Page 27 - Hrobat Virloget, Katja, et al., eds. (2015). Stone narratives: heritage, mobility, performance. University of Primorska Press, Koper.
P. 27
interpretations of stone in the karst yesterday, today and tomorrow
the locals cannot; none of the architecture experts has performed a detailed calculation of
how much cheaper it is to renovate an old house compared to building a new one, and how
much more time and money is saved in the case of renovating an old house in comparison
with constructing a new one. While stressing the value of stone elements, which in fact de-
fine geographical features of the Karst landscape and a mutual relationship between man
and nature, experts have not yet published a study on how cheaper materials would achieve
the same effect as the one of stone in the Karst.
This article explicitly shows that the elements of stone heritage, such as stone, stone
products, stone architecture, and other skills, which the local population of the Karst to-
day perceives as valuable, had different meanings and interpretations in different historic
periods. Due to past experiences, a small number of educated people, possibly conservative
thinking, and other living conditions, the local population of the modern age evaluated el-
ements of stone heritage negatively. Due to socio-political, cultural and economic circum-
stances, local cultural elements, which today represent an identification and trade element,
were won over by other national symbols, such as NOB monuments, the mountain of Tri-
glav, and Slavic rituals. For the locals, stone remained a symbol of technological backward-
ness, poverty, difficult life, and hard labour. Only after an intensive professional and polit-
ical discourse in the 1990s, when the profession and the politics, influenced by the foreign
experts, recognized its positive meaning, did stone regain its positive connotation, which
was reflected in the everyday life of the local population. Besides its role as an identification
symbol, stone today is an aesthetic product, which decorates old socialist buildings as well
as new buildings that follow traditional Karst features, taking into account the principles
of postmodernist architecture and the guidelines of sustainability. An important achieve-
ment will be reached when stone becomes an element of linking past and present inno-
vative knowledge and skills. The process of establishing sustainable development requires
that tradition and other values of cultural landscape as well as its advancement, modifica-
tion and use be taken into account. Our predecessors, having experienced a different life-
style and technological development, were already familiar with contemporary principles
of sustainable politics and development of landscape; therefore, in order to set up a better
quality of life, their knowledge and skills need to be understood, preserved and upgraded.
Understanding and appreciation, however, can only be achieved through a interdiscipli-
nary research of the history of the lifestyle of people from a particular landscape, who with
their actions, ways of thinking, experiences, and ideas dictate or slow down development.
References
Belingar, E. (2007). Tradicionalno stavbarstvo na Krasu. Kamen na kamen: priloga Pri-
morskih novic. (30. May 2007)
Bratina Jurkovič, N. (2008). Evropska konvencija o krajini: izvajanje v Sloveniji. Ljublja-
na: Ministrstvo za okolje in prostor.
Deu, Ž. (2004). Zagovornica izvirne kraške stavbne dediščine: Dr. Živa Deu o obno-
vi stanovanjskih stavb na podeželju: pogovor. Kras: revija za vsak dom, 66, 10−15.
Graham, B. et. al. (2000). A geography of Heritage: Power, Culture, Economy. London:
Arnold, New York: Oxford University Press.
Guzej-Sabadin, C. (1988). Se zlato obdobje vrača?. Primorske novice, XLII, 47, 4.
25
the locals cannot; none of the architecture experts has performed a detailed calculation of
how much cheaper it is to renovate an old house compared to building a new one, and how
much more time and money is saved in the case of renovating an old house in comparison
with constructing a new one. While stressing the value of stone elements, which in fact de-
fine geographical features of the Karst landscape and a mutual relationship between man
and nature, experts have not yet published a study on how cheaper materials would achieve
the same effect as the one of stone in the Karst.
This article explicitly shows that the elements of stone heritage, such as stone, stone
products, stone architecture, and other skills, which the local population of the Karst to-
day perceives as valuable, had different meanings and interpretations in different historic
periods. Due to past experiences, a small number of educated people, possibly conservative
thinking, and other living conditions, the local population of the modern age evaluated el-
ements of stone heritage negatively. Due to socio-political, cultural and economic circum-
stances, local cultural elements, which today represent an identification and trade element,
were won over by other national symbols, such as NOB monuments, the mountain of Tri-
glav, and Slavic rituals. For the locals, stone remained a symbol of technological backward-
ness, poverty, difficult life, and hard labour. Only after an intensive professional and polit-
ical discourse in the 1990s, when the profession and the politics, influenced by the foreign
experts, recognized its positive meaning, did stone regain its positive connotation, which
was reflected in the everyday life of the local population. Besides its role as an identification
symbol, stone today is an aesthetic product, which decorates old socialist buildings as well
as new buildings that follow traditional Karst features, taking into account the principles
of postmodernist architecture and the guidelines of sustainability. An important achieve-
ment will be reached when stone becomes an element of linking past and present inno-
vative knowledge and skills. The process of establishing sustainable development requires
that tradition and other values of cultural landscape as well as its advancement, modifica-
tion and use be taken into account. Our predecessors, having experienced a different life-
style and technological development, were already familiar with contemporary principles
of sustainable politics and development of landscape; therefore, in order to set up a better
quality of life, their knowledge and skills need to be understood, preserved and upgraded.
Understanding and appreciation, however, can only be achieved through a interdiscipli-
nary research of the history of the lifestyle of people from a particular landscape, who with
their actions, ways of thinking, experiences, and ideas dictate or slow down development.
References
Belingar, E. (2007). Tradicionalno stavbarstvo na Krasu. Kamen na kamen: priloga Pri-
morskih novic. (30. May 2007)
Bratina Jurkovič, N. (2008). Evropska konvencija o krajini: izvajanje v Sloveniji. Ljublja-
na: Ministrstvo za okolje in prostor.
Deu, Ž. (2004). Zagovornica izvirne kraške stavbne dediščine: Dr. Živa Deu o obno-
vi stanovanjskih stavb na podeželju: pogovor. Kras: revija za vsak dom, 66, 10−15.
Graham, B. et. al. (2000). A geography of Heritage: Power, Culture, Economy. London:
Arnold, New York: Oxford University Press.
Guzej-Sabadin, C. (1988). Se zlato obdobje vrača?. Primorske novice, XLII, 47, 4.
25
