3459 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The Piran salt pans

3459 A salt-pan family in a traditional house in Piran
during salt harvesting in summer.

Piran, considered by some the most beautiful town on the Slovenian coast, grew with the help of salt. The salt pans, where the world-class fleur de sel (flower of salt) is still produced today using age-old methods, were the reason why the picturesque Mediterranean walled town flourished. Established in 804, the Piran Salt Pans encompassed the salt pans in the area of today’s marina (Lucija, Portorož), the smaller Strunjan Salt Pans, and the larger Sečovlje Salt Pans. The areas of all the preserved salt pans are now landscape parks.

3438 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Village market in Padna

The Istrian hinterland has always been very important to supply fresh and high quality food for all coastal towns. The small village Padna, located not far for Piran, and first mentioned in sources dating to 1186, has been doing this for hundreds of years. The village is surrounded by olive groves where some trees are more than 300 years old. It has been known for its large quantities of olive oil products for a long time.

3426 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - They were known as Šavrinke

Slovenian Istria is known for its spectacularly beautiful landscape - a countryside characterized by harsh, rocky terrain. The poor soil of the region, however, has often made it difficult for its inhabitants to make a living. For decades, beginning in the 19th century, courageous local women traveled throughout Istria and beyond selling fresh produce, eggs, freshly baked bread, and other goods from their farms. They were known as Šavrinke, after the local Šavrin Hills.

3418 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Persimmons harvesting in Strunjan

Strunjan is a coastal town in the Municipality of Piran, situated between Piran and Izola, in the valley of the river Roja, along the saltpans and in the nearby hills. The favourable natural conditions of the peninsula of Strunjan, especially the sea climate and its leeward position, made it possible for man to settle here and develop traditional economic activities in harmony with nature. The local population cultivates grapes, produces wine, grows fruit and early vegetables.

3414 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Harvesting the smoke bush leaves in Piran

The European smoketree (Cotinus coggygria), also known as smoke bush, Venetian sumach, or dyer's sumach is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to a large area from southern Europe, east across central Asia and the Himalayas to northern China. The wood was formerly used to make the yellow dye called young fustic. From the Middle Ages onwards, the heartwood and leafy branches of smoke bush were widely used in Europe, especially Italy, for dyeing silk & wool (young fustic), often in combination with other yellows, such as weld, as the yellow shade from young fustic tends to have a reddish hue.

3406 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Preparations for Easter in Piran

The Palm Sunday is a christian feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter, and commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In most liturgical churches it is celebrated by the blessing and distribution of palm branches or the branches of other native trees representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Christ as he rode into Jerusalem. In Istria the traditional palm weaving become a popular festive decoration. Painting Easter eggs is also also a tradition spread in many European country and not only.

3401 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The repairing of the wooden boats in the škver of Seča

 

In Seča (former Sveti Jernej - the Slovene name of Saint Bartholomew), a settlement not far from Piran,  at the end of Jernej's channel, the wooden boats are still renovated in škver. A škver (from Italian squero) is a small craft workshop or shipyard for the production, renovation and maintenance of exclusively small wooden vessels (up to 25 meters), in the traditional, manual manner. Škver was also named the most important accessory in the construction of each new wooden boat, a strong, flat beam rigidly fixed to the floor, which served as the base for the keel on which the entire boat was then built.

3395 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The preparation of healing plants in Piran

The use of herbal medicine is widespread in Slovenia, and on visits to rural areas you’ll often encounter drying rooms or tables covered with leaves and flowers, the specimens gathered from gardens or the wild, to be later stored in jars and turned into teas for various ailments or left to soak in alcohol for a certain pick-me-up. Information on the use of medicinal plants in Istria isn't available in the literature, but collection of plants is still an important and widespread practice in this region. "There is a healing flower for every illness", say the people, and who has had in the family elders from the country side knows this.

3386 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The weaving of traditional Istrian baskets in Piran

Basket weaving is one of the widest spread crafts in the history of any human civilization. It is hard to say just how old the craft is because natural materials like wood, grass, and animal remains decay naturally and constantly. So without proper preservation, much of the history of basket making has been lost and is simply speculated upon. Anyway, the technique of weaving has been passed along, re-discovered, and expanded upon throughout the years, and is still being expanded upon today.

3330, 3349, 3373 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The olive harvesting and manufacture of extra virgin olive oil in Piran

3330 The olive harvesting (1)

Posted on 03.01.2020, 11.01.2020, 19.01.2020
Native to the Mediterranean Basin, the olive tree is one of the oldest and more important domesticated crops raised by humans, and it seems that the olives were turned into oil since 6000 BC. Even today, after thousands of years, the olive oil is an important cooking oil in countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and it forms one of the three staple food plants of Mediterranean cuisine, along with wheat and the grape.

3349 The olive harvesting (2)

A blend of sun and sea breeze, along with the microclimate of the salt pans add a distinctly bitter and spicy flavour to the olives grown in Istria Peninsula, in the area between the Adriatic Sea and the Karst Rim, therefore also in Piran. As a result, the extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria has a protected indication of origin, and the region was proclaimed the best olive oil region in the world in 2016 and 2017. The olive harvesting season extends from October to November. Carefully picked olives make their way to torklje, a special oil press from which oil flows.

3373 Manufacture by cold pressing, in the manual torklja press,
of extra virgin olive oil

 

3321 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Morra players in Piran

Morra is a hand game that dates back thousands of years to ancient Roman and Greek times. Each player simultaneously reveals their hand, extending any number of fingers, and calls out a number. Any player who successfully guesses the total number of fingers revealed by all players combined scores a point. Morra can be played to decide issues, much as two people might toss a coin, or for entertainment.

