALL NATIONS
9 BE MINE, BE MINE
10 THE WOMEN OF UPPER CARNIOLA HAVE LONG BEEN FAMED FOR THEIR BEAUTY
11 PROJECTION HALL: Good Luck, Kekec!
12 AS I RESTLESSLY WANDER HERE AND THERE, FRIENDS KEEP ASKING “WHERE, OH WHERE?”
12.1 EARLY 20TH CENTURY
12.2 WORLD WAR ONE
12.3 BETWEEN THE WARS
12.4 SECOND WORLD WAR
12.5 TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA
12.6 THE NEW SLOVENIAN STATE
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
THE IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITON CREATING PROCESS
THE EXHIBITION IN IMAGES
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BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA
GUIDE TO THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION OF THEGORENJSKA MUSEUM IN KHISLSTEIN CASTLE
CIP - The catalogue dataNational and University Library, Ljubljana
719(497.4Kranj)(036) 069(497.4Kranj)(036) GORENJSKI muzej (Kranj) Beautiful Gorenjska : permanent exhibition Regional Museum Kranj, Castel Khislstein / [authors Tatjana Eržen Dolžan ... [etal.] ; English translation David Limon ; photographs Tomaž Lauko ... etal.]. - Kranj : Gorenjski muzej, 2014
ISBN 978-961-6478-56-4 1. Gl. stv. nasl. 2. Dolžan Eržen, Tatjana 271799296
Conceptual team mag. Tatjana Eržen Dolžan, dr.
Globoènik, Beba Jenèiè, dr. Verena Perko, Helena Rant,
mag. Monika Rogelj, mag. Marjana Žibert
External collaborators dr. Milan Sagadin, mag. Darko Knez
Editor-in-chief dr. Verena Perko
Deputy editor-in-chief
Technical editor
English language revision
Graphic design
English translation
Photographs Hodaliè, Tomaž Hladnik, Željko Kovaèiæ, Mirko Kunšiè, Franc Oderlap, Franc Perdan, Janez Pukšiè, Igor Pustovrh, dr. Milan Sagadin, Marjan Smerke, Andrej Štremfelj, mag. Jože Štukl, Marko Tušek, Rafko Urankar, Nejc Zaplotnik, Marija Žerjal, Jože Dežman, mag. Tatjana Dolžan Eržen, dr. Damir Globoènik, Helena Rant, mag. Monika Rogelj, Tone Stojko, Tomaž Lunder, Andraž Gregoriè, Marko Habiè, Irena Jagodic, Jelena Justin, Jože Miheliè, Žiga Miljavec, Janez Medvešek, Marija Smrke, Silvo Kokalj, Slavko Smolej
Review team Janez Bizjak, Ljuba Brajnik, Matija Jenko, dr. Milan Sagadin, dr. Andreja Valiè Zver, Majda Žontar, dr. Jože Žontar
dr. Damir Globoènik
mag. Barbara Kalan
Claudia Marchesi
Željko Kovaèiæ
David Limon
Tomaž Lauko, Drago Holynski, Arne
Damir
Published By Regional Museum Kranj, Marija Ogrin, Director
5
INTRODUCTION
Gorenjska is exceptionally rich in cultural and natural
heritage. It was here that the greatest Slovenian poet,
Dr France Prešeren, was born. The longest Slovenian river,
the Sava, begins here; and Mount Triglav, the highest
mountain in Slovenia as well as a symbol of the Slovenian
people, is also here, in the heart of the Julian Alps.
Due to its location, Gorenjska has since the earliest
archaeological periods been economically and culturally a
part of the South-Eastern Alps area. Ever since people first
came here, its natural riches have allowed for economic
development: hunting, iron-making, mining, forestry,
farming and tourism. Iron ore deposits brought about
the development of iron-making, which was an important
economic activity until its decline in the 20th century. Wood
served as a raw material for charcoal-burning and in the
construction of buildings, while the very fertile soil enabled
the growing of food and the development of stock rearing.
Across Gorenjska and its mountain passes ran trade
Khislstein Castle during renovation work.
(Photo Ž. Kovaèiæ)
Khislstein Castle during renovation work.(Photo H. Rant)
6 7
routes and with the construction in the 19th century of the
Karavanke–Bohinj railway, which connected Central Europe
with the Adriatic, the economy received another boost.
Through the centuries, spiritual and material life shaped
the cultural heritage that was passed from one generation
to another, and which nowadays is also safeguarded in
museums and studied in professional institutions. The
Gorenjska Museum, which is the central museum and gallery
institution in Gorenjska, keeps a large proportion of the rich
tangible and intangible heritage from this area and displays it
in accordance with the most modern museum presentation
methods. Since the establishment of our museum in 1953,
a considerable number of permanent exhibitions have been
presented which have been gradually, in response to public
needs, replaced by others or modernised. Ten years ago
we opened the permanent archaeological exhibition The
Iron Thread in the Town Hall and at that time the Prešeren
Memorial Museum in Kranj was given a new look, together
with an accompanying exhibition. There are permanent
exhibitions in the Pastoral Farming Culture Museum in Stara
Fužina, at Oplen House below Mount Studor and on folk art
in the Town Hall, whose Gothic corridors are decorated with
the permanent Dolinar collection of statues. In the Tomaž
Godec Museum in Bohinjska Bistrica there is a presentation
of 20th century history.
In spite of the attraction of the permanent exhibitions, there
was a gap, since Gorenjska as a whole was not presented in
any single location. This is why in 2008 the announcement
by the then director Barbara Ravnik about the renovation of
the Khislstein castle complex was received by the employees
of the Gorenjski Museum with great enthusiasm, as well asKhislstein Castle during
renovation work. (Photo H. Rant)
8 9
In the spring of 2008, the Gorenjska Museum curators
responded with great enthusiasm to the news of the
renovation of Khislstein Castle and the opportunity to stage a
new permanent exhibition there. From the very beginning, it
was agreed that we would design it as a story about people,
the countryside and iron-making. And as we are also the
museum of the national poet Prešeren, we also wanted it to
be about being Slovenian. Another goal was to ensure that the
exhibition responded to the needs of our public. After careful
consideration and on the basis of successful cooperation
in previous years, we chose the acclaimed Zagreb architect
Željko Kovaèiæ to lead the renovation.
A demanding task lay ahead of us. The exhibition had to
adhere to strict heritage protection requirements, as well
as the architectural characteristics of the building and the
THE CREATION OF THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION“BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKA”IN KHISLSTEIN CASTLE
a sense of responsibility. A new challenge lay ahead, which
also provided a unique opportunity to place into the newly
renovated premises a permanent exhibition of the best that
the rich cultural heritage of the whole of Gorenjska has to
offer. A museum project group was formed with the aim
of putting together the exhibition “Beautiful Gorenjska” in
accordance with the most modern methods. The long-held
dream of the renovated Khislstein Castle began to be realised
and now we have this indispensable guide to the “Beautiful
Gorenjska” permanent exhibition, which follows the layout of
the exhibition. The editing of the catalogue was taken on by
Dr Verena Vidrih Perko, with the help of Dr Damir Globoènik
and other colleagues.
I am certain that with the renovation of Khislstein Castle
and by using modern museum approaches and acting with
utmost responsibility towards the public, Gorenjska Museum
will become a setting for cultural events at the local, national
and international levels, thus contributing towards the
preservation of our identity in Europe, of which we are an
integral part.
Marija Ogrin,
Director
10 11
paintings it contained. The exhibition concept thus took as its
starting point the most beautiful part of the castle, the Blue
Hall, with its 19th century frescoes. The hall offers a unique
historical framework for the central exhibition setting featuring
four important Slovenians: Žiga Zois, France Prešeren, Janez
Bleiweis and Jakob Aljaž. All four are connected with Kranj
and Gorenjska, and without their great acts and committed
endeavours there would be today no independent Slovenia.
We focused particularly on the importance of the Slovenian
language and the struggle for nationhood. The central
exhibition scene consists of a temple with four columns and
the “altar of the homeland”. On it, we have placed an illustrated
edition of Prešeren’s poem Zdravljica (A Toast), printed in late
1944, thus emphasising the importance of Slovenian culture
for the emergence of the present-day state and the existence
of Slovenians. The romantically decorated Green Hall also in
a sense selected its own exhibition content. Here, we have
re-created a town house salon where, as an echo of the
political strivings of the great men of that period, cultural life
would unfold, organised by educated women. And because in
the Blue Hall we encounter Lovro Toman with the Slovenian
tricolour, the love story involving him and Josipina Urbanèiè of
Turn Castle, who as a poetess and intellectual personified the
role of the 19th century towns woman, presented itself to us
almost on a plate. But as town dwellers were just one aspect
of the Gorenjska past, we dedicated the adjacent room to the
story of a girl from a farm and her trousseau, using painted
furniture from the rich treasury of our collections.
All the other exhibition scenes were based on this core in the
Blue and Green Halls. In order to satisfy local people and to
draw the attention of foreigners to the beauty of Gorenjska,
the story begins with a model showing the past and present of
our region through texts and pictures. The story about the land
that has since ancient days fed and clothed ordinary people is
presented in the second room. It goes back to the time when
our oldest villages first appeared. The chosen archaeological
objects bear witness to nearly three millennia of iron-making
tradition, which left its mark on the modern Gorenjska
economy. There follow scenes about castle and church
nobility, with the stories of Pusti grad and Khislstein castles
supplemented by images and sculptures from the Gorenjska
churches. Next comes a walk past well-known Kranj houses,
where visitors can get a glimpse of life and death in old Kranj.
They also become acquainted with transport and trade.
Maria Theresa’s reign brought compulsory education, and
Photograph of the exhibition(Photo T. Lauko)
Photograph of the exhibition(Photo T. Lauko)
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more knowledge signified progress. The bitter stories of the
Kropa blacksmiths are encapsulated in the handful of iron-
making money that the workers could spend only in the shop
owned by their master.
The arrival of a railway, accelerating the development of
enterprise and trade, included Kranj in the general flow of
development. This is the period when industry developed in
Kranj, marking the expansion of Gorenjska’s economy in the
last century. And that is the beginning of the multifaceted story
of the 20th century, which was allocated space in the castle
attic, among the original roof construction’s labyrinth of beams
and supports. Our tale ends with Slovenia’s independence.
The extensive castle attic presented a great challenge. With
the addition of a staircase it was changed into an attractive
exhibition space for all those objects for which there was no
room in the permanent exhibition, but which we felt it would be
a shame to keep hidden in the museum’s storage depot. This
is where we hoped that our visitors would be able to relax, to
sit down for a moment, have a coffee from a vending machine
or simply to socialise, sharing their exhibition stories. But
because of a complex of problems connected with the castle
renovations and self sufficiency of the main project manager,
the large attic, to our great disappointment, remains empty.
The renovated rooms on the second floor are intended for
occasional exhibitions and for the inclusion of the local
community in museum events. In one of the large rooms we
will be able to hold occasional museum evenings, which have a
long tradition at the Gorenjska Museum and are a popular form
of conveying new knowledge to the public.
We have forged close links with our visitors from the very
start of the preparations and so it was not difficult to tailor
the permanent exhibition to their needs. During the entire
process we kept asking for visitors’ opinions and filling in the
gaps where they appeared. We invited selected reviewers, who
represented our museum public, for a talk. We sent them texts
to read and took their comments into consideration. We would
like to thank them for their contribution.
Through objects from our heritage we wished to relate happy,
sad and serious stories about our predecessors, their wisdom
and knowledge. This is why the exhibition is a selection of
stories about the people who have lived in Gorenjska through
its long history. It attests to their love of the soil and the region
and their unshakable faith in the future of the Slovenian nation.
We hope we have managed to succeed. Do pay us a visit some
time and judge for yourself!
Dr. Verena Perko,
lead curator of the permanent exhibition
Kranj, 29th September 2011
Photograph of the exhibition(Photo T. Lauko)
GORGEOUSGORENJSKA 1/from a song by Slavko Avsenik with lyrics by Feri Souvan/
Phot
o J.
Mih
eliè
Phot
o Ž.
Milj
avec
THE RIVER SAVA WAS ONCE CALLED THE SAVERKNA
1716 The Gorenjska landscape that we admire today was shaped over
many millions of years. Glaciers and rushing waters carved out
canyons, valleys and river beds, while lakes were also formed.
But the oldest traces of humans in Gorenjska date back only a
few tens of thousands of years. Prehistoric settlements and burial
sites of these original inhabitants have been discovered in many
parts of Gorenjska. With the arrival of the Slavs, who intermixed
with the indigenous people, the Slavic language prevailed. The
wealth of ancient wisdom and customs was absorbed into the new
culture, but the old names of rivers and mountains were retained.
Importantly, the skill of iron-making, which has been present in
Gorenjska for 2800 years, was also retained.
Thanks to its forests, rich iron ore deposits and iron working
skills, fertile fields and busy trade routes, Gorenjska (historically
Upper Carniola) was economically vibrant. Its sense of regional
awareness and of Slovenianness is rooted in thriftiness, a sense
of attachment to the land, faith and the native language. This is
why the homesteads of Gorenjska have produced so many learned
people.
In 2005, a stone with a dedicatory inscription, erected by
one Steven (Stefanus in Latin) and his family in honour of the
River Saverkna, was found on a heap of rubble from a cottage
in Podkoren. Because of the proximity of the sources of the
river in nearby Zelenci, it is thought that the name Saverkna
refers to the divine forces of the sources of the present day
River Sava. Two thousand years ago the Romans incorporated
what is now the Gorenjska region into their Italian territory
and made good use of the fertile fields, mineral riches and
the trade routes over the mountain passes.
Panorama of GorenjskaPanart d.o.o., Lesce
Janez Vajkard Valvazor, Ljubelj 1679, copper engraving. In his Topographia ducatus Carniolae modernae the Carniolan nobleman and scholar Janez Vajkard Valvazor (1641–1693) published copper engravings of many places in the then province of Carniola.
A dedicatory stone to the Saverkna from Podkoren, early 2nd century AD(Gorenjska Museum collection, photo T. Lauko)
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Ljubelj in 2010(Gorenjska Museum collection)
Jožef Wagner, Ljubelj 1842, lithograph (Gorenjska Museum collection)
Between 1842 and 1848 the sketcher, topographer and publisher Jožef Wagner (1803–1861) from Klagenfurt had lithographs of Gorenjska printed.
/France Prešeren/
2/France Prešeren/
The exhibition Gorgeous Gorenjska is a tribute to the region and
its inhabitants. But it is also a call for us to have the determination
to carefully preserve what we have inherited from our forebears.
LIFE IS A PRISON, TIME A MERCILESS EXECUTIONER
Arhe
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Gor
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In the past, the land meant everything to people. The farm, the nearby church and castle – that was their world. The lives of the children differed little from those of the parents.
Between the 10th and 15th centuries, the lords divided the land into
individual farms that in Gorenjska were passed on in their entirety
from one generation to the next. The peasant worked the given
land, giving a large share of the produce to the feudal lord and
performing the obligatory socage or feudal duties. Working the land
demanded a great deal of toil and drudgery. The feudal lord also
governed the peasant's private life, among other things granting
permission for marriage and deciding on inheritance. Families had
large numbers of children, often more than ten, but due to hunger,
illness and war very few survived. The farm was inherited by only
one child, while the others married in the neighbourhood or went
to work as farmhands or maids.
THE SETTLEMENT OF SLAVIC NEWCOMERS IN THE
GORENJSKA REGION
The settlement of Slavs on the territory of the present day
Gorenjska began in the second half of the 7th century AD.
This can clearly be seen from the burial grounds and the rare
remains of settlements, such as the one at Pristava in Bled,
at Dobro Polje and at Šmartno near Cerklje. The already
cultivated plots of land were very inviting for the newcomers.
They erected numerous new settlements, best illustrated by
Blejski kot. Occasionally, they buried their dead in the ruins
of Roman villas, such as at Britof near Kranj and at Rodine.
The contacts between Slavs and the indigenous population
are attested to by the material culture, such as pottery and
some types of jewellery, as well as by folk traditions, such
as tales about mythological giants known as Ajdi, about the
Fates and fairies known as “white women”.
The old settlements built after the collapse of the Roman
empire were located on difficult to access heights. These
settlements, such as Ajdna, Sv. Lovrenc and Gradišèe
above Bašelj, Sv. Jakob above Potoèe, and Trnje near Škofja
Loka, became deserted after the arrival of Slavs. In Kranj,
the biggest and most important walled settlement from the
late Roman period, life continued as before. The early Slav
settlers did not encroach on the town; rather, they built
new settlements around it in Gorenja Sava, Spodnji Bitenj,
Drulovka and Mlaka near Kranj.
