An excellent exhibition on the history of winemaking in Liburnia was presented at the State Archives in Rijeka. The exhibition is the result of extensive research conducted by Zorica Manojlović and her colleagues and provides an insight into the past of winemaking, viticulture and cellaring in the area of Rijeka and its surroundings.
Liburnia is considered to be the eastern coast of Istria from Preluka to Brseč, which is characterised by a hilly landscape and a number of old towns and castles, and is traditionally connected to Kastavština as a whole. The forest, the soil and the sea have been the source of the economy for centuries, and the vines were cultivated the most. The Slovenian travel writer Johann Weichard Valvasor in his work Slava Vojvodine Kranjske from 1689 highlights the soil of Kastava, Mošćenice and Veprinac, which, although hard and rocky, produces healthy and tasty wine. The region is blessed with wine, the "noble grape blood" flows through it. And there is plenty of it!
Around Mošćenice, "grapes are born in abundance", and due to the pleasant environment, the lords of the region, the Rijeka Jesuits, arranged a summer house with a particularly beautiful and large vineyard that produces well. The Veprinac area is also rich in quality wine, as is the area around Lovran, while around the Augustinian abbey of St. Jakov's, there are gorgeous fertile vineyards with "good grape berries". During the procession of the Kastav people, the abbot gives them bread and wine. Both Volosko and Brseč are mentioned as regions rich in vines.
Dragutin Hirc, in his travelogue "Hrvatsko Primorje 1891," climbs towards Veprinac and Učka through the vineyards, and in Lovranska Draga, he met a winemaker who explained to him how the vines are grown and what the varieties are. This is important information because it gives us a number of names: Mejsko grozđe, Crni teran, Bieli terbijan, Crni Bašćan, Biela i Crna čulčina, Crveni Lovrišinar, Biela divjaka, Bieli Brajkovac, Sladkiš, Jačetić's grapes, Maroschino. Hirc beautifully observed all this from his spa in Opatija.
In feudal times, wine was used to pay and repay debts. The lord's wine cellars were full, the captains supervised on their behalf the execution of the submission of the subjects as well as how the vineyards were cultivated. The obligation of the wine tithe, the rules of the winery and the sale of wine were legally regulated and written down, as evidenced by documents in the archive created between the 15th and 18th centuries.
In the 19th century, district, provincial, and state authorities took over the responsibility of overseeing and managing winemaking. In Istria, wine institutions and bodies, commissions, agrarian councils, consortia, agricultural institutes, state cellars, and local winegrowers are being established. The scientific approach to winemaking grew, and consumption grew even more with the arrival of the railway in Rijeka, when Opatija and Lovran became health resorts and tourist destinations. The exhibition shows documentation from that period.
The stormy beginning of the 20th century, the country's division into Italian and Yugoslav administration, brought differences in the management of viticulture, but local municipalities still had the most insight into the implementation of decisions from the ministries. The authorities saw the solution to the phylloxera-destroyed vineyards in the cultivation of table grapes, the restoration of vineyards with American vines, the promotion of Istrian wines, the education of local people, and the establishment of state nurseries. Following tourist needs, table grapes were promoted through a series of events and actions that highlighted the nutritional and health benefits of this fruit.
The state protected the quality and price of wine, and a wine shop modeled after Italian cities is opening in Opatija. As early as 1938, over 900 registered grape producers lived in Kastavština, but after the Second World War, vineyards died out, and viticulture disappeared as the basis of life. Along with braids and a few vines for personal needs, the tradition remains woven into local identity and contemporary culture.
Photos: Državni arhiv Rijeka
Comentarios