Občice through time

The name Občice is said to originate from the name of the shared communal land, and is indicative of the original Slavic settlement. According to the description provided by Mitja Ferenc and Gojko Zupan, before the World War II the village predominantly engaged in modest agriculture, cattle breeding and fruit growing (there were mainly apple orchards). Ancillary activities included bee-keeping, viticulture, forestry and cattle yoking. Občice are first mentioned in 1564 in the so-called rent-roll contribution register. The largest number of inhabitants lived there in 1869, i.e. 129 people in 24 houses. In Občice, Gottscheerisch Khrapflern, the Gottscheer dialect was spoken until the World War II, as elsewhere in Kočevska area.

According to the testimony of villager Justina Rabzelj in Marija Makarovič’s Črmošnjiško-Poljanska dolina in njeni ljudje (Moschnitze Valley and its people), during the World War II, in the face of German propaganda, many of the villagers of Občice decided to move to the Reich: “On St Nicholas’ Eve in 1941, Občice remained empty. Except for ours, all the other Gottscheer families had moved out. Only our family remained in the abandoned village. /…/ All my father said was that the villagers came to say goodbye before they left.” (Marija Makarovič: 2005, 484)

Thus, in Občice, where for six centuries the Gottscheer language was part of everyday life, it almost disappeared after the war. Since then, Mrs Justina and other children, such as her brother Albin Samida, learned Slovenian instead of German in primary school.

Protected architectural heritage

Justina and Albin Samida were born on Kulparš’s farm, which was then taken over by his sister, her nephew and his family. The house (Gott. hauš), originally number 5 and now number 1, can be seen in the following photo (first from the right).

The Immovable Cultural Heritage Register of the Republic of Slovenia contains brief descriptions of three houses in Občice, namely houses with numbers 4, 6 and 7. The house located at the address Občice 4 is a top-stable house dating from the second half of the 19th century. It is partly dug into the slope and has a converted black (open-hearth) kitchen. House No. 6 is a type of a top stable house from the first half of the 19th century. During 1944 and 1945, it was the headquarters of the TV-15 relay station command, from where partisan courier connections ran throughout Slovenia (there are also two commemorative plaques on the house). House No. 7 is a small farmer’s ground-floor house, built at the beginning of the 19th century. The inscription of the year 1891 is still visible on the west gable-end of the façade.

Also worth mentioning is the restored farmhouse located at the address Občice 9, where the Society of Native Gottschee Settlers has its headquarters and museum room. Founded in 1992 in Kočevske Poljane, the society is primarily concerned with the promotion of Gottscheer culture through folklore activities, bringing together both Gottscheers who have remained in their homeland and their supporters.

Opportunities for tourism development in Občice

For the first time, I walked through Občice focusing on my feelings or rather my first impression. Wooden windows, blue inscription of 1891 with painted decoration that romantically coincides with the meadow wafting with the fragrance of blue flowers. The ornate façade of the house No. 2, the memorial plaque on the house No. 6, etc. A village which – to refer again to Bachelard’s idea of old houses – testifies to a cluster of houses fortified through ordeal and experience.

It is a rarity to find architectural heritage in the wider Kočevska region preserved to such an extent. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide proper assessment and to define its vision through appropriate expert guidance. When renovating houses and assigning them new designated function, it is particularly important to work with the local environment and residents. The renovated houses could enrich the efforts of the Society of Native Gottschee Settlers to revive the Gottscheer heritage in the Moschnitze Valley. For example, in terms of offering new tourist accommodation that could offer visitors, especially those from abroad, a place to stay in the ambient of their ancestral life. This personalised tourist experience is just one of the possibilities for the development of the municipality and the surrounding area. In this way, they could be instilled with new life and avoid the foreboding sensation that, like most pre-war Gottscheer villages, the last train of silent admiration is approaching.

Sources:
– Bachelard, Gaston. 2001. Poetika prostora. Ljubljana: Študentska založba.
– Society of Native Gottschee Settlers: https://www.dolenjske-toplice.si/objava/73894.
– Ferenc, Mitja in Gojko Zupan. 2013. Po sledeh Kočevarjev v Črmošnjiško-Poljanski dolini / Auf den Spuren der Gottscheer in der Moschnitze. Dolenjske Toplice: Društvo Kočevarjev staroselcev.
– Makarovič, Marija. 2005. Črmošnjiško-Poljanska dolina in njeni ljudje. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU.
– The National Register of Cultural Heritage: https://geohub.gov.si/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d6641ae60c0c47e9b027319f4f0f73

Read more about the new arrangement of the ethnological collection of the native Gottscheer people in Občice here.