Only when the population converted to Christianity in the
9th century did Kranj, as the seat of a large parish, become
an administrative and religious centre. Alongside the church
there was a large graveyard for people from the wider area.
Kranj became the centre of the Duchy of Carniola and later,
following the Frankish administrative reforms, the seat of
government of the border province.
Dr. M. Sagadin
A significant proportion of Gorenjska’s economy
consisted of iron-making, which is a very old skill.
On the Gorenjska hills people began searching for
iron ore more than two millennia ago. At the same
time they herded livestock, so iron-making has long
been connected with mountain pasturing. From the
very beginning, iron was a source of strength and
power belonging to the ruler. The locals benefited
mainly indirectly from the large quantities of world-
famous Noric iron that were produced – earning
money through charcoal-making, mining and carting,
which provided a solid basis for Gorenjska's
economy.
2322
In 2007, near Lesce, during the construction of the Gorenjska
motorway, workers came across three iron ingots – semi-
finished casting products dating from 2000 years ago. It is
almost certain that these objects were made by the iron-
makers in this area and that they were intended to go to an
unknown Roman centre for further processing. In antiquity,
Noric iron (Ferrum NoricumI), an iron with steel-like qualities
that was made in Carinthia and the present day Gorenjska,
was famous far and wide. The high quality of the products
was made possible by local iron ore rich in manganese, as
well as the special skills of the local iron-makers, who further
improved the various types of pig iron by re-forging and using
the most appropriate coal. The increased carbon levels in the
iron from these processes made its characteristics closer to
those of steel.
Iron ingots from Lesce (Gorenjska Museum collection,photo T. Lauko)
Smoke kitchen, hiša and monotonous food
The medieval houses in these areas were wooden, consisting of a
single space while the entrance was protected from rain and snow
by a shed-like structure. On the other side of the roofed area in
front of the entrance there was a stable.
Smoke spread throughout the single room and escaped through
the uncovered part of the thatched roof. The fireplace was the
heart of a peasant home – fire provided light and warmth, and
the food was cooked on it. Planned settlements, such as those in
Bitnje or Šenèur near Kranj, were built following a unified model
and probably had built-in stoves with a fireplace.
Roughly 500 years ago, fireplaces were relocated to the entrance
chamber, which is known as a smoke kitchen. The now smoke-
free space with a stove became the main family room. With time,
houses with more than one room began to be built.
The diet was simple, consisting of home-grown or gathered
produce, and based on grains in the form of kasha or flour. The old
peasant saying Eighteen times kasha, then Sunday is an illustration
of this. Because of kasha (kaša in Slovenian), the places below the
mountains from Begunje to Žirovnice are known locally as Kašarija
(Kashaland). Sometimes, instead of kasha, people would eat a
gruel of flour and water.
The origin of the village of Rodine
In Roman times, a number of villae rusticae or country villas
appeared in Gorenjska. They consisted of a residential part and
outbuildings, surrounded by the fields and meadows that belonged
to the villa. One such villa was discovered at the village of Rodine.
Later, new settlers built their homes around the remains of these
villas and mixed with the indigenous population. The last to settle
here, 1400 years ago, were Slavs. Graves from that time have
been found in Rodine, Smokuè, Doslovèe, Begunje and Moste.
In the 10th century Rodine became a parish centre under the
patronage of St. Clement. At that time there were at least two
farms in the village. This was also the time when the land began to
be distributed by the feudal lord resulting in the system of working
The fireplace in a shepherd’s dwelling in
Velopolje, photographed in 1978. The fireplace
was built from a wooden frame, stones and sand. This is the simplest type of preserved fireplace in Gorenjska, once typical
of wooden houses.(Photographic library of the
Gorenjska museum, photo D. Holynski)
24 25
land on farms of 15-20 hectares, known as hides. Over time, the
number of farms increased. Each peasant received a plot of land
for a house and outbuildings, while the fields and meadows were
in different locations around the village. In most of Gorenjska, land
was usually divided into units (gruda) of varying sizes and shapes.
As the population grew over the centuries the existing land was
divided into new cultivated units, while new land had to be found
outside the initial nucleus, often by clearing forest. The result of
these centuries of development involving inheritance and small
purchases can be seen in the cadastral map produced during the
land survey carried in the 19th century under Emperor Franz I.
MENTIONS OF GORENJSKA VILLAGES IN WRITTEN SOURCES
From the 11th to the 15th century, the Middle Ages shaped
in a multitude of ways the Gorenjska landscape and its
economy, as well as the social structure that survived for a
number of centuries. There appeared villages bearing names
that are still in use. And in these villages, one-family farms
known as hides appeared. In Gorenjska, the earliest records
in written sources are mainly from settlements in the Škofja
Loka and Radovljica areas.
973 Škofja Loka, Selca, Žabnica, Suha pri Škofji Loki
1002 Stražišèe pri Kranju
1004 Bled
1029 Dovje
1050 Kranjska Gora
1050 Begunje, Brezje, Krnica, Želeèe in Mužje pri Bledu
1050 Bistrica pri Tržièu, Kovor, Leše, Visoèe pri Kovorju
1060 Preddvor
1063 Koritno
1065 Bohinj
1075 Sebenje, Selo pri Bledu, Zasip pri Bledu, Zgoša
1085 Mlino pri Bledu
A cart on a medieval fresco
of Holy Sunday in Crngrob, which
shows the washing of linen cloth.
(Fresco reconstruction, Slovenian Ethno-graphic Museum, photo M. Habiè)
MEDIEVAL ŠKOFJA LOKA
Škofja Loka is one of Slovenia’s most beautiful medieval
towns. Originally it was called Loka, whilst in medieval
documents the following forms of the name appear: Lonca,
Loka, Lack.
In 973 the Roman-German Emperor Otto II donated the town
and its surroundings to the Freising Bishopric and so it gradually
became known as Škofja Loka (škof is the Slovenian word
for bishop) or by its German equivalent Bischoflack. The Loka
estate was the largest in Slovenia and survived until 1803.
The administrative centre of the Loka estate was constructed
by the Freising bishops on a hill above the confluence of the
Poljane Sora and Selca Sora rivers. The oldest part is the
tower-like castle on Krancelj. In the 13th century, a lower
castle in a more favourable economic and transport location
was added. Below it there grew a settlement of craftsmen and
merchants, first mentioned in 1248 as a market settlement
and then in 1274 as a town. The town and the castle were
surrounded by a wall with five town gates. Space within the
walls was limited, so the townspeople built tall houses with
narrow streets in between. There was more space only on
what is now Mestni trg (Town Square). In the Middle Ages,
townspeople made a living from crafts and trade, and
partly from agriculture. Škofja Loka was located next to an
important trade route running from Styria across the Tuhinj
Valley, past Kamnik and Smlednik, to the Primorska region
and past Ilirska Bistrica to Rijeka.
The Freising bishops relocated settlers from Bavaria, Carinthia
and Tyrol to the Sora Plain, the Poljane Valley and the Selca
Valley because around the year 1000 these areas were only
sparsely populated. To provide the new farms with sufficient
land, extensive woodland areas were cleared. On the Sora
Plain, the settlement and the emergence of new farms that
began in the 11th century ended before the late 13th century. In
the two valleys, however, new villages and isolated farms
continued to appear until the late 15th century. It was at that
time that Železniki became an iron-making centre.
Nine strips comprising 47 scenes are arranged around
the suffering Jesus. The scenes show activities with which
believers would be torturing the Saviour again if they perform
them on a Sunday or a holy day. Torment in hell, pictured
bottom right, awaits all those who disobey. The fresco is
interesting due to the depiction of medieval activities and
crafts, such as hunting with a falcon, shoeing a horse,
growing flax, spinning and weaving, dyeing linen, bathing,
going to the inn, dancing and so on.
BUILDING CASTLES IN THE CLOUDS
/France Prešeren/
3Fresco of Holy Sunday, mid-15th century, the workshop of Janez of Ljubljana, the western facade of Crngrob church.(A reconstruction of the original kept by the Škofja Loka Museum, photo J. Štukl)
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28 29
While he serf was dependent on the feudal lord, the lord was dependent on the serf ’s labour, for the only guarantee of strength and riches was carefully tended land. Landed estates were also owned by the Church, which was deeply ensconced in the feudal system, and also controlled the spiritual life of both the lord and the serf.
The castle was the fortified home of the lord of the manor, the
centre of his estate and of legal and judicial power over the serfs.
The oldest preserved castle in Slovenia is Bled, which is mentioned
in written sources from the year 1011. Between the 11th and
16th centuries hundreds of castles and manor houses were built
in Gorenjska. The earliest castles were fortified towers built on
strategic points to guard roads, crossing points and people. The
lord of the manor was answerable to and subordinate to the
higher feudal lord who granted him land. His power and fate were
dependent on ties of kinship, triumphs and defeats.
Almost every village had a church. Many were painted with
frescoes and are among the most beautiful monuments to this
time in Slovenia.
At the time of the Turkish incursions, churches were also places of
refuge for the local inhabitants, so many of them were surrounded
by a defensive wall.
Medieval estates
In the late 10th century the ruler began to distribute land among
the important noble families and bishoprics. In the early 13th
century the most powerful were the Counts of Andechs, who
were based in Kamnik but who also established the town of
Kranj. The remaining land was divided between the bishoprics
of Freising and Brixen, and the noble Ortenburg family. Around
1400 the Ortenburgs were at the height of their power, which
was based partly on iron-making; they owned a number of
castles, including Pusti Castle above Lipnica. When the Andechs
and Ortenburgs counts died out, their estates and castles in
Gorenjska passed to the Celje counts.
Bled depicted on a copper engraving from Janez Vajkard Valvazor'sTopographia ducatus Carniolae modernae, printed in 1679.
In the early 11th century, the inhabitants of the old Slavic district of Bled were included in the Bled estate. The castle became the administrative, economic and cultural centre of the estate belonging to the Bishopric of Brixen.
Estates in Gorenjska in the early 13th century(Milko Kos, Historical Institute, Scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
30 31
Pusti grad or Lipnica Castle or Waldenberg
Pusti Castle is also known as as Lipnica Castle or in German
as Waldenberg. The estate was managed by the Ortenburg
family, who in the early 12th century acquired the land below
the Karavanke Alps, Kamen Castle near Begunje and Pusti
grad near Lipnica. The first mention of the latter in historical
sources is in 1228, when it was taken over by Count Frederick
of Ortenburg. His family lived here until 1418 or the death of
Frederick III, who was responsible for the development of iron-
making in Gorenjska.
The story of Pusti Castle
The death of the last Ortenburg left its traces in the folk tradition
of the Lipnica Valley. A legend tells of the count and his unfaithful
wife. The cuckolded count gets to know a beautiful girl and begins
living with her in Pusti Castle. When she bears him a son, his wife
gets her revenge by slyly sticking a needle in the baby's head. She
offers the count half an apple that she has cut with a knife poisoned
on one side of its blade and eats the other half. Only when he finds
his dead son does he realise what his wife has done. In his final
agonies he throws her from the castle battlements and sets fire to
the castle. The wife changes into a snake, which still today slithers
through the ruins. She will be rescued by one who, as a baby, lay in
a cradle made from the wood of a lime tree that grows among the
ruins and the countess will show him where the treasure of Pusti
Castle is hidden.
THE OLDEST CASTLES IN GORENJSKA
The first stone castles in Gorenjska were erected in the
11th and 12th centuries in difficult to access or naturally
protected locations. Many medieval castles appeared as the
result of the arrival of foreign church and secular feudal lords
in Slovenia and are mentioned in connection with them in
various documents.
1011 Bled Castle
1074 the castle in Stara Loka
1075 the Brixen fortification in Kranj
1136 Smlednik Castle
1147 Preddvor Castle
1154 the castle at Sora near Medvode
1156 New Castle above Preddvor
1174 Gradišèe above Bašelj
1178 Gorièane Castle
1192 Wartenberg Castle below Šmarjetna gora
1202 Old Castle and Small Castle in Kamnik
1228 Pusti Castle near Lipnica
1250 Mengeš
1262 Škofja Loka Castle
1263 Kamen Castle
1268 Jablje Castle
1278 Strmol Castle
The Ortenburg Mining Regulations
The Ortenburg Mining Regulations is a medieval legal document. It
was issued in 1381 by Count Frederick of Ortenburg and is one of
the oldest such documents in Slovenia. It was created as a result
of the changed social and economic conditions in the 14th century
in the Jesenice and Upper Sava River Valley area. Agriculture and
The ruins of Pusti Castle(Photo T. Hladnik)
3332
animal husbandry were badly developed there, and the feudal lords
were unable to collect the same taxes as elsewhere in Gorenjska.
The planned economic policy introduced by the Ortenburg family
improved conditions. Overgrown and marshy areas were settled
and turned into fertile fields. In addition, the iron smelting method
was changed: iron ore was no longer smelted in simple smelting
pits near the location where it was found, into which air had to be
conducted. Instead, blast furnaces were built in the valley, using
the power of water, combining furnaces, bellows and hammers.
The owners had to employ large numbers of people for different
tasks. The Ortenburg Mining Regulations laid the foundations for
the legal regulation of relations between furnace owners, skilled
craftsmen and workers. In addition, it represents the point when
the old fashioned iron making in higher locations above Jesenice
ended and the procedure was relocated to the valley.
WALL PAINTINGS
Frescoes in churches helped people to learn Bible stories
and understand religious teachings, for at this time most of
the population was illiterate and the mass took place in Latin,
which they could not understand.
The succursal church of St Leonard at Breg
near Preddvor
is famous for its medieval paintings. The frescoes in the presbytery
and on both triumphal arch walls are among the most beautiful and
best preserved medieval paintings. They were most likely painted
around 1420 by two Friuli painters, whose names are unknown.
Most of the medieval churches in the central part of Slovenia
(Carniola) were painted in a similar way. The altar space was
meant to symbolically represent heavenly Jerusalem on earth
as described in the Book of Revelation. On the vault, there is a
depiction of Christ in Glory, Christ the Judge or the Saviour, and he
is surrounded by the evangelists or their symbols, or sometimes by
the Church fathers. On the walls below there are depictions of the
Apostles, signifying the twelve supporting pillars of Christianity.
Sometimes there are also depictions of angels singing, praying or
The Rateèe Manuscriptnamed after its place of origin, is of historical importance to Gorenjska as it is the second oldest document in the Old Slovenian language. The Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed and Hail Mary are written in a mixture of Gorenjska (Upper Carniola), Dolenjska (Lower Carniola) and River Gail valley dialects. The manuscript dates from between 1362 and 1390, when Rateèe still belonged to the parish of Maria Gail, near what is now Villach in Austria. As it was discovered in Klagenfurt, it is also known as the Klagenfurt manuscript.(Provincial Archives in Klagenfurt)
Breg near Preddvor,
the succursal church of St
Leonard(Photo D.
Globoènik)
34 35
playing musical instruments. This type of the painting of the altar
vault became known as the Carniolan Presbytery.
The manner in which the part of the church intended for believers
is painted and known as Slovenian Gothic. It is characterised by
the depiction on the upper part of the arch wall of the offering of
Cain and Abel, whilst at the sides there is the Annunciation, and
above the side altars there are usually saints or scenes from their
life. Along the whole of the northern wall there is a depiction of the
journey and adoration of the Magi, who are shown moving towards
the altar.
On the northern and southern wall there are often depictions of
the Passion of the Christ, legends associated with the church’s
patrons and other saints or scenes from the life of Mary. The
horrific image of the Last Judgement is painted on the western
wall.
On the outside of medieval churches there was usually a portrayal
of St Christopher looking out at passers-by. Usually, this appeared
on the side facing the settlement. According to popular belief,
looking at this image offered protection against sudden death.
The eating and drinking habits of the wealthy
The diet and eating habits of the nobility were faithfully described
in the diary of Paolo Santonino, who was secretary to the Patriarch
of Aquileia. Between 1485 and 1487 Santonino travelled in
Carinthia and Styria, visiting on the way some places in Upper
Carniola (Gorenjska). In priests' houses and monasteries he
would be given boiled or roast fowl, fish, game, beef and lamb,
with a variety of sauces. Santonino also mentions various soups
and cabbage with bacon. His hosts were similarly generous with
desserts, fruit and cheeses, white bread and excellent wines. At
larger banquets, they were served with as many as seven courses.The Velesovo Madonna on a postcard from 1920s (Gorenjska Museum collections)
The sculpture of Mary in the pilgrim church in Velesovo is the oldest in Slovenia and at the same time all that remains from the original pilgrim church. The statue, dating from the early 13th century, is said to perform miracles and has since the late 14th century been dressed in valuable clothing in liturgical colours.
Maja Šubic and Irena Romih, a depiction of a
medieval meal according to
Santonino.(Photo T. Lunder)
The statue of the Pieta originates from Bistrica near Tržiè. It is wooden and would once have been painted in lively colours. It was made around 1510 by an unknown master, nowadays usually referred to as the “Master of Mary from Trboje” after another statue of Mary in Trboje near Kranj.(Gorenjska Museum collections,photo T. Lauko)
36 37
MEDIEVAL KAMNIK
The oldest traces of a settlement in Kamnik have been found
at what is known as ‘Small Castle’. The dwelling remains
go back to the New Stone Age, i.e. the 4th millennium BC.
In the early Middle Ages, an old Slavic settlement stood on
the same spot and the mayor may have been based there.
Next to the settlement there was a cemetery with a chapel
that stood on the same spot as the present day Small Castle
chapel. From around 1000 onwards, Kamnik was the seat
of the Sempt-Ebersberg Margraves. Their estate lay north of
the River Sava, between Trojane and Kokra. Kamnik enjoyed
its greatest renown under the noble Andechs family, who
granted the town its rights. The townspeople of Kamnik are
mentioned for the first time in a document from 1229. The
Andechs ensured solid economic foundations by introducing
a forced transit route through Kamnik and the Tuhinj Valley
which replaced the former route along Èrni graben. Kamnik
was also the centre of the Carniolan Mark and acquired a
mint, which minted coins for the noble Spanheim family,
who acquired the Kamnik estate in 1248 and succeeded
the Andechs. The main trade route between Styria and
Carniola past Kamnik was controlled by two castles. Both
were erected by the Bavarian Counts of Andechs. Old Castle
stood on a rocky ridge, while Small Castle was built above
a steep cliff. Small Castle was destroyed by an earthquake
and fire in the 16th century and was not rebuilt, but a two-
storey castle chapel from the 12th and 13th centuries with a
beautiful Romanesque portal has been preserved.
Dr. M. Sagadin
The threat from the Turks
The most violent Turkish attacks came in the period after 1470.
The incursions were aimed at Carinthia, so Gorenjska (Upper
Carniola) was pillaged less than the other provinces. In spite
of this, local farmers set up fortified encampments or refuges
to which they could flee with their animals and belongings. The
building of these encampments was supervised by the feudal lords
and local princes, for defending farmers was also in their interests.
There were more than 30 such encampments in Gorenjska, with
that in Podbrezje being one of the smallest. Its location on a rise
above level ground gave the defenders a good view to all sides.
Lighting bonfires on exposed hilltops was the quickest way of
warning of an imminent Turkish threat. The bonfire at Ljubljana
Castle very quickly and effectively passed on a warning to
Gorenjska, where bonfires were then lit on the hills of Šmarna
Gora and Šmarjetna Gora, at St Peter's above Begunje and in Bela
Peè near Rateèe. These signals were followed by the lighting of
many small local bonfires on the surrounding hills, where a great
deal of firewood was brought by cart, while mortars were put in
place and guards posted.
The anti-Turk encampment in Podbrezje(Photo H. Rant)
38
JANŽ KHISL
(born aroun 1530, died in1593)
Janž Khisl from Fužine near Ljubljana was a successful
businessman, the owner of a paper making plant and the then
only glassworks in Carniola. The paper bore the watermark of
the Khisl coat-of-arms. As a Protestant, Khisl supported the
publication of Slovenian Protestant hymn books. In addition,
he was a benefactor to and supporter of art and science. His
son Jurij also supported the Protestant Church in Carniola.
After Jurij’s death in 1605, the Khisl family in Carniola died
out.
Khislstein Castle in Kranj
Where Khislstein Castle now stands, as early as 1500 years ago
there stood a defensive wall. This plot of land was acquired in
1256 by the Ortenburgs, who built a fort on it. When the family
died out in the 15th century it passed into the ownership of the
Celje counts and, after the death of the last of the line, to the
Habsburgs. In the mid-16th century the fort was bought by Janž
Khisl of Fužine (now part of Ljubljana) and in 1578 he rebuilt it as
a residential manor house. From that time on it has been known
as Khislstein Castle, although since 1592 it has had a number of
different owners.
THE PROVINCE OF CARNIOLA
HAS NO TOWN MORE BEAUTIFUL
/aft er France Prešern/
4Janž Khisl’s coat-of-arms. On 12 December 1561 Emperor Ferdinand I improved Khisl’s coat-of arms with a diploma, granted him a noble title and the right to use a red wax seal.(Janez Vajkard Valvazor: Opus insignium armorumque, 1687–1688, page 38)
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40 41
Kranj, a town with four names: Carnium – Creina – Krainburg – Kranj. A medieval
settlement, whose name is unknown,
was followed by Antique Carnium, then
medieval Creina, then Krainburg and today
Kranj. The name and appearance of the
modern town conceal an uninterrupted
history of six millennia.
The oldest homes revealed by numerous archaeological studies in
the old Kranj town centre were built on a safe rocky prominence
above the confluence of the Sava and Kokra rivers in the Neolithic
period. Upon the collapse of the Western Roman Empire a
Germanic military stronghold grew up here, the name of which
1400 years ago was first written in Latin as Carnium. When the
Langobards and other Germanic tribes moved into Italy at the
end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century, the original
inhabitants were joined by Slavs. Through this intermingling of the
peoples and cultures the foundations of the Slovenian culture and
language were laid.
Kranj played an important role in the creation of the province of
Carniola, as a military and administrative centre with the seat of
the margrave. The town lay along a trade route, mentioned in
973 as Via Chreinariorum or the road of the Carniolans. Another
name for the town was Creina, which first appeared in 1060 in the
documents of the Brixen bishops.
Kranj started to develop as a real medieval town in the 12th century.
It is one of the oldest Slovenian towns, having been given its town
privileges by the Andechs counts. It was mentioned in 1256 as
civitate Chreinburch or the town of Kranj.
In the 14th century the town passed into the ownership of the
Habsburgs, who placed it in the hands of feudal lords, including
the Celje counts. Until the mid-18th century, Kranj was the only
princely town in Upper Carniola, directly subordinate to the
Emperor. The towns of Škofja Loka, Kamnik and Radovljica were
Craftsmen
In Kranj there were many
craftsmen supplying the
townspeople and tho-
se living nearby. There
were millers, blacksmi-
ths, butchers, potters,
tanners, shoemakers,
tailors and others.
Around 1400 there were
15 bakers. They were
joined together in a
guild, one of the town's
instead subordinate to their feudal lord. At the time of the French
occupation from 1809 to 1813, Kranj became a municipal centre
or mairie and in 1810, for one year, it became the home to a
lower secondary school in which the language of instruction was
Slovenian.
In the 19th century, it was one of the smaller towns of the Austrian
Empire, with the German name Krainburg. In 1918, after the
formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, it finally
took on the name Kranj. Use of the Slovenian name was interrupted
only by the Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
A copper engraving published in 1649 in the Topography of Austrian Provinces by Matthaüs
Merian (1593-1650), is the oldest known depiction
of Kranj, showing the noticeable regular pyramid-
like form of the town's outline, with the central bell tower of the parish church.
The copper engraving served as the basis for
the coloured graphic that appeared in the Great
Atlas published in 1672 in Amsterdam.
(Gorenjska Museum collections,photo D. Holynski)
Maja Šubic and Irena Romih, a depiction of a carpenter, 2011. (Photo T. Lunder)
42 43
Protestants in Kranj
Kranj is linked to Protestantism. Primož Trubar, a Protestant
clergyman who wrote A First Reader and Catechism, the first
Slovenian books, published in 1550, lived for a short while in
Kranj and at Brdo Castle. He was a guest of the Egkh counts, the
owners of Brdo Castle and the ossuary chapel next to the Kranj
parish church. Kranj was also the birthplace of his wife Barbara.
In the 1670s the Church of the Holy Rosary in Kranj, where
the main preacher was Gašper Rokavec, became a centre of
Protestantism. But due to the strength of the Catholic Church, in
1601 the Bishop of Ljubljana, Tomaž Hren, had Protestant books
burned on the main square in Kranj. The only book excluded was
Jurij Dalmatin's Slovenian translation of the Bible.
oldest. In line with its rules, all the bread was put by the bakers
into a “bread chamber” from where it was sold. In this way they
tried to ensure quality and a uniform price. The aim of the guild
was not only to turn a profit, but also to guarantee a good living
for its members and to protect the socially threatened families of
guild members.
Carpenters were important craftsmen, engaged in the building
of houses, which were largely of wood and until the 18th century
most were covered with wooden shingles. Carpentry tools did not
change greatly from the oldest times right up to the appearance
of electric tools.
THE NOBLE EGKH FAMILY
The Egkh counts owned extensive estates around Kranj,
including Brdo Castle. In the town itself, they had a house
next to the parish church. In 1463, between their house and
the church, on the site of an old ossuary, they built a chapel
of the Holy Mother. In front of the chapel was the family tomb
with their coat-of-arms and an inscription of the year 1475.
Kranj townhouses
The economic success of the townspeople was reflected in their
everyday life. Townhouses were better furnished and contained
a variety of kitchenware. There was usually an open hearth in
the kitchen with fire-tongs for picking up pots, some of iron and
tin, the rest earthenware. Dishes, plates and jugs were kept in
wooden racks on the wall. Houses were lit with candles and tallow
dips on simple ceramic or metal candlesticks and bases.
Layer’s House
The painter Leopold Layer (1752-1828) had his studio in house
built in the early 19th century. His successors also worked here.
The façade features
Classicist and Baroque de-
coration with Biedermeier
influences. Attention is
drawn to the eminent fa-
mily by the reliefs on the
façade. One of them is a
bust of the artist with his
painting requisites. The
house interior is richly
painted.
Layer’s House(Photo D. Globoènik)
A golden earring in the shape of a snake swallowing its tail, from the Egkh family tomb, 15th or 16th century. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
44 45
The graveyard next to the Kranj parish church
The oldest graveyard appeared around an early Christian church
dating from the 6th century. The original town inhabitants were
buried there and later also Slavic incomers. The graveyard
remained in use until 1789, when subsequent burials moved to
the location of the present day Prešeren’s Grove. It is one of the
most important medieval graveyards in which burials took place
uninterruptedly for nearly 1300 years. Extensive archaeological
research has shown that this was the most important graveyard in
Slovenia from the time of the settlement of Slavs in this region.
Many typical Slavic and Old Slovenian jewellery items and knives
have been found in the early graves, while the later graves, in
addition to the remains of clothes and some jewellery, also held
numerous crosses and holy medals, which indicate frequent
pilgrimages to holy places undertaken by the Kranj inhabitants.
During construction work in
1970, a number of painted
wooden coffins from the
second half of the 18th
century were found in a
tomb of the parish church
of St Cantianus and his fellow martyrs in Kranj. The coffins are
painted with black and white crosses and other symbols
connected with death and resurrection.
A ROSARY FROM A GRAVE BESIDE THE PARISH CHURCH –
A HOLY OBJECT BROUGHT BY A PILGRIM FROM
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
A rosary of jet beads with two hands carved from bone was
discovered in one of the numerous graves around Kranj parish
church. Rosaries of black beads were common in the 17th
century, but the beads were usually made of wood. Even the
crosses at the end of the rosary were usually made of black
wood. Rosaries made of jet and with hands carved from bone
– a symbol of Jesus Christ – are a rare find. They used to be
brought by pilgrims from Santiago de Compostela and we
are assuming this is the case with the deceased in the grave
next to the parish church. The rosary probably accompanied
him as a precious holy object and a memento of the long
pilgrimage to St Jacob in Santiago de Compostela.
Mag. D. Knez
Tin kitchenware, plates, dishes and jugs, 17th century. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
Ceramic candlesticks, cups, goblets and a plate from a potters kiln, 16th century, found between Khislstein and Lovski castles. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo R. Urankar)
Temple rings and finger ringsare the most common jewellery items found in the graves of Old Slavic women buried in the graveyard around the Kranj parish church in the 9th and 10th centuries. This burial ground is the largest site of this kind in Slovenia.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
Gold jewellery and a Venetian coin found in graves around
the Kranj parish church, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
A jet rosary with hands carved from bone, 17th century.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
4746
The parish church of St Cantius, Cantianus,
Cantianilla and Protus
The parish church is not only of great cultural value but is also
an important witness to the development of the town. The first
church on this site was already here around the year 500. There
remain only the foundations of the octagonal baptistery, which
can be seen in the ossuary beside the church. In the 10th century,
under the Patriarch of Aquileia, a large parish seat was established
here. At this time a pre-Romanesque church was built, which was
later demolished for the building of a Gothic church.
The Kranj church is a key example of Gothic architecture in
Slovenia. The long chancel was built at the turn of the 15th century,
while the nave with its Late Gothic ceiling and bell tower were
probably created between 1440 and 1460. The church became a
model for building other churches of the single chamber type, for
example in Škofja Loka, Radovljica and Crngrob.
The vault, supported by four octagonal pillars, is decorated with
frescoes from around 1460, which have been ascribed to the
Žirovnica Master. Above the central eastern door is a late 15th
century bas relief depicting the Mount of Olives.
THE KRANJ ALTAR
Only the painted wings remain of the Late Gothic altar
commissioned by Matija Operta, a Kranj priest, archdeacon
of Carniola and doctor of canon law, around 1500 for the
parish church. The painter who decorated the four panels is
known as the Kranj Altar Master or as Vid from Kamnik, and
signed himself as VF.
The altar contained statues, most likely of the church’s
patron saints, and could be closed with the two painted
wings. On workdays, when the wings were closed, scenes
depicting Christ on the Mount of Olives and the Resurrection
could be seen. On holy days, when the wings were open,
scenes from the legend about the church’s patrons could be
seen. the panel on the left depicts the flight of the Aquileian
martyrs Cantius, Cantianus and Cantianilla, as well as their
teacher Protus, and on the right is their martyrdom. The
saints died a martyr’s death in a place called Aquae Gradatae
(now Škocjan ob Soèi) and were highly revered on the
territory of the Aquileian Patriarchate.
The right panel shows a law officer dragging Cantius from the
arms of his brother, while their sister Cantianilla is forced to
worship an idol, depicted by the painter on a Renaissance
pillar. In the bottom left there is the beheaded teacher Protus
and in the bottom right Sisinnius. The scene is witnessed by
a large group of onlookers. The figure looking towards the
viewer is a self-portrait of the Master of the Kranj altar.
Above the two scenes there is tracery which at one time
continued into carved arches above the gilded statues of the
saints in the central part of the altar. The whole altar was
probably over five metres tall.
These precious works of art from around 1500 were lost to
Kranj in 1886. In an effort to raise money to renovate the
town’s churches, the
two Gothic wing pan-
els were sold for 800
florins to the Court
Museum in Vienna.
The wings are today
on show in the
Austrian Gallery in
the Lower Belvedere
in Vienna.
The death of Cantius and his fellow martyrs on the wing of the late Gothic altar of the parish church,around1500(Vienna, Österreichische Galerie, Museum mittelalterlicher Kunst)
48 49
ILLUMINATED
MANUSCRIPTS
The Kranj Antiphonary
is a collection of
liturgical chants from
1491. It is written in
large Gothic script and
richly decorated with
miniature illustrations.
Among them is the
oldest colour depiction of the Kranj coat-of-arms with an
eagle on a silver background. The manuscript was created by
Johannes von Werd from Augsburg, probably during a visit to
Carniola.
The Book of Morals of St Gregory the Great consists of writings
interpreting the Old Testament book of Job. It represents one of
the most important examples of Gothic illustrated manuscripts
created at the request
of a patron in Slovenian
lands. The manuscripts
were created in 1410 at
the behest of the Kranj
priest Koloman de
Manswerd.
KRANJ, A FAIR TOWN
Kranj was a meeting point of trade routes and the economic
centre of Upper Carniola, with weekly markets and annual fairs.
From 1839 onwards the town had five annual fairs. The first
An antiphonary from Kranj (Ljubljana Archiepiscopal Archives,
photo M. Smerke)
The Book of Morals of St Gregory the Great(Ljubljana Archiepiscopal Archives, photo M. Smerke)
A fair day in Kranjon a postcard from the early 20th century(Gorenjska Museum collections)
A document from 1650 with which Emperor Ferdinand granted the right to a new annual livestock fair in Kranj.(Gorenjska Museum collection, photo. D. Holynski)
50 51
THE MARKET HAND
The gloved hand represents the ruler who granted fairs to the
town and the sword the market judiciary that ensured order
at the fair, so that all could conduct business undisturbed.
