Cultural Heritage

Glancing at the Blackmill Distillery logo, you can't miss an elongated sword piercing a mighty millstone. This is not by chance. The sword is directly linked to local history. It was found on the bottom of the Lahinja River in 2007 during an annual cleaning. Ana Schweiger, a young diver and a member of the Bela Krajina Amateur Diving Club, found the sword in the muddy riverbed somewhere between the dam above the Flek Mill and the bridge over the Lahinja from the old town centre to Majer. As soon as the sword was out of the water, it became obvious that it was an extraordinary find, which needed to be protected and turned over to the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. It turned out the sword is an exceptional example of a medieval knightly sword, probably made in the second half of the 13th century according to the design of its grip, guard, and blade. In medieval times, this would have been a very valuable piece of weapon and a key part of the knight’s attire.

The sword is most likely a sword that a knight would have used while riding. The experts assume it belonged to a member of the nobility, as no one else would have been able to afford such a weapon nor had the right to carry arms. The sword’s provenance is still a mystery, but it had probably been brought from elsewhere. Experts believe that it is improbable that the owner lost the sword in battle, as there were no major conflicts in the region from the early 13th century to the Turkish raids in 1408. The remains of the sheath were also found on the blade, which suggests the sword was in the water together with its sheath. So if the sword wasn’t lost in battle, how did it end up in the water? Andrej Gaspari PhD, one of the most renowned Slovenian underwater archaeologists, hypothesised that this might have been a votive offering and that the sword was placed in the water as a token of gratitude or remembrance of an important event in the sword owner’s life.

The sword is on display in the Črnomelj Town Museum.

Source: Janez Weiss, Iz materialne dediščine Bele krajine: Srednjeveški meč iz Lahinje.
Available at: https://www.belokranjec.si/novice/iz-materialne-dediscine-bele-krajine-srednjeveski-mec-iz-lahinje/23 (accessed on 08. 11. 2009)

The star of the Blackmill logo is undoubtedly a millstone and it is clearly obvious why. There used to be more than 40 watermills in Bela Krajina. The town of Črnomelj also got its name after one of them on the Lahinja River. The remains of the Žagarci Mill can be found not far from our distillery, making the millstone an important part of our story.

Žagarci Mill, where our millstone are from

Based on currently available information, the Žagarci Mill was first marked on military maps ordered by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa from 1763–1787. The map referenced the settlement as Žagarji or Prisagari (literally at the Žagar’s) with four buildings on the left bank of the Lahinja and the mill directly on the dam. There are two theories as to how the settlement got its name. One suggests there was a sawmill first that later turned into a mill and the other that the mill was owned by someone with the last name Žagar. The Romšek family has lived in the area since the early 19th century. Three landowners of the property around the mill were listed in the registry, namely Janez, Peter, and Mihael. Based on the first entry from the land register of the District Court of Črnomelj in 1880, the co-owners of the land and the watermill were Peter, Franc, and Jože Romšek. Most probably, these were three brothers who jointly inherited the mill. In 1895, Franc Romšek sold his share to his brother Jože, who then owned two-thirds of the mill. Peter Romšek gave his share to Matija Pezdirc, his son-in-law, who married Katarina Romšek, in a marriage settlement.

The Romšek family is still called Jožin after the original owner Jože and the Pezdirc family is known as the Petriša family after Peter. Since 1880, the mill has remained owned by the Romšek and Pezdirc families. Both families had two millstones – a white and a black one – and three waterwheels. The Romšek family had a waterwheel for each of their millstones, while the Pezdirc family only had one for both millstones. Each wheel also had its own sluice.

The Žagarci Mill wasn’t merely a place for milling and threshing the grains, but also a place where people would meet. In summer, kids would come to swim in the pond above the dam and the townspeople would come on daytrips with boats. The people living nearby watered their cattle here and, in winter, when it was time to slaughter the pigs, they would come to drain the intestines. The Lahinja was also the main source of water for the villagers, as most didn’t have wells. Peter Pezdirc, a descendant of the Pezdirc family, who inherited his share of the watermill after his mother, started working at the mill in his early teens. The watermill was used for milling grain and was co-owned by the two families who lived up in the village above the mill. The families settled on higher grounds because the Lahinja typically rises sharply and at least once a year floods due to spring and fall rains. When that happened, they had to move all the grains from the mill to safety. Two millstones were used for milling, an upper ‘runner’, which rotated, and a lower ‘bedstone’, which was fixed. The upper one was around 30–40 cm thick, while the lower one was even thicker, but both had to be dressed regularly to maintain the grinding surface, which ensured good grinding and fine flour. During World War II, the millstones wore down more quickly, as they milled flour for soldiers in addition to local residents.

Both families milled grain to produce flour as well as corn to produce grits, but also oats, barley, and buckwheat. The payment was a prescribed portion of the finished product, which depended on the grain – a bigger portion of flour and a smaller one for grits. Over time, the amount of work at the mills declined due to new electrical mills and later, overwhelmed by roller mills, most of the watermills closed down.

