Page 18 - Hrobat Virloget, Katja, et al., eds. (2015). Stone narratives: heritage, mobility, performance. University of Primorska Press, Koper.
P. 18
stone narratives
to themselves as members of nations – Slovenians, Croatians, Italians, Germans, etc. The
newspapers of the time defined the regional Karst identity through geographical features.
In 1867, the newspaper Domovina wrote: »The Karst person is truly a man; your will and
character is as strong as your Karst stone« (Domovina, 19 January 1867, paper 3, p. 1).
After World War II, stone becomes a symbol of poverty
and backwardness
After World War II, as the Karst region got acquainted with new construction materials
and techniques and technologically more developed stone processing machinery, and expe-
rienced socio-political and economic changes, stone started to lose its value. One of the in-
dicators of this phenomenon was a general closing down of many quarries, which had un-
til the 1960s provided a regular income for many people although they had to go through
great pains to earn it. There were still twelve quarries in the Karst in 1960; fifteen years lat-
er, however, only the Lipica quarry remained (Guzej-Sabatin, 1988, p. 4). With the closing
down of the quarries, experts, too, started to leave the region. Stonemason’s products began
to lose their former functional and aesthetic importance, which was reflected in the fact
that these products were abandoned, destroyed, thrown away, built into the walls of new
apartments or exhibited in museums.
What contributed to the changed attitude to and importance of stone after World
War II was wider modernist influences, associated with industrialisation, which formed
the grounds for a socialist ideology,1 as well as local social and cultural circumstances in
the Karst. New social values of the modern period, based on freedom, reason, and indus-
trial and technological progress, were also reflected in the awareness of history and the per-
ception of time. According to the English sociologist Kristian Kumar, modernity meant a
complete separation from the past. Modernity no longer promoted learning from experi-
ences of the former generations, as had been the case in the pre-modern period; instead, it
favoured showing only social and historic achievements of a nation (Kumar, 1995, p. 79–
80). Through consolidating centralized states and creating nationalistic programmes, rem-
nants of the past became identification elements of defining, interpreting and presenting
the national Yugoslavian identity. Following the industrial development and technologi-
cal progress, economy and consequently the lifestyle changed; the countryside put industry
above the farmer’s culture. As the old farmhouse did not allow a decent life anymore and
because the financial status of the household had improved, there was a tendency of build-
ing new, more spacious, lighter and warmer houses made of new materials and equipped
with visual decorations. In the countryside, objects from the past lifestyle which sym-
bolised manual peasant labour were destroyed or became museum exhibits and elements
showing the collective identity and its development. People started to lead a new, different,
more modern style of life.
1 The historian Peter Vodopivec explains that the impact of the Industrial Revolution in Slovenia was in fact visible
already in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century; however, in 1941, when World War II began on
the Yugoslavian territory, the Slovenian society and economy, despite the rapid development process in the first
Yugoslavia, did not yet have a truly modern middle-class industrial image (Vodopivec, 2006, p. 363). Although
a large part of the income was earned from manufacturing, industrial and other non-agricultural activities, the
majority of the population earned a living from agriculture. The Hungarian philosopher G. M. Tamás similarly
explains that all modernization attempts in the eastern Europe »failed miserably« and that »only revolutionary
socialism was up to this enormous task« (Tamás, 1997, p. 205).
16
to themselves as members of nations – Slovenians, Croatians, Italians, Germans, etc. The
newspapers of the time defined the regional Karst identity through geographical features.
In 1867, the newspaper Domovina wrote: »The Karst person is truly a man; your will and
character is as strong as your Karst stone« (Domovina, 19 January 1867, paper 3, p. 1).
After World War II, stone becomes a symbol of poverty
and backwardness
After World War II, as the Karst region got acquainted with new construction materials
and techniques and technologically more developed stone processing machinery, and expe-
rienced socio-political and economic changes, stone started to lose its value. One of the in-
dicators of this phenomenon was a general closing down of many quarries, which had un-
til the 1960s provided a regular income for many people although they had to go through
great pains to earn it. There were still twelve quarries in the Karst in 1960; fifteen years lat-
er, however, only the Lipica quarry remained (Guzej-Sabatin, 1988, p. 4). With the closing
down of the quarries, experts, too, started to leave the region. Stonemason’s products began
to lose their former functional and aesthetic importance, which was reflected in the fact
that these products were abandoned, destroyed, thrown away, built into the walls of new
apartments or exhibited in museums.
What contributed to the changed attitude to and importance of stone after World
War II was wider modernist influences, associated with industrialisation, which formed
the grounds for a socialist ideology,1 as well as local social and cultural circumstances in
the Karst. New social values of the modern period, based on freedom, reason, and indus-
trial and technological progress, were also reflected in the awareness of history and the per-
ception of time. According to the English sociologist Kristian Kumar, modernity meant a
complete separation from the past. Modernity no longer promoted learning from experi-
ences of the former generations, as had been the case in the pre-modern period; instead, it
favoured showing only social and historic achievements of a nation (Kumar, 1995, p. 79–
80). Through consolidating centralized states and creating nationalistic programmes, rem-
nants of the past became identification elements of defining, interpreting and presenting
the national Yugoslavian identity. Following the industrial development and technologi-
cal progress, economy and consequently the lifestyle changed; the countryside put industry
above the farmer’s culture. As the old farmhouse did not allow a decent life anymore and
because the financial status of the household had improved, there was a tendency of build-
ing new, more spacious, lighter and warmer houses made of new materials and equipped
with visual decorations. In the countryside, objects from the past lifestyle which sym-
bolised manual peasant labour were destroyed or became museum exhibits and elements
showing the collective identity and its development. People started to lead a new, different,
more modern style of life.
1 The historian Peter Vodopivec explains that the impact of the Industrial Revolution in Slovenia was in fact visible
already in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century; however, in 1941, when World War II began on
the Yugoslavian territory, the Slovenian society and economy, despite the rapid development process in the first
Yugoslavia, did not yet have a truly modern middle-class industrial image (Vodopivec, 2006, p. 363). Although
a large part of the income was earned from manufacturing, industrial and other non-agricultural activities, the
majority of the population earned a living from agriculture. The Hungarian philosopher G. M. Tamás similarly
explains that all modernization attempts in the eastern Europe »failed miserably« and that »only revolutionary
socialism was up to this enormous task« (Tamás, 1997, p. 205).
16
