"My parents were from here. Even though I lived somewhere else, this environment, whatever it is, has stayed with me," he says. In the ten years that he has lived and worked here, the village has been enriched by wonderful stories of integration, heritage and respect for ancestors.
The village has always been somewhat on the edge, being located between the municipalities of Sežana and Komen. "This seems to leave a trace in the village's genes," says Dušan. Many walls have been knocked down, but the will of the people was at the bottom, so many people moved away.
Dušan has worked in tourism and development all his life. Anything, anytime, anywhere, anything. "Some of it stays with you. If you are born to develop, you can find opportunities for development anywhere." So it was in a village rich in material and spiritual heritage that he began to look for ideas for projects to lift people's spirits.
At first, they started with small projects such as planting flowers. "You have to convince people with small things first, so they don't get scared too quickly." When the flowers bloomed, the jury from Sežana awarded Kosovlje the first prize. Who wouldn't be proud of that?
When they were thinking about what to do with the prize money, Dušan suggested putting an emblem with the name of the old homestead on each house. "People thought it was a nice idea, so they accepted it." Together they decided on the appearance of the plaques. Today, all the old homesteads have such an inscription.
What came next? Dušan proposed to create commemorative plaques for all local people who were very important for the environment. "So that they are not forgotten," he explains succinctly. "It makes people aware that there were people who lived here and gave a lot to this place." They have found about ten individuals who have left their mark; not only in the village, but also around the world. Their achievements are thus etched in eternity.
Srečko Šušteršič (1924-1994) was a missionary in Bolivia. When they wanted to send him to the army at the age of 18, he entered a monastery instead, finished high school and college, and after his ordination he immediately went to Bolivia, where he lived for 40 years. A mason by trade, he built boarding schools, hospitals, churches, and organised the construction of cooperatives, savings banks, banks... In Bolivia, two books were published about him. The Bolivian Government awarded him the Gold Medal for services to the nation. Nobody knew that this medal even existed. But when the village started to research the story, his niece came and showed the present that her uncle had brought her from Bolivia on the occasion of her wedding. It was this medal, which until then she had no idea what it meant. It is now kept in his birthplace in Kosovelje. When they tried to find out more about his life, they even came across the painter Ejti Štih, who has lived in Bolivia for forty years. She has been instrumental in discovering so much information and stories about Srečko. She came to the inauguration of the memorial plaque, during which an event was organised in the village with a programme, a banquet and a presentation of his life.
Engineer Jordan Zahar designed the PT 150 hydrofoil, the fastest ship at the time, which led to its entry in the Guinness Book of Records in 1986. He won the Oscars for shipbuilding.
Also Karel Jurca (1875-1918) and his son Leopold Jurca (1905-1988) were given their own commemorative plaque. Karel designed and landscaped parks. As a sanitary corporal, he was a participant in the Balkan Eastern and Sochi fronts, where he wrote War diary of a corporal. "This is a wonderful diary describing how the First World War was fought. Really interesting," comments Dušan.
His son Leopold was a parish priest in Trvizo in Istria, a member of the priests of St Paul, and later a parish priest, provost, dean and first principal of the seminary in Pazin, vicar general of the diocese of Koper, cathedral parish priest, dean of Koper, and a member of the international commission for the delimitation of Istria between Italy and Yugoslavia. He was awarded the National Order of Merit for the Nation. He also wrote a book on the history of Istria during fascism. My years. When Leopold, as a Slovene, was in the middle of Istria, which at that time was under the strong influence of fascism, he secretly promoted the sale of Slovenian books by the Mohorje Society. In the middle of Istria! Who could he sell to there? Not to Croats, but to Slovenes.
Jožef Lavrenčič (1879-1966) and his son Stano Lavrenčič (born 1925) had a carpentry workshop at the Tilh family. Jožef was a respected cabinetmaker and a popular folk brass player. "He played a lot. He knew three songs. He could play three songs all afternoon and everyone was happy," explains Dušan, smiling. During the war, he also played for officers at the front, which saved him from being sent to the front lines.
His son Stano was a pupil of Slavko Avseniko, which is why the Slavko Avseniko Ensemble performed in Dutovlje at the height of their fame. Stanko founded and ran the Krasoprema Dutovlje furniture factory, managed the Municipality of Sežana and conceived and managed the project to supply water to the Karst region from underground water streams. At that time, the Karst was facing an extreme water shortage. Stano recalls that when he was a child, in the cellar of his house, he used to hear water dripping through a crack in the ground. There is water underground in the Karst, he claimed, and everyone laughed at him then. They claimed that it was matastthat he is turning pale. How will he look for water underground if there is none on the surface! But Stane persisted and dug borehole after borehole. "There is water under the surface!" he was convinced. He is the one who is responsible for the fact that people in the Karst have water today.
Master Blacksmith Albin Zlobec (1939-1985) had a blacksmith's shop, known throughout the Karst region. "Marička, here in the Karst he was a real ