Intro

Slovenia's century—old inns are a unique cultural monument, a unique part of our cultural heritage. I have often asked myself whether we know enough about their origins and their picturesque history. As I got to know their stories in more detail over the course of this year I came to realise that they are just like life itself, except that the life of these inns has a unique intensity and a character all of its own.

One notable characteristic of inns was that both townsfolk and country people were welcome beneath their roofs. The first inns probably appeared with the development of traffic. In those days people only left their homes for reasons of work or for other urgent reasons. People did not travel much and setting off on a journey, especially a long one, was a major undertaking. Along the way travellers would stop to slake their thirst and ease their hunger. Their horses would be rested or even changed, and inns offered sleeping accommodation for those who required it. Once they had arrived at their destination the travellers would again need refreshment and overnight accommodation.

Social development and, more importantly, economic development led to a growth in the number of inns or gostilne as they are known in Slovenia. The very name gostilna tells us that this is a place where a guest or gost can expect to receive hospitality (gostoljubje). The word gost is cognate with the Latin word hostis (originally meaning “stranger”), the German word gast and the English word guest. All derive from the proto—Indo—European word ghosti formed from the root ghos meaning “to eat”. Thus the word originally denoted a stranger who was offered food by a host.

Inns and other types of hostelry in Slovenia have a very varied history. Taverns existed in Roman times, while inns were common in the Middle Ages. One of the earliest depictions of life in an inn can be seen in a medieval fresco in the Holy Sabbath church at Crngrob. The fresco, which dates from around 1460, shows guests standing in front of a tavern which is indicated by a sign. These signs were prescribed during the reign of Charlemagne (in the 9th century) and were also known as cager (from the German Zeiger—“indicator”). They were also used to denote wine shops and vineyards.

The principal characteristic and mission of an inn is thus to offer hospitality. Slovene inns are marked by a variety of developmental changes, a wealth of typologies, and roles which changed over the course of history.

Among the earliest inns were the packmen's and carters' inns which could be found along main roads. Next to them stood large stables for livestock and they also offered accommodation. The modern equivalent of these are transport cafés. One such establishment is the gostilna at Trojane, famous for its doughnuts. Interestingly people did not drink wine or other beverages standing at the bar. This is actually a more recent invention. Instead they sat at tables and drank and chatted. Castle taverns were a special type of tavern. These were usually leased to a taverner in exchange for a deposit or tithe. The taverner was only allowed to sell the landlord's own wine. In the feudal period when peasants were dependent on the lord of the manor, they were obliged to spend a certain amount of money in his tavern at weddings and baptisms.

It is well known that great quantities of alcoholic beverages were consumed in taverns and that moderation was not a very common virtue. Many squandered their property drinking in taverns or frittered it away at cards or even billiards while under the influence of alcohol, as related in one of the stories in this book.

In the mid—19th century inns became important venues for cultural events as part of the process of national awakening and for the political meetings and debates of party leaders. Different inns were frequented by the supporters of different parties, with, for example, Liberals going to one inn and People's Party supporters to another, to use a somewhat simplified illustration.

Food is another area where inns have undergone considerable development. Many inns did not originally serve hot food. They began by serving home—made brandy and cider and then beer. Home—cured meats would have been available but they did not begin serving hot food until later. The most common dish was soup, including meat soup, known as telerflajš, a corruption of the German word Tellerfleisch—literally a “plate of meat”. Then came stews and goulashes, tripe and other offal—based dishes including lung, liver, pig's stomach and sour soup with pig's trotters. Later still came roast pork or veal. Cutlets, schnitzels and so on were not widely popular until the 1970s. Innkeepers who also had their own farm prepared many delicacies themselves. Cured meats and sausages, for example. Some of them became famous for their produce. Guests would remember the taste of their black pudding, Carniola sausage (this speciality has almost entirely disappeared from the menus of Slovene inns), hams and salami.

Documentary evidence shows that carters' inns were the most common type of inn. With the building of the Southern Railway from Vienna to Trieste in the mid—19th century a new type of inn appeared next to railway stations. These often had pleasant beer gardens in the shade of spreading chestnut trees and some even had an area for playing bowls. In the second half of the 19th century country inns became a popular destination for a day out. People would take the train from town (or a horse—drawn cab in the days before the railway) and travel out to inns in the surrounding countryside for Sunday lunch. Such inns were also known as Sunday inns. Other types of inn included pilgrims' inns and market traders' inns, taverns for students and inns frequented by boatmen, miners, timber—raftsmen, hauliers and so on. Army taverns appeared in areas near military barracks.

Companies of huntsmen had their own rooms in inns. This was the origin of the hunter's room, decorated with hunting attributes and trophies of the chase. Typical town taverns were gathering places for students, professors, writers and other intellectuals.

Wine was served in litre or half—litre bottles. Larger gatherings would call for a Štefan, which held two litres. In Dolenjska it was the custom that if a company drank ten litres of wine the eleventh would be on the house. Poorer patrons nursed quarter—litre mugs or tall glasses holding 200 millilitres.

Today a new type of inn has developed for business lunches, while our towns and villages have been overrun with pizzerias and other establishments offering fast food. In response “slow food” groups (sometimes referred to as “snails”) have started appearing in our inns and developing a completely different style of menu and eating experience.

From the socio—economic point of view the inn was traditionally a family business which passed from generation to generation. The whole family—father, mother and children—would join in the business of offering hospitality, although the work was not always divided up evenly. In many cases the man of the family would take care of the agricultural side of the business while his wife ran the inn. Inns would often also have a butcher's shop or other shop on the premises—and under the same ownership.

In many places the innkeeper was a prominent citizen of his town or village—the mayor, municipal councillor, juryman or even parliamentary deputy.

After the second world war inns were nationalised and then gradually returned to the innkeepers, although there were many paradoxical cases: one of these was a form of socialist tenancy agreement under which the authorities permitted an innkeeper to “perform a catering activity” on a limited scale in his own house. For several years after the war innkeepers and the catering industry in general were somewhat out of favour and were strictly controlled by the authorities, which placed restrictions on their social rights, employment, etc.

It is also well known that people were fond of spreading slanderous rumours about innkeepers, saying for example that they were dishonest, that they watered down their wine, and so on. This however is simply part of life and though the accusations were often justified they were often merely part of a fixed perception which lent itself to constant repetition. It should be emphasised that the majority of innkeepers, the pillars of this important trade, watched very carefully over the reputation of their house.

At one time singing was very popular in inns. Many folk songs spread and indeed have survived to the present day thanks to the fact that they were sung in inns.

Today around 3500 inns are registered with Slovenia's Chamber of Small Business. They include around 300 inns over a hundred years old. Only a hundred of those which can genuinely be called “centenary inns” still have a kitchen serving up hot meals. Many have turned into snack bars or simple pizzerias. In compiling this book we have followed a twin guiding principle: the inn must have a tradition of more than a hundred years—either the building itself or the family that runs it—and it must offer a normal range of food. We are happy that many renowned Slovene innkeepers have agreed to take part in the project, in this way adding another tile to the mosaic of the prestige of the important mission that is the innkeeping profession.

I would also like to draw attention to the fact that these days it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract good—calibre staff to the catering industry; enrolments in catering schools are down and students are abandoning the profession for other better paid professions with working hours that do not include Sundays and public holidays.

Centenary inns includes 40 inns, three of which are outside the borders of Slovenia but which form part of what can still be considered the Slovene cultural area. The selection includes examples of every type of inn in Slovenia, including some which have hardly changed since the end of the 19th century and others which are thoroughly modern and up—to—date and have developed their own philosophy in the preparation and serving of food and drink. In recent years wine production in Slovenia has ceased to be about quantity and turned more towards quality. The same could also be said to apply to the culinary arts. A different life style conditioned by new ways of working also requires inns to adopt different approaches. However certain elements remain a constant: hospitality, the relationship of host to guest and also the relationship of guest to host. All of this is conditioned by education and the general level of culture.

The stories in this book about the origin, development and life of individual inns will serve to teach future generations about an age which can never be repeated. It represents a kind of turning point between the remains of tradition and the search for flexible forms which enable the preservation of elements of tradition to be combined with new elements, especially those that are also of interest to young people. Entertainment and cultural life in the form of planned events are a rarity in inns today, although in some places efforts are being made to revive this once widespread form of entertainment.

Last but not least I would like to thank all those innkeepers who persevere in this difficult and demanding but in its own way fine and noble profession. This book is dedicated to them, in part as an encouragement to young people to continue the work and tradition of their ancestors. Special thanks go to the publisher Peter Rebernik for entrusting me with this demanding project and for his extremely positive collaboration, and to the photographer Peter Marinšek who with great sensitivity has transformed the message of these century—old inns into the pictorial image of this priceless heritage.