Peter Pezdirc ran the mill until 1972, while the Romšek family ran it until Janko Ramšek's passing in 1974.

The mill has been abandoned and annual high waters contributed to its deterioration. Today the mills on the Lahinja are a silent testament to bygone times that left their lasting mark on life in this region, a testament to an era when time ran slower and life was different.

Source: Andrej Črnič, Mlin na Žagarcih.
Available at: https://www.kamra.si/digitalne-zbirke/mlin-na-zagarcih/ (accessed on 15. 11. 2022)

Bela Krajina embroidery pattern on our gin bottle label

Embroidering used to be a domestic activity of women living in rural areas to make mostly household items for everyday use. Bela Krajina’s style of embroidery was also an indelible part of many local customs and traditions, namely baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The majority of embroidery in these rural areas was for bridal trousseaus. For stitching and weaving predominantly homemade linen or hemp fabric was used. Flax and hemp were sown in early spring, so they would be ready to harvest in late July. When they were ripe, they had to be pulled out with the roots to maximise the fibre length. The stems were gathered and tied up into sheaves, later rippled to remove the seeds and soaked in water to be retted. In some places, they would put the sheaves in water and weigh them down with stones. At the end, they would wash the sheaves and let them dry.

One of the embroidering techniques that has been preserved to the present day is tkaničenje, a type of counted cross-stitch embroidery that mimics weaving. Originally a weaving technique that spread in Bela Krajina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it transformed into an embroidery technique. The embroidery motifs are mostly geometrical shapes in red and blue yarn, as yarn in other colours wasn’t available in the interwar period. The embroidery was used to decorate towels, tablecloths, and bags. Nowadays, homemade linen is still being woven in the village of Adlešiči and the surrounding area to make typical Bela Krajina embroidery.

Immortality, rebirth, pride, beauty, and confidence are just some of the peacock’s symbolic meanings. It is a bird many rightly describe as the most beautiful in the world, so it is no coincidence that we included its image in the pattern of our bottle label.

With its noble presence, extravagant, multicoloured tail, and emerald green body, it isn’t hard to imagine a peacock strolling through the gardens of paradise and hearing sighs of admiration at every step it takes.

It is therefore no surprise that peacocks have held a variety of meanings across many cultures and ancient ideologies for thousands of years. In Buddhism, peacocks are a symbol of renewal and regrowth. Christians associate the peacock with Christ’s resurrection, while the Celts believed it represented freedom and the soul’s liberation. In Chinese culture, the peacock symbolises peace, prosperity, and happiness. In feng shui, its feathers are believed to attract positive energy. In Greek mythology, the peacock was the symbol of the goddess Hera, the patroness of marriage and couples, known for her beauty, pride, and regal demeanour.

Nowadays, its magnificent and elegant image is still associated with various spiritual meanings. It symbolises beauty, self-expression, creativity, joie de vivre, divine protection, spiritual awakening, and new beginnings or opportunities.

The symbolism of the King's Sceptre on our gin bottle label

The pattern of Bela Krajina embroidery, which is the main motif of our bottle label, is enriched with images of a peacock and kingly sceptre. The sceptre is another symbol used by nobility of various cultures throughout history. This is a rod, usually made of precious metals and adorned with gems, symbolising the power and rule of the monarch. The sceptre would be held by kings, queens, Caesars, and other rulers to express their royal power and sovereign authority.

The Bela Krajina embroidery techniques spread and were preserved mainly thanks to the teacher Poldka Bavdek (1881–1965), who introduced embroidery classes to schools in Bela Krajina. Franjo Lovšin, a headteacher from Vinica, was her inspiration and she remained dedicated to this work for the rest of her life. For years Poldka would walk from village to village all around Bela Krajina to copy patterns from old decorative towels called svatovski otirači. In 1918, Albert Sič published these patterns in his collection National Embroidery of Carniola, which encouraged the more frequent use of Bela Krajina’s patterns. After World War II, the teacher Božo Račič inspired women in the village of Adlešiči and the surrounding area to take on making embroideries.

Even today, the embroidered pieces bring warmth and beauty to homes. They are not only an important part of our cultural environment and the rich cultural heritage we take pride in, but also a reflection of one’s creativity.

Sources:
Albert Sič, Narodne vezenine na Kranjskem, 1918.
Belokranjski izdelki, Belokranjske vezenine. Available at: https://belokranjski-izdelki.si/oznaka/belokranjske-vezenine/
Irena Bohte, Zvonka Šterbenc, urednici, Vezenine v Beli krajini skozi čas, Črnomelj: Zavod za izobraževanje in kulturo, 2013.
Neli Niklsbacher-Bregar, Narodne vezenine na Slovenskem, 1974.