The post A stroll through the village of Občice (Gott. Khrapflern) appeared first on Gottscheer blog.

On the main road through the village of Občice in the municipality of Dolenjske Toplice stands a restored, blue-painted old farmhouse. Since 1998, it has housed the Society of Native Gottschee Settlers. The society was founded in 1992 and promotes and preserves the cultural heritage of the Gottschee region. The main activities of the society include a folklore and singing group, the publication of the newspaper “Bakh – Pot“, German and Gottscheer language courses and children’s workshops. In 2014, an orchard was planted next to the main building, where old varieties of fruit trees typical of the Gottschee region are preserved. The association also actively participates in the Days of Gottschee Culture, an event starting in 2015 alternately organised by the municipalities of Kočevje, Dolenjske Toplice and Semič.

The redesign of the ethnological collection of the Gottscheers in Občice

Co-workers in the arrangement of the Gottscheer collection

Within the framework of the so-called student project for sustainable development “Ethnological collection of Gottscheers and the walking path among old varieties of fruit trees“, funded by the University of Ljubljana, the already existing ethnological collection and the orchard of old varieties of trees were reinterpreted and redesigned. The students who participated in the project, which started in June 2023 and ended in September 2023, were Jana Rajh Plohl, Pika Pipan, Gaja Slapnik, Klara Vrabl and Kaja Večko. The project leader was Dr. Anja Moric from the Department of Ethology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Other co-mentors of the project were Dr. Tanja Žigon, Department of Translation at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, and Primož Primec, the President of the Society of Native Gottschee Settlers. Urška Gruden from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana was responsible for the administration and coordination of the project.

The process of setting up the ethnological collection of the Gottscheers

In the attic of the main house, the outbuilding and under the adjacent hayrack, we have set up a collection of objects used by the Gottscheers from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century in their work in the fields and in their daily lives, such as dormouse traps, scales, agricultural tools, beehives, etc. In addition, two models of Gottschee villages made by forester Anton Prelesnik are exhibited in the outbuilding.

The students conducted several interviews with Gottscheers from Občice and the surrounding area and, as far as possible, recorded Gottscheer expressions for the exhibited objects. Nowadays only a few can speak the Gottscheer language. In the interviews we inquired about their daily life, customs, beekeeping, fruit trees, etc. Through the conversations with the locals, we learned firsthand how the people of the Gottschee region used to live. Sometimes the conversation also revolved around the differences between generations. In one of the interviews with Johannes Hans Jaklitsch, the topic of pasture farming came up. We compared how differently young people grow up today. Mr. Jaklitsch regretted that the games that children used to play in the pasture are no longer played by the younger generations.

Translation work

During the project, two students from the Department of Translation translated a section from the book “Abbildung und Beschreibung der südwest- und östlichen Wenden, Illyrer und Slaven” by Balthasar Hacquet. In it Hacquet described the Gottscheers; therefore the texts were also used for the exhibition panels. This was the first time we were confronted with a 19th century German text that had to be translated into Slovenian. Although we updated the text for today’s readers, we tried to keep the original writing style, as we felt it was important to preserve it. Later, all the texts on the exhibition panels, which were originally written in Slovenian, were translated into English and German. In addition, the project produced an information brochure for visitors about the ethnological collection and the orchard, also in three languages.

Anyone interested in the historical and ethnological features of the Kočevje region, such as: dormouse hunting, peddling, waggon driving, fruit growing, etc., is invited to visit the renovated ethnological collection and the orchard with old fruit varieties of the Association of Gottscheer Native Settlers, which was opened on September 18, 2023.

The authors of the article, Klara Vrabl and Kaja Večko, are students at the Department of Translation Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

In September 2023, 130 years have passed since the arrival of the railway in Kočevje. Read more.

The post Student project for the Gottscheer ethnological exhibition in Občice appeared first on Gottscheer blog.

Small and frail, barefoot and wearing patched-up clothes. He led the sheep or oxen to pasture on steep slopes that loom over the Kolpa River. Like most poor children in the Kolpa and Čabranka Valley, he served as a village shepherd to help his poor mother. Because he was a weakling, other shepherds beat him and made fun of him – until a miracle occurred. According to the most widespread version of the tale, he caught sight of a slumbering girl while grazing the animals. He broke the branches and made a shade so that the scorching sun would not sear her. As a way of thanks, the girl, who was in fact a fairy, granted his wish to grow mighty and strong.  Since then, he used his new gained might to help his compatriots in protecting their hometowns against foes (mostly Ottomans or the so called Turks).