The hand in Kranj was hung in a ceremonial fashion,
accompanied by the ringing of bells on the eve of each
annual fair, and was then festively taken down again at the
end. During weekly markets, the hand was not hung.
was St Mark's on 25th April, then 1st August, St Tilen's on 21st
September, then 28th October and finally St Martin's on 11th
November. The fairs attracted people from across the Austrian
Empire. The weekly grain market was the largest in Carniola and
Inner Austria.
As early as the 13th century tolls were charged in Kranj for all
the goods those passed through the town or were sold there.
Both buyers and sellers had to pay a toll on the grain, livestock,
cloth, linen, salt and small goods sold at weekly markets and
annual fairs. These tolls covered taxes; the wages of the town
administration and courts; and maintenance of buildings, bridges
and roads.
Town hall
Today's town hall came about through the fusion of two older
buildings: the old town hall and a mansion house on the right.
On the ground floor of the original town hall is a Late Gothic
«pillared hall« from the early 16th century. This once served as
a town warehouse for goods; in front of it was an open porch,
where townspeople gathered to discuss various matters.
The mansion house is one of the most important examples of
17th century architecture in Slovenia.
The interior Renaissance hall has two inlaid doors showing
the year 1638. The second floor of the mansion was damaged
in the large fire that struck the town in 1811. In 1921 the
mansion was bought and renovated by the municipality, and
combined with the neighbouring old town hall.
The market hand with a sword as a symbol of justice that from the 15th century onwards hung from the Town Hall in Kranj. (Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo D. Holynski)
Town hall(Photo D. Globoènik)
53
THE KRANJ MEDIEVAL DEFENCE WALLS
The oldest rampart in Kranj appeared over 2700 years ago,
in the early Iron Age. Upon the arrival of the Romans 2000
years ago, a new defence wall was built. After the collapse
of the Roman Empire, just before the arrival of Slavs in the
6th century, Carnium was surrounded by an even stronger
defence wall with towers. In the same place there appeared
the later medieval wall, first mentioned between 1065 and
1077 in connection with the Carniolan stronghold of the
The tollman's house
Among the most interesting Gothic-Renaissance buildings in
Kranj is the tollman's house, which was first mentioned in 1527.
The building is a good example of an early form of townhouse with
an overhanging first floor supported by a stone pillar. The façade
is decorated with restored paintings from the first half of the 16th
century. The house got its name from the toll collectors who lived
in it in the 18th century.
Brixen bishops. Documents from 1221 mention the name of
the town as Creinburg (‘burg’ means a fortified settlement).
The town moat is first mentioned in 1404 and the wall
appears in historical writings before the mid-15th century.
Historical sources from 1483 mention the northern or upper
town gate. The town walls and moats took on their final shape
in connection with the defence against Turkish raids, when in
1478 Duke Frederick III ordered the additional fortification of
castles and towns in Carniola. A large Renaissance fortress
was built as part of the Kranj town wall on Pungart hill, a
tower within the Khislstein Castle complex, another tower at
Škrlovec and a new line of defence walls on the north side
of the town. The fortress on Pungart hill was demolished in
1879.
The final shape of the town’s defence walls can clearly
be seen from the oldest depiction of Kranj by Merian
from 1649. The added parts have the characteristics of
Renaissance fortifications that show the increased role of
artillery in warfare. This is reflected in the slanting ground
floor of the fortification, the stone bulge that separates the
ground floor from the first floor, the thicker walls and their
modest height. Ramparts had brick or stone walls on both
sides and were reinforced with moats. The northern wall, still
preserved between the street known as Reginèeva and the
Jelen Hotel, was ten metres thick. The lower part of the wall,
which had a moat nine metres wide and four metres deep
plus a drawbridge was on the square known as Maistrov trg.
The tollman's house (Photo D. Globoènik)
The town wall with a
moat and the quarries for
millstones on the location
of the old JelenHotel, destroyed
during construction
of a new building in
2011(Photo
M. Sagadin)
54
THE FIRST TOWNS IN UPPER CARNIOLA
From the 13th century onwards, on the initiative of the
feudal lords, the first towns with town rights appeared in
Upper Carniola (Gorenjska). The status of a town brought
with it a great deal of prestige and was granted by the
provincial ruler. A town had the right to a wall. It became
the centre of the judicial district and an economic centre
for the wider area. The inhabitants of towns were free. The
first written mentions in sources of the oldest towns in
Upper Carniola are:
1256 Kranj
1267 Kamnik
1310 Škofja Loka
1478 Radovljica
The foundations of a large entrance tower were also found,
which dominates the northern part of the town on Merian’s
1649 depiction.
The Špital defence tower was positioned outside the town
and, judging by the building method, is older than the
Renaissance fortifications from 1478. Within the scope of
the new defence wall, it functioned as a pre-fortification that
protected access to the drawbridge in front of the northern
town gate.
Dr. M. Sagadin
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Since prehistoric times, many paths have run across Gorenjska’s mountain passes and along its river valleys, connecting the Mediterranean with Central Europe and the Baltic with the Balkans. Life alongside such routes and involvement in long-distance trade led to the people of Gorenjska becoming well-informed and prudent.
Passing trade offered a living to many in Gorenjska. Beside busy
roads appeared inns with large stables; where the gradient was
steep, farmers offered extra draught horses; in the villages there
were blacksmiths, saddlers, wheelwrights and road menders.
The traffic also provided a living for collectors of bridge and road
tolls. Thanks to their skills, craft products or produce, many locals
became directly involved in long-distance trade.
Three hundred years ago goods carriers from Kropa or Bohinj
needed up to three weeks to make their way to the Friuli region
(now in Italy). On the way there they would carry nails, wood and
charcoal, and on the way back wine. They could transport up to
150 kilos of nails on a single horse. Carters from the villages below
Mount Stol and from Jezersko would take a week to transport a
ton and a half of timber to Trieste on their heavy wagons. The
path alongside the River Sava from Kranj up to Rateèe took three
days on foot.
Such trade contacts brought news, skills and experience, while
the money earned made a significant contribution to a better life.
Manual carrying of goods
Wooden carriers were used to carry firewood, tools and goods for
sale. With a large carrier placed on a padded ring on the head, up
to a hundred kilos of goods could be carried. This was the only
method that could be used to carry goods up the steep paths to
Alpine dairy farms.
In the winter sledges were used to bring down iron ore, charcoal,
wood and hay from mountain meadows. In deep snow, snowshoes
would be worn and in icy conditions
crampons. Skis were not used in
Upper Carniola until soldiers brought
them during the First World War.
With the coming of the railway in 1870, the settlements along
the tracks developed rapidly, while places further away began to
stagnate.
A belt bag that belonged to Lorenz Pezhar, a wealthy farmer and innkeeper, occasionally also livestock dealer, second half of the 19th century.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
With a large carrier placed on the head up to one hundred kilos of goods could be carried.
(Gorenjska Museum collections)
58 59
Carting or furmanstvo
Carting was a very important additional activity in this area for two
hundred years. First to Trieste, after 1850 to Ljubljana, and after
1870 to railway stations in Kranj and elsewhere there travelled
long lines of heavy carts pulled by a pair or four of horses. The
carter's life was described in a novel by the writer Janez Jalen.
TRANSPORT USING OXEN OR HORSES WOODEN TRANSPORT CONTAINERS
Wood lost its primacy for storage containers less than fifty
years ago and was replaced by plastic. In the past, liquids
and other goods were transported in barrels and other
vessels. Carriers who transported nails from the ironworks in
Kropa or Železniki to Italy carried their goods in barrels. It is
thought that they transported nails to Italy and wine back
home in the same barrels. Butter was transported from
Bohinj to Trieste by cart in tall vessels made from small
wooden panels that were narrower at the bottom and closed
with a wooden lid at the top. Smaller vessels were used for
lard. And in the smallest vessels, only ten centimetres high,
carriers transported food for themselves – lard, sausage or
just cottage cheese. Water was carried in low barrels with
shoulder straps, while wine was transported in small barrels
with a more triangular shape. They were made by barrel
makers as an additional activity to farming, particularly in
Bohinj and the Selca Valley, where in 1902 a cooperative
was founded that had around 130 members.
Wayside shrines
A typical feature of
Gorenjska are wayside
shrines at crossroads, at
entrances to settlements
and in their centres, beside
churches, alongside passes
and on bridges. They
Wax horses as a votive offering, Štefanja Gora,19th century. The great economic importance of carting is shown by the age-old tradition of blessing horses on St Stephen's day, when owners carried round the altar holy images and wooden or wax horses.(Gorenjska Museum collections,photo J. Pukšiè)
Carts were most often pulled by oxen, which were slower but cheaper than horses. Cart horses for long distance transport were bred in Jezersko, around Kranj and Radovljica, and elsewhere in the area.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
A wayside shrine in Martuljk, photographed
by J. Ravnik.(Ilustrirani Slovenec, 1926)
marked the site of a murder or an accident or were erected to
protect the passers-by or to serve as signposts. Often, they would
mark the border between two parishes. In addition, they
symbolised the wealth of the households that erected them.
Roads built for motorised traffic
Due to an increase in motorised traffic the road between Ljubljana
and Bled was modernised before World War One. The new road
was at that time the only surfaced road in Slovenia. It was built by
the successful firm owned by Josip Slavec of Kranj. The section of
the road on the Gaštej incline which bridges the railway line was
from a construction point of view the most demanding part of the
whole road. THINGS WILL LOOK BRIGHTER FOR THE CARNIOLANS
/France Prešeren/
6
The Gaštej incline in Kranj, 1937(Gorenjska Museum collections)
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After 1750, influenced by the new
philosophy and scientific ideas of the
Enlightenment, the Austrian Empress
Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II
shaped a state with a powerful army and
effective taxation. Their reforms influenced
every aspect of life.
Although the Empress tried to tackle economic and cultural
backwardness, everyday life did not markedly improve. The lives
of families were marked by bad harvests, fires, epidemics and
high child mortality. Priests and teachers in particular tried to
encourage new ways of farming and the cultivation of new crops.
To this end, the first farming associations were formed. In 18th
century Upper Carniola, there were successful foundries with more
than 2,000 workers, producing more than 10,000 tons of raw
iron per year. They also forged semi-finished products, nails and
tools. The export of grain, linen cloth, horsehair sieves, iron and
iron products grew. Wholesale merchants appeared in addition to
small farm shops.
Economic development was greatly dependent on the improve-
ment of roads, especially to Kokra and Ljubelj. Roads were also
important to the postal service, which was improved by new post
stages; the first two were in Kranj and Tržiè.
Iron foundries
In Kropa, Kamna Gorica, Železniki, Bohinj and Radovna, iron
produced from local ore was hand forged into more than a hundred
kinds of nails, mainly for the Italian market. In Tržiè excellent steel
was produced and farming implements, especially scythes.
Gorenjska iron products also include chains and window meshes.
Most owners of foundries and forges provided accommodation for
their employees in their own homes. Workers were paid with
special coins marked with the owner's initials. In this way the
workers were obliged to buy fo-
odstuffs in the employer's shop
and drink in his inn. But in spite
of this slave-like relationship
there was no shortage of willing
workers, because by working in
the iron-making trade they
were excused the long military
service.
FARMING AND OTHER TOOLS
Old postcards show that many overgrown areas around
Gorenjska villages were once fields. In the 18th century every
bit of cultivated land offered the chance of producing food,
of which there was a great shortage. The soil was worked
using iron tools with wooden handles, and even ploughs were
wooden with iron ploughshares. Various hoes, picks, spades,
forks, axes and ploughshares were forged by town and village
blacksmiths from Antique times onwards. From the end of
the Middle Ages, nails and iron rods for export, as well as
farming tools, were produced in centres such as Kropa. The
town of Tržiè was renowned for its workshops producing
scythes and sickles. In the late 19th century two factories
developed there: in 1881 a factory producing scythes,
sickles and spades, owned by Karl Globoènik, and in 1883 a
factory making scythes and sickles owned by Kajetan Ahaèiè.
The Tržiè manufacture of farming tools was the largest in
Upper Carniola and most products were exported to Italy and
the Balkans.
Iron foundry money with which workers were paid and which could be used only in the owner's shop.(Iron Forging Museum in Kropa, photo T. Lauko)
64 65
Education
In 1774 a state decree was issued on the introduction of
schooling for children aged 6 to 12. Its primary goal was that
children learn German, because of military service which required
the understanding of German commands. At the same time,
knowledge of the language was expected to improve contacts
between the authorities and the people. An educated farmer
would be more economically successful and would therefore pay
more taxes. In country parishes single class technical schools
were set up. Only a few pupils from these went on to continue
their education in the schools that were gradually established in
towns.
The postal service
The oldest post stage in Upper Carniola was beside the road from
Ljubljana to Graz, at Podpeè near Lukovica. In the 18th century the
postal service was nationalised. The postal messenger was done away
with and a regular service was established between Ljubljana and
Klagenfurt, and later between Ljubljana and Villach.
The main post stage was in
Kranj, with others in Tržiè, at
Otok near Podvin, at Sava near
Jesenice and in Podkoren.
Potatoes
The first few baskets of potatoes were grown at the castle farm at
Brdo in 1787 and five years later a bushel of corn was planted for
the first time. That it took so long for the potato to be accepted
was due to general ignorance. For instance, some people were
poisoned after eating the leaves and stems, rather than the
underground tubers. Farmers began sowing corn, which spread
to these areas from Turkey, which is why it is in Gorenjska usually
called turšca. In the Upper Sava Valley corn is also known under
the name sirk and potatoes as èompe.
Diet
From the New World, as America was then called, there came the
potato and corn (maize), which became established only under
the pressure of Maria Theresa's reforms. Potatoes and corn
offered a much larger harvest than cereal crops, thus helping to
alleviate hunger. New farming methods included three-year crop
rotation: every third year clover was sown, which brought better
harvests and animal husbandry.
Slate pencils and writing tablet, still in use in the
20th century. (Gorenjska Museum
collections, photo T. Lauko)
Portrait of postal officer Lovrenc Razinger with a postillion’s hat and a horn, postage stamps from Razinger’s post stage in Podkoren and a letter, 19th century.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
Food cupboard, Golnik area, mid-19th century(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
Food cupboards began to be used in farmhouses in the second half of the 18th century and normally had only one key. This tells us about the times of hunger when there was barely enough food to survive on and parents told their children that the locked up bread was «asleep«.
A statue of Empress Maria Theresa, erected in 2008 in Šenèur, in honour of her efforts to encourage farmers to grow potatoes. The area around Šenèur was until recently well known for its production of high quality potatoes. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo M. Rogelj)
KAMNIK
The Habsburg court and the provincial princes granted the town of
Kamnik numerous rights. The memory of these is preserved by the
Book of Privileges of the Town of Kamnik from 1528. The
townspeople of Kamnik had tenancy of various tax revenues in the
town, permission to elect a judge from their own ranks and the right
that they could only be judged by the town judge. They were also
granted the right to cut wood in the forests around Kamniška
Bistrica. This right was at first a personal one, but later became tied
to the ownership of a house in the town. Both the woods and the
town were owned by the provincial prince. During the reign of Maria
Theresa, the town became the owner of the Bistrica forests.
Townspeople were allocated firewood and timber on the basis of
the land tax they had paid. The ownership of the forests led to the
formation of the class of burghers. In the second half of the 19th
century, membership of this class represented being part of a
tradition rather than bourgeois wealth. The people of Kamnik
demanded equality in the distribution of firewood and wood and in
1886 achieved this right. At that time, economic conditions in the
town were changing. Burghers were mostly craftsmen, handymen,
traders, sometimes farmers, who could no longer make money in
the town. Many a burgher house was thus abandoned; they were
bought by newcomers, entrepreneurs and officials working at the
district prefecture.
Rumford's soup
The recipe for Rumford's soup, as it appears on the board from
Stražišèe: In Stražišèe near Kranj there is preserved a board
with a recipe for Rumford's soup, which is a reminder of the
last famine affecting these lands, in 1816. The soup was named
after its inventor, the American-born Benjamin Thomson, Count
Rumford (1753-1814). In 1847, the recipe was published by
Dr Janez Bleiweis in his journal for farmers and craftsmen
Kmetijske in rokodelske novice. Recipe for soup for 24 people: water 20 pounds*and 16 lots**; vinegar 26½ lots; salt 11 lots; potatoes 5 pounds and 10 lots; peas 1 pound and 26 lots; barley 1 pound and 14 lots; bread 1 pound and 20 lots(*1 Viennese pound is 0.56 kg, **1 lot is approximately 0.02 kg)
THE IRONIS COMING NEARER
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68
In the 19th century, Upper Carniola was dramatically affected by the arrival of the railway, the harbinger of progress, announcing a new industrial age. Distances were reduced and the new era brought with it radical changes in ways of thinking and living, altering relations and communication among people.