3190 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The town crier in Piran

In nowadays, the town crier is only heard at ceremonials, fetes and local events, but in medieval Europe have been common on the streets of the towns. Often he would announce his presence with a a large hand bell or a drum. His job was to inform the townspeople of the latest news, proclamations, bylaws and any other important information, as at this time most folk were illiterate and could not read.

3201 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Washing the laundry in Piran

In the past, women used to wash the laundry in common, those from the country to the river, and those from the town to the wells located in small squares. Because in small towns they often did not have enough space to hanging out the laundry at home, they did so in these small markets. Of course, this habit has long been lost, with the generalization of running water and washing machines.

3195 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - At the well in Piran

Almost always human settlements coagulated near a water source, which was sometimes a well. Because the well was one of the few places where many members of society could meet at one point, it got it of particular importance to human communities, as a very popular gathering place, where people exchanged news, joked, gossiped or simply socialized. Because the work of carrying water was assigned to women and often young women, the wells became even a popular gathering places for young men seeking a wife.

3183, 3186 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The fishermen in Piran

3183 Piran - Fisherman square, next to the town's inner port (mandracchio)

Worldwide, for populations that inhabit the coasts of the seas and oceans, fishing is one of the main occupations of ancient times. In Slovenian Istria, however, historical and political developments have radically and definitively changed the situation. For many hundreds of years, the population of Piran was predominantly Italian, but in 1954 the town was transffered to Yugoslavia, the result being a massive exodus of Italian-speaking inhabitants. The new Comunist government of Yugoslavia sought to replace the old population with immigrants, so several traditional economic trades, among which are fishing, started to dissapear.

3186 Piran - Fisherman repairing a fishing net

In the 1980's,  the number of fishermen increased, and the statistics for 1996 demonstrate that there were 40 fishermen in Piran, whose only sourse of income was fishing, and 39 persons who engaged in fishing as their secondary activity. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, and the establishment of the new state border between Slovenia and Croatia, new problems arose for the fishermen from Slovenia, who lost some resourses in the now croatian waters, where they used to fish, and had to adapt their strategies in various ways. One of these is the strategy of connecting fishing with tourism.

2599, 3190, 3195, 3201 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - Piran

Located in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea, Piran is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. The town has much medieval architecture, with narrow streets and compact houses. It was heavily influenced by the Venetian Republic and Austria-Hungary, therefore the monuments differ greatly from those in inner parts of Slovenia. The Piran town walls were constructed to protect the town from Ottoman incursions.

3066 SLOVENIA (Styria) - Door-to-door rounds of Kurenti (UNESCO ICH)

Kurentovanje is one of Slovenia's most popular and ethnologically significant carnival events. This 10-day rite of spring and fertility is celebrated on Shrove Sunday in Ptuj, the oldest documented city in the region, and draws around 10,000 participants each year. In 2010, the 50th anniversary of the first organized instance of this festival was celebrated. This event owes much to the cultural historian Drago Hasl (1900-1976), who was convinced that it could help prevent the disappearance of traditional customs in surrounding villages.

ALBANIA / AUSTRIA / BELGIUM / BULGARIA / CROATIA / GERMANY / ITALY / ROMANIA / SLOVAKIA / SLOVENIA / SPAIN / UKRAINE - Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (UNESCO WHS)

This transboundary property stretches over 12 European countries. Since the end of the last Ice Age, European Beech spread from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean and Pyrenees over a short period of a few thousand years in a process that is still ongoing. The successful expansion across a whole continent is related to the tree's adaptability and tolerance of different climatic, geographical and physical conditions.

2970 SLOVENIA (Styria) - Church of Our Lady Mother of the Church in Maribor

Attested in historical sources in circa 1145, Maribor is in nowadays the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria, and the second-largest city in Slovenia. Following its long history, it has many old buildings, which does not mean it lacks new constructions. among these is the Church of Our Lady Mother of the Church, located in Pobrežje, a suburb of Maribor. Next to the church is Cemetery Pobrežje, a place of memory which appears in the list of the significant European cemeteries.

0085, 0506, 2387 SLOVENIA (Ljubljana) - Ljubljana, the city of dragons

0085 Ljubljana - Images from the city

Posted on 28.12.2011, 11.02.2013, 17.03.2016
Situated on the river Ljubljanica, between the Alps and the Karst, Ljubljana (Laibach until 1918) was for centuries the capital of the historical region of Carniola, and even the capital of the Illyrian Provinces in the Napoleonic French Empire (1809-1813). In 1918, following the end of WWI and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the region joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, subsequent known as Yugoslavia. After WWII, it became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, and remains the capital of independent Slovenia, which joined the European Union in 2004.

0085 Ljubljana - Aerial view of Ljubljanica, and of the castle

The city's architecture is a mix of styles, because it was rebuild twice, first, in a Baroque style, after the 1511 earthquake, and second after the 1895 quake, this time in a Vienna Secession style. Many sectors built after the WWII have a personal touch by the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik, who also has practised in Vienna, Belgrade and Prague, and Ivan Vurnik. In the second half of the 20th century, parts of Ljubljana were redesigned by Edvard Ravnikar. The extent of Ljubljana has changed considerably in the past 40 years, mainly because some of the nearby settlements have merged with Ljubljana.

2387 Ljubljana - Cafes and bars along Cankar Enbankment

Ljubljana Castle is located on Castle Hill, overlooking the old town. The hill became a Roman stronghold after fortifications built by Illyrians and Celts, but the oldest mention of the castle dates from 1112-1125. In 1144 it was the seat of the Carinthian dukes. When in 1335 the Habsburgs took over the area, they demolished the fortress, and in the 15th century started building a new one that still stands today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the castle became arsenal and military hospital, and later prison, which it remained until 1905, when Municipality of Ljubljana settled poor families into it. The residents stayed there until the mid-1960s, when began its renovation.