Original Experience
Traditions Invite You to Bela krajina
Cross the threshold of Nada Cvitkovič and enter the embrace of the cultural heritage of Bela krajina.
Its stories show that good neighbours and gifts of nature are needed for maintaining craftsmanship tradition – luckily, there’s plenty of them in Bela krajina. The local Nada Cvitkovič, who has taken over the craft from her mother-in-law, is a true master of flax processing and the making of the typical Bela krajina easter eggs (pisanice): “This is what I grew up with and what I respect, so I want to pass it on to others.” The Bela krajina easter eggs, which are known all over the world and have a very special look in Adlešiči, were always made by creative women. Each easter egg is slightly different and made in white, red or black. When we ask, why the colours, Nada answers: “Because you could get everything in nature. Wine or beetroot were used for the red and oak bark for the black.
“Pisanice” are truly more than just regular easter eggs: they are a gift of love!
![GRIČEK, A HILL OF CONSIDERABLE HISTORY
The old name for the hill overlooking the town was Komendski hrib [meaning commandery hill], because it was the location of a large built cellar of the Teutonic knights, which was the order in charge of the town at the time. The structure was connected to the commandery in the town itself. In the 1670s, the notable Carniolan polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor stayed at the cellar and sketched his townscape there. The cellar was at least two centuries old when it was demolished in a clash between Črnomelj residents and smaller detachments of Napoleon’s army in October of 1809. A few years later, Austrian Emperor Francis I had a chapel built to commemorate the Austrian victory in said encounter; however, the chapel was demolished at the close of the 19th century, when a cutting nursery was established on the hill.
During World War II, the Italian occupying army set up cannons on Griček to shell national liberation force positions.
In World War II, between 1941 and 1942, Bela krajina lost a whole tenth of its population and so, after the war, the hill above Črnomelj was designated a memorial space. A monument to Bela krajina’s World War II victims was erected according to the plans by architect Marko Župančič. The burial mound holding the remains of the members of the first Bela krajina unit was established in 1950 and sculptor Jakob Savinšek’s monument featuring large reliefs was finished in 1961.
Source: Mestna muzejska zbirka Črnomelj, Janez Weiss
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Foto Jan Kocjan](https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/275002789_4608455439259887_6311740292508882689_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=dur6R7so2RwAX-dMd6I&_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AT9PJclKjEkJHwxnrQ2ktYeagKuedJDRXIyKeGXBgZ7guA&oe=62C10E4E)