The 19th century began with a brief French occupation. Upper
Carniola became a part of the Illyrian Provinces, which
encompassed the territory from western Carinthia and a part of
eastern Tyrol including Lienz to southern Dalmatia. This period
has lodged itself in the common memory particularly because of
the introduction of Slovenian in schools and high taxation.
In the first half of the 19th century, rich Carniolan merchants
founded the first small industrial companies, among which were
the manufacturers of woollen blankets, Valentin and Konrad
Pleiweis, and the leatherworks belonging to Karl Florian and later
Jakob Pollak.
In 1849, the Southern Railway connected Ljubljana to Vienna and
was later extended to Trieste, while the section from Ljubljana
past Kranj and Jesenice to Tarvisio was built in 1870. Cheaper
raw materials and industrial products were brought by train, which
accelerated economic development and consumption. However,
within a few years it also caused the collapse of home crafts and
iron foundries that were not close to the railway. Iron-making was
preserved in Jesenice, where the Carniolan Industrial Company
modernised the workshops. Craftsmen who were losing the battle
with imported industrial goods became involved in trade, re-selling
products they used to make themselves. Due to the arrival of the
railway, the trade in timber flourished even more in the mid-19th
century.
Sieve-making
From the 16th century until the mid-20th century the villages
between Kranj and Škofja Loka were the largest centres of sieve-
making in Europe. Using naturally coloured horsehair, sieve-
makers wove mesh on special looms. Over 200 different meshes
were produced with checked and striped patterns. Most were
sold by locals to other European countries and even to Russia,
North Africa, Asia Minor and America. The rest were bought by
craftsmen making wooden wares, who attached them to frames
and then sold them around Slovenian-speaking areas and
neighbouring countries. As early as the 19th century, the sieves
made here also appeared at international craft fairs and industrial
exhibitions.
DYEING
Around Škofja Loka the weaving of linen was such a common
home craft that in 1486 Paolo Santonino, the secretary to
the Aquileia Patriarch, wrote in his diary that in these places
both men and women spin in the winter. Peasants usually
traded the homemade linen themselves and also exported it;
some was dyed for home use. Dyers from Škofja Loka, Tržiè
and Radovljica, who joined the dyers’ guild in Ljubljana, are
first mentioned in 1673. In the 19th century, various patterns
Because of their colourful patterns, and
the tools and knowledge involved in making
them, sieves represent a valuable part of
Slovenian and European heritage.
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
70 71
were hand-printed onto the linen, from which scarves and
aprons were made. Towards the end of the 19th century,
linen-making declined because of the cheaper imported
cotton and so the dyeing craft also receded, completely
disappearing in the early 20th century. Nowadays, one of the
rare preserved dye works is Pirc’s Mangle in Kranj, while this
craft is also presented in the Škofja Loka and Tržiè museums.
The Majdiè family business
Peter Majdiè from Jarše came to Kranj in the 1870s, when he
bought the mill by the bridge on the River Sava from Leopold
Jugovic. Majdiè’s son Vinko extended and modernised the mill so
that it became one of the biggest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He imported grain from Vojvodina and Russia, exporting his
products to many European countries and even further afield. In
the 1890s he produced electricity for his own needs. In the first
decade of the 20th century Vinko bought a steam mill in Zagreb
and his brother Peter bought a rolling mill in Celje. After World
War One, the Majdiè family gave up milling and enlarged its power
plant, from where it supplied electricity to the newly emerging
industry in Kranj.
Kranj merchants
During the construction of the railway in Upper Carniola, a number
of traders relocated to the towns. There were many small shops
selling a wide range of goods. The best known Kranj merchant
families were: Sajovic, Pirc, Killer, Roos, Pollak, Krisper, Marenèiè
and Omersa. In 1864, Franc Omersa moved to Kranj from
Žužemberk. He was one of the first to open a small shop offering
mixed goods: ironware, groceries, glassware, porcelain, paints
and varnishes. His daughter Ivana married Franc Berjak, who took
over the shop in 1911.
BEEHIVE PANELS
Beehive panels are painted wooden panels that were used as
decorative front covers for the simple beehives popular in
this area. The practice of beehive decoration reached its
peak in the 19th century. Initially, beehives were decorated
only in the wider Kranj and Radovljica areas, but then the
custom spread to Carin-
thia and the Upper
Savinja Valley.An advertisement for Vinko Majdiè’s
rolling mill in Kranj, early 20th century
(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
The display window of the shop in Kranj belonging
to Franc Berjak, who succeeded Franc Omersa from the 19th century. The
photograph of Berjak’s shop, which stood in the
square Glavni trg in Kranj, was created in the 1930s.
(Photographic library of the Gorenjska Museum)
The more than 600 different images to be
found on beehive panels attest to the rich artistic
creativity of the rural population
(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
72
The timber trade
Forests brought wealth to the region, as timber sold for a good
price. As early as the 18th century, masts were supplied to
shipyards in Trieste and Rijeka. Owners of ironworks also owned
large areas of forest, as wood was needed for the production of
iron. When ironworks became less successful, their owners in the
wider Radovljica, Bled, Tržiè and Kokra area became involved in
the timber trade. The largest owners of forests and sawmills were
the Born family from Tržiè and the Fuchs family from Jezersko, as
well as the Carniolan Industrial Company. In the late 19th century,
the latter sold its extensive forests on the Pokljuka, Jelovica and
Mežakla plateaus to the state and they later became the property
of the Church fund. The early 20th century saw the establishment
of two large local timber merchants, Franc Dolenc and Ivan
Heinrihar, who within two decades took over most of the timber
trade in Upper Carniola.
LONG LIFE TO ALL NATIONS8
/France Prešeren/
Kranj, showing the railway station, on a postcard from the early 20th century. (Gorenjska Museum collections)
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74
The 19th century in Europe was marked by
national movements across the continent.
In contrast to larger European nations, the
Slovenians desire for their own state was
realised only in 1991.
The Habsburgs, one of the most important European ruling
families, ruled over Slovenian lands for over 600 years. In Carniola,
they achieved control after the Celje counts died out in the mid-
15th century. In the early 16th century the whole Slovenian ethnic
territory was under their authority. In the mid-15th century, the
Habsburgs took on the title of Holy Roman Emperor, retaining it
until 1806. There followed a half-century long period of the
Austrian Empire, which in 1867 became the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Many nations lived in the Habsburg monarchy. The
inability to resolve national issues after 1848 halted the
monarchy’s development and in 1918 resulted in its collapse.
A sense of Slovenian national awareness became established
between the reforms introduced by Empress Maria Theresa and
the revolutionary year of 1848. Between 1867 and 1871, through
general gatherings or 'camps', this awareness spread among all
Slovenians. In the central Slovenian land of Carniola, the term
Carniolan was increasingly replaced by the term Slovenian.
After the March revolution in 1848, the Slovenians created their
first political programme, United Slovenia, which signified a
turning point in national development. The programme was
formulated by Slovenian intellectuals living in Vienna who were
members of the Slovenian Society. They demanded the political
unification of all Slovenian lands within the Habsburg monarchy
and the use of the Slovenian language in public life. In June,
general elections for the national assembly were held throughout
the Empire. The right to vote was granted to all men over 24 who
were either craftsmen or owned land. The proponents of United
Slovenia were elected. Another new development was the
establishment of municipalities as the basic unit of political
administration, in which Slovenians could realise their national
and economic interests.
Baron Žiga Zois
(Trieste, 23 November 1747 – Ljubljana, 10 November 1819)
Baron Žiga Zois was a successful businessman and ironworks
owner in Ljubljana and Upper Carniola. He was a mineral collector
and the mineral zoisite was named after him. His collection was
the foundation of the Carniolan Provincial Museum, the first
museum in Slovenia, opened in Ljubljana in 1831.
Zois was also a mentor of and benefactor to many Slovenian
literary figures and scientists. He got Anton Tomaž Linhart
interested in writing drama and history, and Valentin Vodnik in
poetry and journalism. He also supported Blaž Kumerdej's
educational reforms and enabled Jernej Kopitar to study
linguistics. Zois was also the initiator of the first climb to the top
of Mount Triglav in 1778.
Dr. France Prešeren
(Vrba, 3 December 1800 – Kranj, 8 February 1849)
The lawyer France Prešeren is famed as the greatest Slovenian
poet. The height of his creativity is represented by A Wreath of
Sonnets, Sonnets of Unhappiness, Ghazals and The Baptism at
Coffee and tea set with the initials of the members of the Zois family, first half
of the 19th century.(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
76 77
the Savica. The poems
were published in the
collection Poetry in 1847.
The poem A Toast was
published in 1844 and
its seventh stanza now forms the words of the Slovenian national
anthem. In 1830, Prešeren and the poets Miha Kastelic, Matija
Èop and Andrej Smole established the Slovenian poetry almanac
Kranjska èbelica (Carniolan Bee).
Dr. Janez Bleiweis
(Kranj, 19 November 1808 – Ljubljana, 29 November 1881)
Due to his multi-faceted activities as a veterinarian, doctor, politi-
cian and newspaper editor, Dr Janez Bleiweis from Kranj was na-
med “the father of the Slovenian nation” on his 70th birthday. Bet-
ween 1842 and 1881 he led the Carniolan Farmers’Association, which gui-
ded agricultural deve-
lopment and strove for
technical education for
farmers. In 1843 he
became the editor ofthe
then only Slovenian
Jakob Aljaž
(Zavrh pri Smledniku, 6 July 1845 – Dovje, 3 May 1927)
The priest Jakob Aljaž is renowned as a composer and a writer
about mountains, who bought the summit of Mount Triglav for five
goldinars and erected a modest shelter there, today known as
Aljaž’s Tower. He did this in order to prevent the mountain
becoming the property of the German-Austrian mountaineering
society. He was the composer of the song Oh Triglav my home,
which was sung for the first time in 1896 on the occasion of the
opening of the Kredarica hostel.
newspaper, or journal for farmers and craftsmen, Kmetijske in
rokodelske novice. Bleiweis also wrote numerous essays on
veterinary practice, medicine and agriculture.
Prešeren’s Zdravljica (A Toast), published by
the Regional Committee of the Liberation Front for Gorenjska and printed at
the Trilof print worksin Davèa in 1944, on the
centenary of the first publication.
(Gorenjska Museum collections)
Dr Janez Bleiweis’s medals from the second half of the 19th century and the diploma he received upon being granted an aristocratic title in 1881.(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
A silver goldinar(Foto T. Lauko)
The summit of Mount Triglav with Aljaž’s Tower, postcard, late 19th
century.
(Gorenjska Museum collections)
78 79
Janez Puhar
(Kranj, 26 August 1814 –
Kranj, 7 August 1864)
Janez Puhar was the first Slove-
nian photographer and the in-
ventor of photography on glass.
In 1840 he started to use the daguerreotype process, in which the
image appears on a silver-plated surface. Two years later he
invented a new procedure, based on the evaporation of sulphur,
for creating photographs on glass. He did this five years before
the officially recognised inventor, the Frenchman Joseph
Nicéphore Niépce. Only six of Puhar’s original photographs,
referred to as puharotypes, have survived.
Ignacij Borštnik
(Cerklje na Gorenjskem, 1 July 1858 –
Ljubljana, 23 September 1919)
Ignacij Borštnik was a theatre
actor, director and educator, a
poet and playwright, as well as
the founder of artistic theatre in
Slovenia. On Slovenian and
Croatian stages he played over
400 roles. After his retirement,
he taught acting in Ljubljana.
The main annual theatre festival
in Maribor is named after him, as
well as the main festival award,
the Borštnik Ring, which is
awarded for lifetime achievement
in the Slovenian theatre.
Matija Èop
(Žirovnica, 26 January 1797 – Tomaèevo, 6 July 1835)
Matija Èop was a linguist, literary historian, teacher and librarian.
He was a close friend and mentor to France Prešeren. After Èop’s
death, Prešeren dedicated a
sonnet to him, which he self-
published in 1836 together with
The Baptism at the Savica. In the
struggle for the Slovenian
language, a decisive role was
played by Èop’s thesis, written in
German, Slowenischer ABC-Krieg
(Slovenian Alphabet War). This
was his contribution to the battle
which led to Gaj’s Latin alphabet,
which is still in use, becoming the
standard.
Dr. Lovro Toman
(Kamna Gorica, 10 August 1827 –
Vienna, 15 August 1870)
Dr Lovro Toman was a lawyer,
politician and poet. He had a legal
practice in Radovljica. In 1861 he was
elected to the Carniolan provincial
assembly and became a provincial
deputy in Vienna. He was among the
founders of the main Slovenian Society and in 1865 became its
chairman. He published his first collection of poems in 1849
under the title Voices of the Homeland.
Janez Puhar, Self-portrait, around 1850, photograph on glass, the original is lost.(National Museum of Slovenia)
Ignacij Borštnik(National Theatre Museum of Slovenia)
Lovro Toman(National University Library Ljubljana)
Matija Èop(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo I. Pustovrh)
80 81
Leopold Layer
(Kranj, 20. november 1752–Kranj, 12. april 1828)
Leopold Layer was a Late Baroque painter. He is the best known
of the older Carniolan artists. He took over the family painting
workshop in Kranj after the death of his father Marko Layer. He
was assisted in his work by his two brothers Valentin (1763–
1810) and Anton (born 1765). In addition to church paintings
comissioned by people from Upper Carniola, Styria, Lower
Carniola and Carinthia, Leopold Layer also painted portraits and
FROM A PROVINCIAL TO A NATIONAL FLAG
Before 1848, Slovenians did not have their own national flag
as the Slovenian ethnic territory was split into a number of
lands or provinces. Each had its own coat-of-arms and a flag
in the same colours. On the Carniolan coat-of-arms, white
and blue prevailed, with the addition of some red. Around
1830, following the widespread establishment of tricolours,
a white, blue and red flag became the Carniolan provincial
flag. In 1848 the Carniolan tricolour became the symbol of
the struggle for a united Slovenia. Students in Vienna and
Graz adopted it as the Slovenian national flag and on 11 May
1848 brought it to Ljubljana, where on 7 April 1848 it was
unfurled by Lovro Toman and friends. In September of the
same year it was decided in Vienna that white, blue and red
were the colours of Carniola and thus also of the Sloveneian
national flag.
Over the next century and a half, the flag remained the
Slovenian national symbol, including within Yugoslavia. On
24th June 1991 it was redesigned with a new coat-of-arms in
the top left corner and proclaimed as the national flag of the
Republic of Slovenia. The Carniolan provincial flag thus
became the Slovenian national flag. Similarly, in the second
half of the 19th century, the townspeople created the
Slovenian national dress on the basis of the garments worn
for Sunday best by farmers in Upper Carniola.
frescoes. He is also said to have painted chests, beehive panels
and paintings on glass. He was considered one of the most
popular Slovenian painters in the 19th century. His best known
work is the famous image of Mary Help of Christians, which he
painted in the early 19th century for the chapel of the church in
Brezje. After miraculous healings in Brezje in 1864, Layer’s
painting became the most revered Slovenian religious image.
Leopold Layer, Ark of the Covenant, early 19th century. In front of the Ark of the Covenant in the holy tent stand Moses the leader of the Jews and his brother Aaron the priest.(Gorenjska Museum collections,photo T. Lauko)
82
Early societies in Upper Carniola
Reading rooms and reading societies
During the first half of the 1860s, the Slovenian national
movement gradually grew. Reading rooms played an important
part in the strengthening of Slovenian national awareness and the
use of the Slovenian language among townspeople. They were
established in most Slovenian towns and market towns. The local
townspeople, patriotic intelligentsia and rural men of note
gathered in them.
The first reading room in Upper Carniola – the seventh in Slovenia
– was founded in Škofja Loka in 1862. This encouraged the Kranj
townspeople to ceremonially open their reading room on 16
August 1863. In 1866 a reading room was also founded in
Kamnik.
There followed years of Austrian pressure that stopped the
creation of new reading rooms. Even the Liberal Party of the time
did not pay a great deal of attention to cultural and educational
societies. New societies began forming again in the 1880s. A few
reading societies were established in Upper Carniola, which
contributed to the education of their members and organised
cultural and entertainment events.