A symbol of survival

Peter Klepec (Slovenian; Petar Klepac – Croatian) became the hero of the Kolpa and Čabranka valley, i.e. of the border region between Slovenia and Croatia. He stepped outside the framework of a narrative character, as he also became a symbol of survival in remote places neglected in terms of development and infrastructure that were further struck by the World War II by internment in Italian concentration camps and the decimation of the population. People could thus identify themselves with the strong Klepec and sought in him the source of strength to overcome barriers and persevere in an otherwise inhospitable environment. Later on, it was the Slovenian writers, in particular France Bevk, who drew the subject matter for their writings from folk tales, that helped to spread the voice of Klepec across Slovenia. There is practically no child today who would not learn about this mighty hero in kindergarten or school.

Peter Klepec’s monuments

The tales of Peter Klepec have been circulated on both sides of the border – in Slovenia and Croatia. According to one of them, Klepec supposedly built a house in the village of Mali Log in Croatia where it stood from 12^thcentury onwards. In the roof truss, he built in a huge beam that he brought from Sveta Gora. When during the World War II the Italians burnt down the village in 1942, the Klepec’s house burnt down as well. Today, only ruins can be seen there. In the 1980s, the Municipality of Osilnica decided to use the character of Peter Klepec for tourist and promotional purposes and started to present itself as the “Land of Peter Klepec”. At the initiative of Stanko Nikolić, the sculptor Marjan Leš produced two enormous wooden statues that were placed on the outskirts of the Municipality of Osilnica.

This wasn’t received well by some of the inhabitants of Mali Log and sparked controversy to whom Peter Klepec actually belongs – i.e. to Slovenians or Croats – that lasted several years. A decade after the people of Osilnica, the inhabitants of Mali Log set up a statue in memory of Klepec near the ruins of the Klepec’s house. 

Whose hero is Peter Klepec?

We see borders between countries as impassable lines of separation. It is precisely the boundless tradition of the hero Klepec that reminds us that these are in fact constructed and not so impermeable. In the narratives, there appear several places where Peter Klepec is supposed to have been born and lived. Most often Osilnica and Mali Log, as well as Čabar are mentioned. That is, depending on who is telling the story. However, all the places are within a distance of a few kilometres. The controversies about whose hero Peter Klepec actually is, are therefore absurd, and it would be most appropriate if we would consider Peter Klepec as a hero common to all the inhabitants of the valley. Perhaps at one time he will be strong enough to associate under a uniform tourist label the inhabitants living on the two banks of the Kolpa River (i.e. the areas of the Municipality of Osilnica and Municipality of Čabar) that are separated by the border. 

Peter Klepec’s Statue hunt

A tip for a trip: The statues of Peter Klepec beckon you. The last was set up in October 2018 at Strma Reber above Osilnica. You can drive to them through Kočevska reka and Borovec. Then, you can continue in the direction of Čabar. On the border there awaits yet another wooden Peter Klepec. Just ring a bell hung from the Klepec’s belt (to get some of his strenght) in Mali Log near the ruins of the Klepec’s house and return in the direction of Osilnica. In the Kovač Hotel you can observe a statue of Peter Klepec made by academic painter and sculpturer Stane Jarm and on your way towards Mirtoviči and Petrina drive through picturesque villages. Say farewell to the last Peter Klepec on the hillock below the St Anne’s church.

Sources:
– Moric, Anja. 2015. Peter Klepec: od (lokalnega) junaka do (nacionalne) prispodobe šibkosti. Ars&Humanitas. Available here: Slovenian or English.
– Moric, Anja in Perinić Lewis Ana. 2018. Petar Klepac/Peter Klepec/Pitr Kljepc: A Borderland Hero and the Manifestations of his Strength. Narodna umjetnost: hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku. Available here.
– Bevk, France. 1963 [1956]. Otroci samote. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga.
– Kunaver, Dušica. 1988. Peter Klepec. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije.
– Makarovič, Marija et al. 2002. Dva bregova eno srce. Življenjske pripovedi iz doline Kolpe in Čabranke. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej Kočevje.
– Primc, Jože. 1991. Peter Klepec in njegova dežela. Koč evje: Koordinacijski odbor za razvoj Zgornje Kolpske doline.

Do you want to learn more about the wider Kočevska (Gottschee) area? See our previous post: Georg Jurij Jonke – the Gottscheer beekeeper.

The post Peter Klepec – a mighty hero of the Kolpa and Čabranka Valley appeared first on Gottscheer blog.