Page 51 - Terčelj, Dušan. 2015. The Culture of Wine in Slovenia. Edited by Aleš Gačnik. University of Primorska Press, Koper.
P. 51
The Culture of Wine Drinking
had their vineyards around Loka and on Šmarjetna gora. The vine also grew in the Savinja
Valley and all around Styria, Carniola and the Littoral, which is confirmed by the register
of tributes paid to various lords or the Church. In the register of the Freising Škofja Loka
estate from 1291, it says that in the Poljane area, near St. Martin, there were two farms that
had to hand over a sheep and wine as an annual tribute.
In the first period after settlement, the early Slovenes lived in cooperatives. When they fell
under Bavarian rule, they adopted the feudal way of life. The land became the property of
the Holy Roman Emperor in Aachen, who then gave it to the lords governing individual
provinces. The aristocrats in individual regions, as well as Church dignitaries, divided
their property to be farmed by their vassals; these had socage tenure, whereby they had to
give away a tenth of their produce and also perform socage services for a certain number
of days a year. The Slovene inhabitants mainly became vassals. They lived on farms that
were called huba and were not free. The few free farmers that remained tended to live in
the rather infertile mountainous parts.
In the Middle Ages there were a number of different tenures in viticulture:
• dominical vineyards, owned by the lord and worked by his vassals;
• h uba vineyards which were worked by the peasants responsible for them, who had to
give their lords a prescribed share of produce;
• vineyards which appeared on the newly cleared soil on wooded hills outside the village
agricultural complexes, particularly in Carniola and Styria. The landlords who owned
the woods divided a large complex of land suitable for vineyards among individuals who
turned them into plots. These complexes were called gora, hence the common name
gorice for vineyards on hills. Individual vineyards were then let out by landlords in line
with the special rights known as Vineyard Rights, which were inherited and free. Tributes
had to be paid in the form of a fixed amount of must or wine.
In the fresco of the crucifixion
on the wall of St. George’s
church in Ptuj from the second
third of the 15th century there
are images of winegrowing,
which testify to the centuries of
tradition of winegrowing in this
area, 2006. Photo: Aleš Gačnik.
2 Vilfan, 1996, pp. 353-358.
47
had their vineyards around Loka and on Šmarjetna gora. The vine also grew in the Savinja
Valley and all around Styria, Carniola and the Littoral, which is confirmed by the register
of tributes paid to various lords or the Church. In the register of the Freising Škofja Loka
estate from 1291, it says that in the Poljane area, near St. Martin, there were two farms that
had to hand over a sheep and wine as an annual tribute.
In the first period after settlement, the early Slovenes lived in cooperatives. When they fell
under Bavarian rule, they adopted the feudal way of life. The land became the property of
the Holy Roman Emperor in Aachen, who then gave it to the lords governing individual
provinces. The aristocrats in individual regions, as well as Church dignitaries, divided
their property to be farmed by their vassals; these had socage tenure, whereby they had to
give away a tenth of their produce and also perform socage services for a certain number
of days a year. The Slovene inhabitants mainly became vassals. They lived on farms that
were called huba and were not free. The few free farmers that remained tended to live in
the rather infertile mountainous parts.
In the Middle Ages there were a number of different tenures in viticulture:
• dominical vineyards, owned by the lord and worked by his vassals;
• h uba vineyards which were worked by the peasants responsible for them, who had to
give their lords a prescribed share of produce;
• vineyards which appeared on the newly cleared soil on wooded hills outside the village
agricultural complexes, particularly in Carniola and Styria. The landlords who owned
the woods divided a large complex of land suitable for vineyards among individuals who
turned them into plots. These complexes were called gora, hence the common name
gorice for vineyards on hills. Individual vineyards were then let out by landlords in line
with the special rights known as Vineyard Rights, which were inherited and free. Tributes
had to be paid in the form of a fixed amount of must or wine.
In the fresco of the crucifixion
on the wall of St. George’s
church in Ptuj from the second
third of the 15th century there
are images of winegrowing,
which testify to the centuries of
tradition of winegrowing in this
area, 2006. Photo: Aleš Gačnik.
2 Vilfan, 1996, pp. 353-358.
47