BE MINE, BE MINE 9
/Slovenian folk song/
Hle
bar h
ouse
, with
the
year
150
6, S
redn
ji vr
h ab
ove
Mar
tuljk
(Gor
enjs
ka M
useu
m c
olle
ctio
ns, p
hoto
J. M
edve
šek)
Mak
sim
Gas
pari,
Gor
enjs
ka w
eddi
ng, 1
937
(Upp
er S
ava
Valle
y M
useu
m, J
esen
ice,
ph
oto
S. K
okal
j)
84 85
In Gorenjska, there were farmsteads of different sizes, some belonging to well-established owners of large farms, some to cottagers with a little land and there were also tenants who owned none. Marriage, children and a home of her own were the dream of every girl. But only a farmer’s daughter could marry a farmer’s son: poorer girls went to a rich farm only as hired labour.
Marriages were usually arranged. Together with the bride, the
farm also obtained her dowry, consisting of either money or
property, and a trousseau involving a painted chest, embroidery
and bedding made from homespun linen. A good housekeeper
was important to the success of a farm. She had to take care of a
large family. She allocated the children and maids work in the
stable, the garden and the fields, and she worked with them
herself. The young bride took over the running of the household
from her mother-in-law. She bore children for the next generation
at the farm – the new labour force. Death in childbirth was
common. Almost everything was produced at home. The
housewife’s success was measured by the money she earned
through selling eggs, dairy products, vegetables and fruit to pay
taxes, buy land and sometimes even to send at least one son to
be educated.
Embroidery from Gorenjska
The oldest embroidery from Gorenjska homes bear witness to the
taste of the time and to a source of wealth, as it was made by
professional embroiders. Sheets used for special days, winding-
sheets and pillow cases were embroidered using a cross stitch,
from which a carnation emerged in the early 20th century as the
Slovenian national motif. Embroidery was taught to girls in primary
school as an compulsory subject or within the family, and carried
on at least until marriage. The most commonly made items were
embroidered napkins for God’s corner (a shrine within the house)
and for covering items taken to be blessed at Easter, and
decorative bedding.
Farm furniture
Until the early 19th century, farm houses contained very little
furniture: benches, a table, a special table with a trough for
kneading dough, a chair, a cradle, a bed or two, a cupboard for
storing foodstuffs and decorated chests. The corner with a cross
in it above the table was decorated with paintings on glass and
embroidery. Only in the second half of the 19th century did
wardrobes and chests of drawers become more widespread. Beds
had a mattress filled with straw, corn husks, hay or even beech
leaves, and covered with a homespun linen sheet. Eiderdowns
were used as blankets. They were made from colourful material,
yarn and old rags. Special scissor-like clasps were used to prevent
the cover from slipping off. Women gave birth on beds covered
with straw, without any bedding.
Chests were used for storing clothing, utensils and foodstuffs.
They were made by carpenters in Škofja Loka, around Kranj and
Radovljica, in Bohinj and in the Upper Sava Valley. The oldest
This embroidered napkin for covering the food basket taken to be blessed for Easter is from 1841. It was embroidered with the then fashionable petite fleur motif.
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lunder)
A cradle from 1856 is decorated in the classical style and originates either in
Dovje or Mojstrana.(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
86 87
chests were decorated with drawings, while in the late 18th century
they began to be decorated with typical floral and religious
images. In the 19th century, furniture painting became very
popular and other furniture items and even the door leading to the
room were painted in the same way.
THE INTERIOR OF A FARM HOUSE
Farm houses in Gorenjska seem very similar because they all
have a combination of brick walls with a wooden balcony but
in fact the isolated farms in Jezersko or Srednji Vrh and those
on the Kranj plain, the Radovljica plain or in Bohinj are very
different from each other. On the ground floor, the ground
plan of which was repeated on the first floor, there was
always the central living area, which was accessed via the
entrance chamber with a “smoke kitchen”. Most houses also
had an extra room next to the main one and beside the
entrance chamber a storage or living area. Some houses had
barns in which produce and cured meat was stored in chests,
on shelves or hung from wooden posts. In the 19th century
there was more furniture in the houses than before, but still
very little compared to today. The main room usually
contained a stove with a bread oven, covered in clay tiles,
which had benches around it and a simple bed on top of the
stove. In the opposite corner there was a table with a carved
chair for the man of the house and a bench with no back.
Along the whole length of both external walls there were
wide benches on which the members of the family often
slept. Above them between the windows there was at least
one wall cupboard. The bed may have been in this room or a
separate one. The farmer and his wife slept in the bed,
sometimes also the grandparents. Babies lay in cradles, in
some places in the kneading-trough, while other children
slept anywhere, the older ones even in the barn or in the
stable.
The main items of furniture were chests in which were kept
clothes, footwear, linen, grain, dried fruit and legumes. The
painted chest that the wife brought as part of her trousseau
stood in one of the two main rooms, while other chests were
in the entrance chamber or the attic. Pots and other
kitchenware were kept on hanging racks and spoons in
carved wooden boxes hung on the wall next to the table. In
the entrance chamber, i.e. the kitchen, there was a cupboard
with many drawers and shelves, in which bread and other
foodstuffs needed for daily cooking were locked away.
Wealthier homes had other rooms and more painted chests,
a cradle and perhaps another bed and cupboard. In the
Upper Sava Valley, the main roomlooked very colourful due
to the painted furniture, the painted door to the second room
and the painted doors of the wall cupboards.
The Rateèe costume
In Rateèe, near the tri-state border with Austria and Italy, the old
Rateèe costume is still worn on special days. Women pass on
these costumes from generation to generation and keep them
carefully folded in decora-
ted chests as a family
treasure. In the 19th century,
the Rateèe women also
wore the costume when
they got married. Accesso-
ries such as colourful scar-
ves and bows bring this
costume very close to the
Slovenian national costume.
Homespun linen
In Gorenjska homes, material was woven both for home use and
for sale. Flax was grown for different kinds of linen and sheep
were shorn for woollen cloth and knitting wool. Another type of
homemade material was sackcloth, a mixture of wool and flax.
Carefully folded Rateèe costume in a chest.
(Photo D. Eržen)
88
Weaving was often done by
men, some even made a living
from it by selling from house to
house. Around Kranj and
Škofja Loka there was a lot of
cloth woven for sale abroad. In
Begunje woollen cloth was
made, while socks and
stockings were made in Tržiè
and the villages below Mount
Stol.
Crockery
Until the 20th century, earthenware and wooden dishes were used
in rural areas. The best known potters were in Ljubno and in the
villages around Komenda. While Ljubno pottery was common
from the Middle Ages until the late 19th century, the Komenda
pottery has been known for only the last two centuries.
The bed from Podkoren, made in 1846, was dec-orated by the local car-penter Janez Kajžnik. Popular superstition dic-tated that the bed had to be neatly made duringthe day, otherwise an evil spirit, illness or even death might get into it. On holidays, beautifully embroidered sheets with lace edging were used and a number of embroidered pillows with tassels. The bed always had to be positioned in such a way that the occupant’s feet were not pointing at the door because it was believed that only a dead person’s feet pointed that way. Most people slept on benches, on the stove or in chests, and children often in drawers.
THE WOMEN OF UPPER CARNIOLA HAVE LONG BEEN FAMED FOR THEIR BEAUTY
/aft er France Prešern/
10
Spinning wheels began to be used in the late Middle Ages. Carved distaffs decorated with hearts and the wheel of life made a suitable love gift.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo J. Jeras)
Porc
elai
n fo
rmed
an
oblig
ator
y pa
rt o
f a li
ving
room
in to
wn
(Gor
enjs
ka M
useu
m c
olle
ctio
ns, p
hoto
J. P
ukši
è)An
a M
erk,
nee
Om
ersa
, the
firs
t wom
an c
yclis
t in
Kran
j. (G
oren
jska
Mus
eum
col
lect
ions
, pho
to I.
Jago
dic)
90 91
Most urban inhabitants in 19th century
Upper Carniola were craftsmen, merchants
and the educated. The most economically
successful families created the cultural and
social pulse of the town. Town women
were brought up so as to contribute to their
husband’s success and reputation through
their accomplishments and appearance.
Marriages among townspeople were usually arranged. Through
them, families preserved and increased their assets and
reputation. Girls attended girls’ schools, where in addition to
writing and arithmetic they learned handicrafts. They knew how to
play the piano and speak a number of foreign languages, as well
as learning about art. With regard to their dress, they followed
foreign, cosmopolitan fashion.
In urban homes, the salon was the place where guests were
received, music was played and the family received the outside
world. In the middle of the century, Biedermeier furniture, wall
clocks and Persian carpets prevailed in the homes of the richest.
The walls were covered with paintings of romantic landscapes and
family portraits; towards the end of the 19th century family
photographs also became very fashionable. A piano was an
obligatory item in the salon.
A PAINTING OR A PHOTOGRAPH?
The fine art from Prešeren’s time and environment is mostly
represented by unambitious salon or church works that
satisfied the average taste of the commissioners. Painters
mainly painted portraits and religious compositions. For
townspeople they produced individual or group portraits,
landscapes, less frequently also genre or history paintings.
The period was mostly marked by the popularity of the
portrait, as this allowed for the glorification of the new
patrons from the young up-and-coming bourgeoisie, who
were the most usual purchasers of works of art.
Townspeople decorated their homes with images that suited
their ideals. With family portraits they emphasised the visible
role of the individual and family, while preserving a memory
for future generations. Biedermeier portraits were typical of
the first half of the 19th century. The portrayed person was
idealised while the painted background served as a backdrop.
Only the wealthier social classes, i.e. the nobility and rich
townspeople, could afford a painted portrait. But with the
introduction of photographs, portraits became accessible to
all social classes. In the last quarter of the 19th century,
cheap photography meant that farmers and workers were
able to afford photographic portraits.
Feldmaršal von Günzl with his wife in the salon of their house in Preddvor, late 19th century(private archive)
Portrait of a townswoman, 19th
century, oil on canvas(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
93
A glass cabinet from Turn Castle near Preddvor, 18th century, in which ceramic and porcelain vessels, as well as decorative items, glass and silverware were kept.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
The obligatory inventory of a town
home included various functional items made
of glass, such as vases, containers for
spirits, wicker bottles, carafes, glasses and
candlesticks, most often from Czech
glass factories. (Gorenjska Museum
collections, phfoto T. Lauko)
Silverware held a special place: a
candlestick, a dish for pastries and fruit,
and a vase with a Secessionist pattern.
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
Although townspeople followed cosmopolitan fashions, until the mid-19th century middle-class women wore silk skirts with a bodice, the style of which resembled that worn by women in rural areas.(S. Košak-Blumer: Sto narodnih nošna Slovenskem, 2009, page 26)
94
JOSIPINA URBANÈIÈ TURNOGRAJSKA(Preddvor, 1833 – Gradec, 1854)
was a writer, poet and composer. She received her extensive
education at home. Among her teachers was Lovro Pintar,
who helped her grow to love the Slovenian language. She
was also a pianist, composing piano pieces and melodies for
Slovenian songs. In 1850 she became engaged to the lawyer,
politician and poet Lovro Toman. Prior to the wedding they
wrote approximately 1000 letters to each other. In addition
to their emotions, they also exchanged many thoughts and
opinions on the turbulent life of the times. In 1853 they
married and moved to Graz because of Toman’s work.
Josipina died there only a year later, soon after giving birth.
PROJECTION HALL 11
A room in the former tower in Khislstein Castle has been turned
into a projection hall where visitors will be able to view Slovenian
films connected with Gorenjska and its people.
The decision to dedicate one of the exhibition rooms to live
pictures was dictated by our rich film history and the many
film directors, cameramen, actors and other film workers who
originate from Gorenjska or have a strong connection with it. In
addition, there are individual films that deal with themes from
Gorenjska or show the region and places in it. Thus, for example,
in 1931 the first Slovenian feature film, V Kraljestvu Zlatoroga
(In the Kingdom of the Golden Horn), directed by Janko Ravnik,
was made in Gorenjska. This was followed a year later by Metod
Badjura's Triglavske strmine (The Steep Slopes of Triglav). The
The letter written by JosipinaUrbanèiè Turnograjska to her fiancé Dr. Lovro Toman(Manuscript collection, National University Library, Ljubljana)
Lovro’s letter to Josipina
(Manuscript collection, National
University Library, Ljubljana)
The projection hall will be further enhanced by an exhibition of selected posters related to film themes.
The Gorenjska Museum can boast of an excellent collection of posters, many of which are connected with
film, such as the one inviting people to go and see the film Sreèno Kekec! (Good Luck, Kekec!)
(Foto D. Holynski)
96
director France Štiglic, who in 1948 directed the first Slovenian
film after World War Two, Na svoji zemlji (On Their Own Land),
was originally from Gorenjska. Moreover, the films about the
children's character Kekec were shot in Gorenjska. The films
made by director Boštjan Hladnik, who was born in Kranj, belong
among the Slovenian classics. And Milena Zupanèiè, the leading
actress in the film Cvetje v jeseni (Blossoms in Autumn) is also
from this region.
Documentary films showing snippets of Gorenjska life are also
of great value. Velièan Bešter and Janko Balantiè Resman were
among those who marked the period between the two world
wars. Short films have been preserved from the post-war socialist
period, which show the production process in various factories in
Gorenjska and visits by high representatives of the then political
authorities. The film showing the first landing of a plane at Brnik
airport in the 1960s is undoubtedly very interesting to many who
still remember the event, as well as younger people.
These recordings are mostly kept by the Republic of Slovenia
Archives and are very rarely shown to a wider public due to their
great value and complex preservation requirements. Our aim is
to supplement the permanent exhibition about Gorenjska with
copies of selected films. In addition, Gorenjska Museum holds a
number of valuable film recordings and copies that are definitely
worth seeing. These include films connected with the poet France
Prešeren, such as the copy of the documentary film made by
Božidar Jakac in 1939 on the occasion of the opening of the
house where Prešeren was born in Vrba.
Our idea of a small “cinematheque” of Gorenjska film is a way
of enriching the permanent exhibition Beautiful Gorenjska with a
new element. After having a look at the exhibition, visitors will be
able to enjoy some film entertainment that will also enable them
to further deepen their knowledge about an important part of film
creativity.
AS I RESTLESSLY WANDER HERE AND THERE,
FRIENDS KEEP ASKING“WHERE, OH WHERE?”
/aft er France Prešern/
12PH
oto
M. K
unši
èG
oren
jska
Mus
eum
col
lect
ions
98 99
In the 20th century a person’s life probably
differed completely from that of their father.
The father, born in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, would have been a farmer. His son
commuted to his factory shift by bike. His
granddaughter, who worked in an office,
travelled to work on a special workers’
bus. Now in the 21st century, his great-
granddaughter, who has a university degree,
has been looking for some time for regular
employment.
The Gorenjska landscape also experienced considerable and
rapid change in the 20th century. The region belonged to different
states at different times; consequently, the political, social and
economic systems changed and the development of the region
increasingly became a part of global events. During World War
One, Gorenjska was a military area behind the Soèa (Isonzo) Front
and was of vital importance for supply. The life of the civilian
population had to adapt to war conditions. After the war,
Gorenjska finally entered the modern industrial era. In both the
first and second Yugoslavia, it was one of the most important
regions in the country. At the end of the century there began an
often painful search for a transition to the new post-industrial era.
Economic and technological progress changed the landscape and
the way of life.
In the closing decades of the 19th century, iron-making in
Gorenjska declined. It continued only in the newly built plant in
Jesenice, which in the 20th century became the largest industrial
centre in Gorenjska. In Tržiè, shoemaking and timber industries
were established. The textile industry also became important, first
in Tržiè and then in the 1920s in Kranj. Between the two wars,
increasing numbers of locals went into business; some became
owners of small factories, while most of the larger companies
were still in the hands of foreign investors. The growing number of
factories required ever more workers, increasingly including
young women, who worked on spinning and weaving machines.
These workers mainly came from what used to be completely
agricultural settlements around the industrial centres of Jesenice,
Tržiè and Kranj.
With the start of World War Two and during the German
occupation, the main goal of the occupying forces was to make
Gorenjska German and annex it to the German Reich. Many
intellectuals and their families were exiled. Resistance against the
Nazi aggression in the form of armed conflict began in Gorenjska
in late July 1941. Partisans disabled the enemy through sabotage
and small skirmishes. The Germans shot collaborators and
Kran
j in
2008
(Pho
to A
. Hod
aliè
)
The oldest photograph of Kranj, 1860s (Photo Ch. Paier)
100
hostages in retaliation for the deaths of their soldiers.
After World War Two, development in the region depended chiefly
on industry, in which over half the population was employed.
