Page 274 - Changing Living Spaces

Aleksander Panjek and Gregor Kovačič

nineteenth century reflects the drainage agreement concluded between
Cobenzl, the lord of the manor, and the people of Štanjel. There were 1.2
ha of ‘lordly’ plots, and a total of 6.4 ha of ‘peasant’ plots. If we divide the
area into 55 shares, as evidenced by the seventeenth century source, we
find that each householder in Štanjel received 1,163.6 m2 of arable land
after the drainage and regulation of 1608. We also note that the share
of the landlord – if our assumptions are correct – was almost exactly as
large as the 10 shares of the peasants. This would mean that the drained
area was actually divided into 65 shares, 10 of which belonged to the land-
lord and 55 to the families of the Štanjel inhabitants. Even if this were the
case, the size of the individual shares is surprisingly large, especially con-
sidering that our seventeenth century source defines them as ‘small gar-
dens’. In the Karst, about a thousand square metres of arable land is quite
a lot – especially if it is a garden, because that would be enough to cover
the needs of an average family for garden crops.
Given the fragmentation of agricultural land, it is another small
surprise that the total number of agricultural plots at the time of the
Franciscean Cadastre was less than when they were first divided (43 in
2
1830 compared to 55 in 1608). Over the course of two centuries, the num-
ber of landowners also decreased, from 56 (55 plus landlord) to only 22 (20
plus landlord, plus community). In 1822 the then Lord of Štanjel, Michele
Coronini, owned the largest share of farmland; however, one of the larg-
est owners of farmland in the area of the Lake (Jezero/Polje) was also the
then Mayor of Štanjel, Jožef Švagelj (table 1).
At the time of the Franciscean Cadastre, 85.5 percent of the total area
of the doline consisted of fields with or without grapevines (table 2). One
wooded plot was located at the mouth of the upper canal (‘Potok na pol-
ju’). All grassy plots were located in the lowest part of the doline, oppo-
site the mouth of the lower stream, where the water regulation system
deteriorated. This cannot be a coincidence and indicates that the aban-
doned protective walls had a negative influence on the intended use of
the plots.
This state of affairs corresponds to that of the late nineteenth and ear-
ly twentieth centuries, to which we can date the reports of Jožef Švagelj’s
‘ancestors’; according to him, in the meantime, the water infrastructure
had collapsed in the western part of the valley as well. The only role that
the walls seemed to play at that time was to mitigate ‘the force of tor-

2 ASts, CF, Elaborati, S. Daniele (Štanjel), 659/2, Protocollo particelle fondi.

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