TRANSPORT USING OXEN OR HORSES
WOODEN TRANSPORT CONTAINERS Wood lost its primacy for storage containers less than fifty years ago and was replaced by plastic. In the past, liquids
Carts were most often pulled by oxen, which were slower but cheaper than horses. Cart horses for long distance transport were bred in Jezersko, around Kranj and Radovljica, and elsewhere in the area.
and other goods were transported in barrels and other
(Gorenjska Museum collections)
carriers transported food for themselves – lard, sausage or
vessels. Carriers who transported nails from the ironworks in Kropa or Železniki to Italy carried their goods in barrels. It is thought that they transported nails to Italy and wine back home in the same barrels. Butter was transported from Bohinj to Trieste by cart in tall vessels made from small wooden panels that were narrower at the bottom and closed with a wooden lid at the top. Smaller vessels were used for lard. And in the smallest vessels, only ten centimetres high, just cottage cheese. Water was carried in low barrels with shoulder straps, while wine was transported in small barrels with a more triangular shape. They were made by barrel makers as an additional activity to farming, particularly in
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Bohinj and the Selca Valley, where in 1902 a cooperative was founded that had around 130 members.
Carting or furmanstvo Carting was a very important additional activity in this area for two hundred years. First to Trieste, after 1850 to Ljubljana, and after 1870 to railway stations in Kranj and elsewhere there travelled long lines of heavy carts pulled by a pair or four of horses. The
A wayside shrine in Martuljk, photographed by J. Ravnik.
carter's life was described in a novel by the writer Janez Jalen. Wax horses as a votive offering, Štefanja Gora, 19th century. The great economic importance of carting is shown by the age-old tradition of blessing horses on St Stephen's day, when owners carried round the altar holy images and wooden or wax horses. (Gorenjska Museum collections, photo J. Pukšiè)
(Ilustrirani Slovenec, 1926)
Wayside shrines A
typical
Gorenjska
feature are
of
wayside
shrines at crossroads, at entrances to settlements and in their centres, beside churches, alongside passes and
on
bridges.
They
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