Immediately after the war, the Jesenice steelworks became one of
the most important factories in Yugoslavia and the whole of
Gorenjska played a very important economic role. In the 60s, the
textile industry was becoming increasingly obsolete. The leading
role was taken by the electronics and tyre industries, based in
Kranj. A few of the most successful companies, such as Iskra,
became internationally established through investment in the
development of their own products and brands. But most
companies continued to follow the political orientation towards
the building of large factories and the large-scale employment of
workers. In search of better earnings, large numbers of people
migrated to Gorenjska from less developed regions in Slovenia
and other Yugoslav republics. The growth of towns and population
was not controlled. Factories were built on fertile agricultural land
around the towns; industrialisation reached even remote, formerly
exclusively agricultural areas. Farming was marginalised, and
agricultural land was devalued. A building craze spread across the
whole region, involving badly thought-out incursions into
traditional settlement patterns and the natural heritage. Extensive
residential areas grew in former suburbs, mainly providing
accommodation for immigrant workers. Towns became ethnically
very diverse. Villages acquired a new urban appearance. The way
of life in town and village became increasingly similar, while
centuries-old traditions began to disappear. The importance of
tourism grew. Foreign visitors were particularly attracted by the
countryside and gems such as Bled, Bohinj and Kranjska Gora.
In the early 21st century, Gorenjska's towns and villages are once
more looking to redefine their identity by drawing upon the
disappearing traditions and natural wealth. Some places in
Gorenjska hold a special place in Slovenia’s history and literature.
Particularly after 1991 and the proclamation of an independent
state, they became important in the formation of Slovenian
identity and the strengthening of national consciousness. This is a
major reason why Gorenjska is the best known Slovenian region.
At the turn of the 20th century, most people in Gorenjska worked
on the land. After the decline of iron foundries, industry began to
develop only in Jesenice and Tržiè. The Karavanke–Bohinj railway
line that was built then connected the Jesenice steel works with
the port of Trieste and its hinterland. In Tržiè, the production of
textiles, cardboard and shoes began. The factory owners were
mainly foreigners, who wielded a great deal of political power in
the town. In 1911, the local businessman Peter Kozina opened a
shoe factory which later became the company Peko.
Around Domžale, many companies employing around a thousand
workers in total grew from the old straw hat making craft and
made a million straw hats a year, which were sold in Europe and
America.
Small farms could no longer provide a living for whole families.
Many people left to find work in North America and European
mining centres. Crafts and trading in handmade products died out
/France Prešeren/
EARLY20TH CENTURY
Oh, the golden age now begins for the Carniolan muses!
12.1
In the late 19th
century, a cotton spinning and weaving
mill was established in Tržiè, owned by
Glanzmann&Gassner. Tržiè became one of the
first Slovenian centres of the textile industry.
(Gorenjska Museum collections)
Thanks to its steelworks, Jesenice was in the
early 20th century the most developed part of
Gorenjska. (Gorenjska Museum collections)
102
THE KARAVANKE–BOHINJ RAILWAY LINE
The Karavanke–Bohinj railway line linked Central Europe and
the Adriatic. The Upper Carniolan section ran from Klagenfurt
to Jesenice and then via Bohinj to Gorizia and Trieste. The
complex construction work took place between 1900 and
1906. Numerous bridges and tunnels had to be built, among
them the Karavanke tunnel between Rosenbach and Hrušica,
which is 7975 metres long, and the Bohinj tunnel between
Bohinjska Bistrica and Podbrdo, 6336 metres long.
During construction, many workers of different nationalities
settled in Bohinjska Bistrica. The Bohinj tunnel was formally
opened on 19 July 1906. The railway line to Primorska
helped Bohinj to become a tourist centre, joining the two
already established and popular Gorenjska resorts of Bled
and Kamnik.
due to cheaper industrial products. In order to improve the
position of farmers, cooperative savings and lending banks were
founded, as well as dairy and machinery cooperatives.
When the Soèa (Isonzo) Front opened in World War One,
Gorenjska became a key military rear area that was of vital
importance for supply lines, and a strict military regime was thus
enforced. Large quantities of military equipment and material
arrived on trains. Particularly during preparations for the 12th
Battle of the Soèa in the autumn of 1917, military deliveries
brought other transport to a complete standstill. Thousands of
soldiers representing all the nationalities in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire came to Gorenjska. From there, they were sent to the
front and then returned for medical treatment or rest. Schools,
monasteries and other large buildings were turned into military
hospitals, workshops and warehouses.
The civilian population had to take part in supplying the military. In
addition, many refugees fled here from Primorska, along the
coast. As men were conscripted, women were left to run the
WORLD WAR ONE
… and you will flow full of blood.
/Simon Gregorčič/
12.2/Simon Gregorčič/
Entrance to the Bohinj tunnel before World
War One(Gorenjska Museum
collections)
The furniture used in the room rented to tourists by the Budkoviè family in Bohinjska Bistrica in the early 20th
century.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
The terminal of the military railway in Bohinjska Bistrica in the summer of 1916, from where the Austro-Hungarian army supplied its soldiers fighting on Mount Krn and the surrounding mountains.Bohinj was the immediate rear area of the Soèa (Isonzo) front. (Small Military Museum in Bohinjska Bistrica)
105
economy by themselves. There were shortages of everything and
prices went up, so a rationing system was introduced. But what
made people most aware of the war was the news from the front
about casualties and the many wounded who returned.
The 12th German (Silesian) division in Kranj prior to departure for Kobarid where it took part in the breakthrough in October 1917. (National Museum of Contemporary History) The Russian Chapel was
built in 1916 by Russian prisoners of war in memory of their comrades who died in an avalanche while building the road across the Vršiè Pass.(Photo M. Žerjal, private archive of Z. Zupaniè Slavec)
Rudolf Maister - Vojanov (Kamnik, 1874 – Unec, 1934),
general and poet, on 1st November 1918 took over
the military command of Lower Styria and on behalf of the
National Council established the first regular Slovenian army, leading the decisive battles for
the northern border.(The Album of Slovenian Literati, 1928)
A monument in Mojstrana with the names of the dead and the missing.
Slovenian men and boys fought on all the European fronts. In memory of those
who did not return, many monuments have been
erected around Gorenjska. (Photo J. Justin)
Josip Pogaènik, knight, (Podnart 1866 – Podnart, 1932), a photograph of the monument in Podnart. Josip Pogaènik was a politician, government minister, diplomat and businessman. Between 31 October and 1st December 1918 he was the head of the first Slovenian government.(Photo J. Dežman)
106
IVAN FRANKE (Dobje pri Poljanah, 1841–Ljubljana, 1927)
grew up in Cerklje in
Gorenjska. He studied
painting in Vienna
and Venice. In 1873
he set off on a jour-
ney around China,
where he produced
numerous sketches
of the landscape
as well as portraits.
Between 1878 and
1889 he taught draw-
ing at Kranj grammar
school and appeared as a singer and director in the Kranj
Reading Room. In 1882, the Central Vienna commission
appointed him the state conservator for the whole of
Carniola. After 1889, he lived in Ljubljana with his family.
Franke’s artistic output is extensive, encompassing
landscapes, portraits and religious paintings. He belonged
to the circle of Realists. His early work consists mainly of
altar images based on paintings in Venice. He painted in
the church in Predoslje, the Ursuline church in Škofja Loka,
the Franciscan church in Ljubljana, the church in
Bukovšèica, etc. Upon his arrival in Kranj he began to focus
on landscape. In Ljubljana he was attracted by the town
surroundings and Tivoli Park. He produced four different
versions of paintings and drawings based on Prešeren’s
poem The River Man.
The Slovenian part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was economically
the most developed. Jesenice, where 5000 workers were
employed, was one of the strongest industrial centres and in
1929 became a town. Tržiè, with its rich textile, leather and
shoemaking tradition became a town in 1926.
The largest factory, employing 1200 people, was the Cotton
Spinning and Weaving Mill. The workers there were paid better
than in other parts of Gorenjska; the factory owner even built
homes for them.
BETWEEN THE WARS
Grab money in heaps, buy castle keeps.
/France Prešeren/
12.3
THE INDUSTRIALISATION OF KAMNIK
With the dawn of industrialisation, Kamnik flourished. The
railway line, completed in 1891, contributed a great deal to
economic development in the Kamnik area. Even in the mid-
19th century, there were already a gunpowder mill, cement
works and brickworks. The gunpowder mill was operational
until quite recently. In addition to explosives, after World War
Two the factory also processed non-ferrous metal and plastic
materials.
In 1896, the Czech engineer Špalek opened a workshop
making locks and door hinges. After World War One the
workshop grew into a factory making metal products and in
1922 it acquired the name it has retained until now – Titan.
It produced pipe fittings, furniture locks, scales, weights and
kitchen equipment. The factory continued its work after
World War Two and the production of locks, for which the
company is best known, has continued to this day.
108
In 1878, the Schnabl family took over a ceramics workshop
in Kamnik and began making the widely renowned “Carniolan
jugs” and other kitchenware of white clay. After the war and
until recently the tradition of making decorated jugs was
continued by the company Eti Svit.
The greatest economic progress was experienced by Kranj. The
local authorities made use of the favourable economic conditions
in the newly founded state in which new markets appeared. Within
a very short time, Kranj became the second most important textile
centre in Slovenia. Czech and Polish industrialists, assisted by
local businessmen, built large textile factories: Jugoèeška began
in 1924, followed by Intex, Tekstilindus and Jugobruna. In addition,
there was also the largest Yugoslav rubber factory, Vulkan, later
renamed Semperit. Many locally owned businesses were also
established. In Radovljica and the surrounding area there were
knitting plants, in Lesce there was a factory making chains, and in
Kropa the metallurgical cooperative Plamen. In Kamnik, the Titan
factory produced locks, scales, weights, kitchen equipment and
connecting parts used in plumbing. The factory continued
functioning after World War Two. In Domžale, the production ofstraw hats continued in the
Univerzale factory, which
closed its doors in 2003.
Sample books of the materials made prior to World War Two in the Jugoèeška and Jugobruna factories.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo T. Lauko)
In a factory in Kranj owned by the industrialist and wholesaler Ivan Savnik
underwear and other garments were made.
The products under the brand name ISKA were successfully marketed
around the whole of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
Numerous workers were able to find work in the new factories, particularly young women. They came from the surrounding villages and this was their first encounter with factory work. In order to get a job, they were supposed to be at least 15 years old, but some were younger.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
The Kranj entrepreneur Franjo Sirc (1891–1950) owned a textile factory in Stražišèe. When the war broke out, the factory was seized by the Nazi authorities. In the new Yugoslav state, Sirc was sentenced to ten years forced labour. He died while serving his sentence(Gorenjska Museum collections)
110 111
DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN BLED
Bled was a well known tourist resort even before World War
One. The Swiss Arnold Rikli, who opened a spa there in the
mid-19th century, made the greatest contribution to this.
Between the two wars, Bled became well established as a
resort and the most sophisticated of all tourist destinations
in Yugoslavia. The royal family spent summers in their Bled
residence and many important political and diplomatic
meetings took place there.
The locals demonstrated their entrepreneurial flair in the way
they embraced work in tourism. They built and renovated
guest houses, holiday villas and hotels, and created parks
and promenades. They kept the town clean and tidy, ensured
that there were plenty of sports and social events, including
international rowing and chess competitions, and published
promotional materials. In 1937, there were 17 hotels, 11
guest houses and five restaurants, while rooms were also let
in private houses. Bled was visited by over 20,000 people a
year, more than half of them foreigners, the most numerous
being Austrian, German, Czech and English.
Local entrepreneurs Jula Molnar and Ivan Kenda made a
great contribution to the development of Bled as a tourist
resort. They both embarked on big building projects. Jula
Molnar bought the respected Louisenbad Hotel, situated on
the shore of Lake Bled, and renamed it the Grand Hotel
Toplice. In 1931, she enlarged and completely renovated the
building. The hotel was considered one of the most modern
in Yugoslavia. Next to the hotel, Jula Molnar built the Toplice
cafe, which became the centre of Bled social life; she also
promoted the construction of the Bled golf course. The old
Mallner Hotel was bought in 1917 by the businessman Ivan
Kenda, who also owned Bled Castle, the lake, the swimming
area by the lake and a number of guest houses. He renamed
the hotel Park Hotel and constructed a new building, together
with a swimming area, shops and the Kazino entertainment
centre. Due to over-ambitious and badly planned investments,
Kenda experienced financial ruin a few years before World
War Two.
Holidays in Bled were enjoyed mainly by aristocrats, rich
bourgeoisie and high officials. Staying in Bled for a few weeks
was at that time a matter of prestige. After World War Two,
when elite tourism was considered inappropriate, Bled
became oriented towards mass tourism. Many old hotel
buildings and guest houses were knocked down and modern
hotels were built in their place, often to the detriment of the
natural environment and local tradition.
VALENTIN HODNIK (Stara Fužina, 1896–Bohinjska Bistrica, 1935)
Hodnik was born into a farming family. When attending the
Ljubljana crafts school he was greatly influenced by a
Valentin HodnikTriglav
(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
The new Grand Hotel Toplice on a postcard from the 1930s.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
112
teacher there, the sculptor Alojzij Repiè. At the start of World
War One he was conscripted, but soon discharged due to
illness. He returned home, where he painted and
photographed Austrian soldiers in Bohinj. His subsequent
work was greatly influenced by Slovenian Impressionists and
artists within the Vesna Society. He continued his education
at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb under Professors
Kovaèeviæ and Vanka, focusing on figure drawing. Due to
financial difficulties he continued his artistic work at home.
He was most attracted to landscapes, particularly Lake
Bohinj, the mountain slopes of Pršivec, Komarèa, Konjski vrh
and Vogel, the Savica waterfall and Mount Triglav. In 1926,
he built a house in Ukanc. Initially, he depicted mountains
very realistically in his paintings, adding an atmospheric tone
and a soft modulation of rocks and mountain peaks. Later he
began to use his characteristic, slightly stylised formulation
of rocks. Some paintings reflect hardness and radiate a
special expressive power, while others subtly depict the
silence of Mount Triglav, Lake Bohinj or the lonely profession
of Alpine herdsmen. His humorous drawings, depicting life
along the shores of Lake Bohinj, are also well known.
SECOND WORLD WAR
Better sleep in the darkness of the grave, than in bright sunlight be a slave.
/France Prešeren/
12.4
The Nazi occupation of Gorenjska was followed by a process of
Germanisation. German became the official language and the
names of people and places were Germanised. All Slovenian
schools and institutions were closed, all societies were dismantled
their assets seized, as well as those belonging to the Church and
to exiles. Racial tests determined that most inhabitants of
Gorenjska were suitable for inclusion in the Reich. In July 1941,
around 2300 people were exiled to Serbia and Croatia, including
most of the priests and patriotic intellectuals. Between March
1942 and mid-1944 approximately 4200 relatives of hostages
and Partisans who had been shot were deported to Germany from
an assembly camp in Gorièane. Gorenjska was the region in which
people most determinedly resisted the German takeover. Among
the 2200 Slovenian Partisans in 1941, 1250 were operating in
Gorenjska. This is where in late July 1941 first Partisan attacks
signalled the start of Slovenian armed resistance. Partisans
carried out many mostly small attacks on German garrisons and
institutions. In retaliation the Germans punished the civilian
population. The first village to be burnt down due to the Partisans
killing some civilian officials was Rašica below Mount Šmarna
gora in September 1941.
In September 1942, the Nazis granted the Gorenjska people
German citizenship until revocation and in the early 1943 began
mobilisation into the German army. Many of those mobilised
deserted and joined the Partisans. From the autumn of 1944,
Partisan authorities were already administering the Gorenjska
liberated areas. The Partisans took revenge on those collaborating
with the occupiers and anti-communists.
114 115
In 1944, the Gorenjska Home Guard took action against the
Partisan movement by constantly patrolling and ambushing
Partisans across a considerable part of Gorenjska, thus hindering
Partisan access to the general population. At the end of the war,
the members of the Home Guard retreated to Carinthia, but the
British returned them to Slovenia, where most of them were killed
without trial.
IVE ŠUBIC (Hotovlje near Poljanah, 1922–Poljane, 1989)
Between 1940 and 1941, he studied painting at the Zagreb
Academy of Art and between 1945 and 1948 at the Fine Art
Academy in Ljubljana, where he undertook advanced studies
in 1950 under Professor Gabriel Stupica. Šubic painted
figures and landscapes, as well as still lifes. In his depictions
of Partisans and farm life he combined elements of Realism
with others from Expressionism, Cubism and Primitivism. In
addition, he was also involved in graphic art, illustration,
monumental murals and mosaics, such as the Monument to
the Battle of Dražgoše in Dražgoše in 1971.
