hidden europe 59

Radovljica: An Ode to Bees

by Rudolf Abraham

Picture above: Beekeeper Erik Luznar with a display hive in the Draga Valley in Slovenia (photo © Rudolf Abraham).

Summary

If beekeeping has a spiritual home, it's the little town of Radovljica in the Sava Valley of north-west Slovenia. Rudolf Abraham, a regular contributor to hidden europe magazine, explores beekeeping in the region where the great 18th-century apiarist Anton Janša lived and worked. Today, this area of Slovenia is especially noted for its striking painted beehives.

There are two different forms for the verb ‘to die’ in the Slovene language. One of them, umreti, is used when referring to humans; the other, crkniti, is used for animals — all animals, that is, except for bees, which share the same form as used for human beings.

Beekeeper Erik Luznar stands in front of a mobile trailer carrying thirty-six of his hives in the Draga Valley, which winds up into the forested hills beyond the sprawling ruins of Kamen Castle near Begunje na Gorenjskem in Slovenia. Bees rush past him in their thousands, making their way as if by magic to the entrance of their respective hives just behind him.

Erik looks the antithesis of the beekeeping stereotype — young, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, with no protective suit or veil, and utterly at ease amid the cloud of bees. His father kept bees, as did his grandfather. Erik has been around bees for as long as he can remember — but he is the first professional beekeeper in the family. He has around 300 hives, producing around two tonnes of honey per year.

“They can feel the weather changing,” he tells me, pointing to the sky behind him — a storm is forecast for the afternoon, and the clouds are darkening. And just as predicted, when less than fifteen minutes later we are standing a few paces further away from the hives, the buzz from the incoming bees ratchets up audibly, as the number returning to the hives increases spectacularly, rushing in like wisps of grey cloud, just before the first drops of warm summer rain begin to spatter down through the trees.

Beekeeping is widespread and hugely popular in Slovenia — there are as many as 4,500 hives in and around the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, where urban beekeeping is enjoying quite a revival. But if beekeeping has a spiritual home, it’s the little town of Radovljica in the Sava Valley, near the confluence of the Sava Bohinjka and the Sava Dolinka, and its surroundings.

Early beekeepers

The story of modern beekeeping begins in the village of Breznica, just a few kilometres up the road from Radovljica.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 59.
Related blog post

Coffee in Trieste: the joy of railway stations

Paul Scraton reflects on the appeal of railway stations as places to linger. Stop for a coffee and reflect on past travels and future journeys. They are more than merely a place to change trains or buy a ticket.

Related article

Islands for sale

A while back we were contacted by one of those property companies that trade on the internet. Most unusually, it had Slovenian islands for sale.