Ive Šubic, Column in the Snow, 1962, oil on canvas (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
The camp uniform and a small knife used by
Franc Mravlja from Kranj in Auschwitz
concentration camp, where he was
imprisoned from June 1942 until the end of
the war.(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo T. Lauko)
On 22 August 1941 Franc Seško from Bukovica was shot as a hostage in a forest near Smlednik.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
Friedrich Rainer(Šentvid na Glini,1903–Yugoslavija, 1947?), from November 1941 in charge of German civilian administration in Gorenjska. He implemented violent policies against the Partisan movement, including internment, hostage shooting and the burning of villages.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
THE GESTAPO PRISON IN BEGUNJE IN GORENJSKA
A mansion in Begunje held one of the bloodiest Gestapo
prisons in Slovenia, used mainly for Partisans and their
collaborators. The prisoners were tortured in the most
inhumane manner, sent on to concentration camps or shot
as hostages. Shocking inscriptions by those condemned to
death have been preserved on the cell walls. During the war,
the Germans shot 1270 people in Gorenjska, of whom 849
were imprisoned in Begunje. In order to frighten the general
population, posters with the names of those who had been
shot were posted in public places. After the war, the mansion
was used as a concentration camp and, until the early 50s, a
women’s prison; among those held there were female
political prisoners.
All the prisoners in the Gestapo prison in Begunje were listed in a book of records, including their subsequent destiny. Many prisoners were sent on to concentration camps or shot as hostages. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
Men mobilised into the German army leaving for the railway station in Kranj, early 1943.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
A group of Gorenjska
Partisans from the Prešeren
Brigade in the summer of
1943 (Gorenjska Museum
collections)
On the night between the 26th and 27th June 1942 the Partisans from the Cankar Battalion of the Gorenjska detachment burnt down the railway and road bridge in Moste near Žirovnica, the most successful such attack. (Gorenjska Museum collections)
118 119
VICTIMS OF WAR AND REVOLUTION
Of the 180,000 people living in occupied Gorenjska, which
included the Litija area, by the end of 1945 over 15,000
were Partisans, over 9000 were mobilised into the German
army, and around 4000 were Home Guards, Gestapo spies
among the Partisans, workplace security men, armed police
officers and Gestapo officers. Nearly 7000 people were
exiled to Serbia or Germany, many others were sent to the
Ljubljana region, and over 10,000 became prisoners and
internees. Due to mobilisation, internment, exile and flight
around a fifth of the population were driven from their homes.
Among Slovenian regions Gorenjska suffered the second
highest number of deaths. Of approximately 97,500 currently
registered victims of war and revolution in Slovenia,
Gorenjska’s share is 13,344, i.e. 13.7 percent of all Slovenian
victims and 7.3 percent of the Gorenjska population. They
included 4592 Partisans and 741 Partisan activists or
sympathisers, while out of 2631 civilian victims, around
1300 were killed by the Partisans. Of those mobilised into
the German army, 1774 died. Among the Home Guard
members there were 1731 victims, all but 50 of whom were
killed after the war.
(According to data from the Institute of Contemporary History, September 2011)
LJUBO RAVNIKAR
(Ljubljana, 1905–Kranj, 1973)
At the secondary modern school he studied drawing under
the painters Peter Žmitek and Gojmir Anton Kos. He studied
for a while at the Vienna Academy and with the Viennese
portraitist Hans Schachinger. Ravnikar returned to Ljubljana
in 1929. He focused on oil and watercolour paintings and
illustrations; he also produced postcards with social themes,
posters and diplomas. He worked with the Workers’ Stage,
producing sketches for their performances, which places
him among the founders of modern Slovenian set design. In
1937, he published a portfolio of linocuts, Mirror, in which he
tried to critically depict the social reality at the time. In 1938,
he joined the Gruda artistic group founded by young artists
following the example of the Zagreb Zemlja. Landscape
became his main genre.
In April 1941 he was interned in Italy, where he created an
extensive collection of landscapes and documentary images.
In 1944/1945, he returned home with the “overseas”
The return of the Home Guard and civilians from Carinthia to Kranj on 30 May 1945. Nearly all were killed around Škofja Loka and Koèevje.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
LjuboRavnikar, Hunger Strike,
1934, ink drawing
(Gorenjska Museum collections,
photo D. Holynski)
120
brigade of the Yugoslav Army. He documented his journey
with an extensive series of watercolours and drawings.
Between 1946 and 1958, he taught drawing and the history
of art at the grammar school in Kranj. His independent
exhibition in Prešeren House in Kranj was the first staged by
the newly founded museum. In Rome in 1956, he created a
series of watercolours “From a Journey around Italy”, later
he also painted in Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean,
including Egypt. In the 60s, there appeared the cycle of
watercolours “Old Kranj” and others of the steel works in
Jesenice. Ravnikar’s painting was influenced by
Expressionism, Symbolism and Social Realism. In 1961 and
1965 he received the Prešeren Award, granted by the Town
of Kranj.
During the first decade after World War Two, in Gorenjska as
elsewhere, revolutionary interventions involving confiscation and
waves of nationalisation destroyed private business and
agriculture. The companies that had existed before the war were
combined and transformed into state companies, later referred to
as social property. Class war divided society into a privileged
communist party elite and the rest, who suffered discrimination.
Gorenjska was shaped by this development of industry at any
price. Industrialisation thus reached formerly remote agricultural
areas such as the Selca Valley. The introduction of mass
production involving conveyor belts and the building of huge
production halls demanded mass immigration of workers from the
less developed parts of Yugoslavia, while many people from
Gorenjska sought work and a better life in Germany and elsewhere
in the West. There followed the rapid construction of concrete
blocks of flats, sadly often on the most fertile land. Farming was
devalued and farmers sought a better income in factories.
The Iskra and Sava factories, with their long experience, reached
beyond the boundaries of Gorenjska and became established in
the West. Top achievements by Gorenjska sportsmen such as
Bojan Križaj and Nejc Zaplotnik contributed to the international
establishment of local brands Elan and Alpina. People from rural
areas commuted to work in nearby factories. They used their
earnings and loans to build new houses, usually in their own
garden or meadow. Villages began to spread to fields. The last
wooden cottages disappeared and the rural areas lost their old
agricultural appearance.
TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA
Who can cast light on the dark night that plagues our soul.
/France Prešeren/
12.5
122 123
ISKRA TELEPHONES
The company Iskra, founded in 1946, became over
subsequent decades one of the leading companies in the
electronics industry in Yugoslavia. Iskra’s main products
were meters, telephone switchboards and telephones,
electric hand tools and until 1971, cinema sound equipment.
The products were mostly developed by Iskra’s technical
experts and designers. In addition to meters, the best known
A worker at an open-hearth furnace at Jesenice steelworks in the Fifties. The largest number of workers, around 7000, was employed at the Jesenice steelworks in the early 1980s.(Photo S. Smolej)
In both towns and
villages the old is giving
way to the new.
(Photo T. Dolžan Eržen)
Blocks of flats, “dormitory estates”, within a few decades completely altered the appearance of Gorenjska towns.(Photo D. Holynski)
Workers leaving the Iskra factory at the end of their daily shift at 14.00, Kranj 1960 (Photo F. Perdan) In 1966 a modern industrial
area appeared in Labore on the outskirts of Kranj, the new Sava factory.(Gorenjska Museum collections)
124 125
product was telephones. Iskra produced its first inductor
telephone in 1949. Initially, they were made under foreign
licence, such as the automatic ATA 11 appliance. In the mid
60s, telephones developed by in-house engineers began to
be made. Gradually designs improved and the ATA 30 and
the ATA 20 appeared. In 1976, the first completely electronic
appliance in the world, the ETA 80, began to be mass
produced. This was followed in 1979 by what is now
considered a cult telephone appliance – the ETA 80. It was
made with either a dial or a key pad (the ETA 85). Iskra’s
phones brought about a completely new design of
telephones around the world and there appeared many
copies. The appearance of the phone was a great
achievement by Davorin Savnik, who won many awards for it
at home and abroad. People became fond of this phone and
gave it a nickname fitipaldi. In the 80s, many improvements
were made in Iskra and it was among the first companies in
the world to develop a digital telephone switchboard, the SI
2000 system. By 1989, just before the collapse of this large
company, five million telephones had rolled off its conveyor
belts.
JANEZ MARENÈIÈ (Kranj, 1914 – Jesenice, 2007)
Among the most important Slovenian photographers of the
20th century. He became involved in photography in the
1930s. In 1935, he joined the Ljubljana Photo Club. in his
early work, genre photographs and landscapes prevail.
During World War Two he accompanied the units of the
IX Corps in Primorska as a photographer. The negatives have
been lost, but on the basis of the four preserved photographs,
depicting a Partisan camp and night watch on the Trnovski
gozd plateau, he made enlargements using the paper
negative technique, and these are considered the artistic
photographic evidence of the war. After the war, he focused
on photographic interpretations of genre themes and
landscapes.
Upon his initiative a photo club was founded in Kranj in 1949.
He became the central figure, mentor and main representa-
tive of the “Kranj circle” or the “Kranj photography school”.
With fellow members such as Mirko Križnar, Tone Marèan,
Miro Kelbel and Janez Murovec he produced photographs of
The ETA 85 telephone made Iskra phones famous around the world.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo D. Holynski)
Janez Marenèiè, Promenade, 1955(Slovenian Photography Room, Gorenjska Museum collections)
126
contrasting, ascetic motifs on snow covered surfaces, which
the reviewers described as “the Kranj photographic style”. In
the 1950s Marenèiè discovered the aerial view of landscape.
These photographs, taken from elevated viewpoints, are
considered the summit of Marenèiè’s photographic
expression. With carefully selected framing and an emphasis
on the compositional lines of force and flatness, he produced
an abstract ornament which seemingly continued out of
shot. In the 1990s, he was also involved in colour
photography.
In 1970, he received the Gorenjska Prešeren Award. On his
ninetieth birthday he was awarded a Golden Order for
Service, and he also received the Janez Puhar Award for his
life’s work. Just before his death in 2007, he was made an
Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Kranj.
After the collapse of communism, the political and economic
crisis in Yugoslavia reached its peak. At a plebiscite on 23
December 1990, 88.5 percent voted in favour of an independent
Slovenia. On 25 June 1991, Slovenia was the first of the former
Yugoslav republics to declare independence. There followed an
armed intervention by the Yugoslav People’s Army at border
crossings and Brnik Airport. After a ten-day war for independence,
Slovenia took control over its territory. The realisation of the
dream of an independent state was accompanied by economic
privatisation and the loss of former markets. Many companies in
Gorenjska found themselves in crisis and thousands of people
lost their jobs. Gradually, private enterprise began to grow,
together with widespread greed and desire for a quick profit.
THE NEWSLOVENIAN STATE
There we shall find a way, where our sonschoose freely their faith and laws.
/France Prešeren/
12.6
In June 1991, two weeks before the Republic of Slovenia’s declaration of independence, mountain rescuers on top of Mount Triglav raised the Slovenian flag which at that time had no coat of arms.(Photo M. Kunšiè)
128 129
Membership of the European Union and NATO, the introduction of
the Euro and unreserved adoption of everything foreign faced us
with a dilemma: what would enable our survival – economic
prudence, inventiveness, wisdom, goodness, thriftiness? These
are the values that have been a part of Gorenjska tradition for a
thousand years, as well as the foundations of Slovenianness.
Members of the Slovenian militia and Territorial Defence putting up new signs at the Ljubelj border crossing, 1 July 1991. (Photo M. Kunšiè)
Slovenia was the first of the new European Union members to take on the presidency over the EU in the first half of 2008. All the political and diplomatic events connected with the presidency took place in Brdo near Kranj, including a meeting between the European leaders and the President of the United States.(Photo M. Kunšiè, archives of the State Protocol Services of the Republic of Slovenia, Brdo)
France Buèar (Bohinjska Bistrica, 1923), lawyer and politician. In 1976 he was forcefully removed from the University. He was among the leaders of the democratisation process and of efforts towards Slovenian independence, and on 9 May 1990, he became the chairman of the first democratically elected Slovenian Parliament.(National Museum of Contemporary History, photo T. Stojko)
Poster of the Slovenian Farmers’ Association before the 1990 elections Ivan Oman (Zminec pri Škofji Loki, 1923), farmer and politician. In May 1988 he became the leader of the Slovenian Farmers’ Association, the first new political party in post-war Yugoslavia. When the United Democratic Opposition of Slovenia (DEMOS) was established, Oman became its vice-president. In 1990, he was elected a member of the Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia.(Gorenjska Museum collections, photo I. Pustovrh)
131130
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
It was my great honour to accept the invitation and to
take part in setting up the permanent exhibition ‘Beautiful
Gorenjska’ on behalf of Verena Perko, curator-in-chief. We
had successfully worked together on two other projects, ‘Iron
Thread’ and ‘Carnium Golden Age’, but ‘Prelepa Gorenjska’
offered the opportunity to meet other curators as well. The
themes of this exhibition are complex and cover long periods
of time, from archaeological eras to the present. The narrative
and the context are closely linked with Gorenjska, Kranj, castle
Khislstein, and ironworking.
We also added at least seven layers of museological
presentation. Classical and architectural displays are placed
within the setting of the exhibition, such as the medieval
townhouses of Kranj and the pillars of the imaginative temple
of Slovenian identity. The windows of the castle building and
one of the niches in the wall also serve as frames for the
displays. The niche, for example, presents a window from
France Berjak’s store. The setting of the exhibition is enriched
with jewellery and ceiling paintings from the parish church of
St. Cantianus and companions. Human figures with exhibition
objects are placed between classical pedestals. The original
attic construction is also used as an element of the exhibition.
The narrative is underlined by the symbolic use of colours, lights
and sounds. Such a complex and demanding project as the
realisation of the permanent exhibition ‘Beautiful Gorenjska’
was could not have been carried out without the expertise,
sympathetic understanding and assistance of Branko Filipiè,
manager of the RPS Company and his team.
Željko Kovaèiæ, 2012
General Janez Slapar (Pristava pri Tržièu, 1949). Between 1988 and 1990, he commanded the Gorenjska Territorial Defence. During the war for independence and until 1993 he was the commanding officer of the republic headquarters of the Territorial Defence. He became the first general in independent Slovenia. (National Museum of Contemporary History,photo T. Stojko)
France Tomšiè(Šmarca pri Kamniku, 1937 – Kamnik, 2010), engineer, politician, trade union activist. In December 1987 he organised a strike in the company Litostroj. He proposed the setting up of an initiative committee of the Social Democratic Association of Slovenia, an opposition party whose first president he became in 1989. Between 1990 and 1997 he was the leader of Neodvisnost, the first democratic trade union. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo T. Stojko)
THE IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITON CREATING PROCESS
THE EXHIBITION IN IMAGES
143
Authors
mag. Tatjana Eržen Dolžan, dr. Damir Globoènik, Beba Jenèiè, dr. Verena
Perko, Helena Rant, mag. Monika Rogelj, mag. Marjana Žibert
Head of permanent exhibition
dr. Verena Perko, Beba Jenèiè
Head of museological concept
dr. Verena Perko
Head of pedagogical program
Magda Zore
Renovation project manager
mag. Barbara Ravnik
Exhibition and graphic design
Željko Kovaèiæ
Sound spaces
Boštjan Perovšek, SAETA - Institute for Cultural and Promotional Activities
Exhibition produced by
Lesnina inženiring D.D; RPS, Ljubljana
Light and sound system
Miran Brumat
Proof reading
Judita Babnik
English translation
David Limon
Photographs
Tomaž Lauko, Drago Holynski, Arne Hodaliè, Tomaž Hladnik, Mirko Kunšiè, Franc Oderlap, Franc Perdan, Janez Pukšiè, Igor Pustovrh, dr. Milan Sagadin, Marjan Smerke, Andrej Štremfelj, mag. Jože Štukl, Marko Tušek, Rafko Urankar, Nejc Zaplotnik, Maruša Žerjal, Jože Dežman, mag. Tatjana Dolžan Eržen, dr. Damir Globoènik, Helena Rant, dr. Zvonka Zupaniè Slavec, Muzej novejše zgodovine Slovenije, Arhiv Republike Slovenije, Mali vojni muzej, Bohinj in Jelena Justin.
Conservation and restoration works
Marjanca Jegliè, Zdenka Kramarmag. Irena Jeras Dimovska
Exhibition reviews
dr. Aleksandra Berberih Slana, Muzej narodne revolucije Maribor Mirjana Koren, Pokrajinski muzej Maribor,Mojca Šifrer Bulovec, Loški muzej, Škofja Lokamag. Zora Torkar in Janja Železnikar, Medobèinski muzej Kamnik
IMPRESSUM OF THE EXHIBITON
BEAUTIFUL GORENJSKAREGIONAL MUZEUM KRANJ, CASTEL KHISLSTEIN
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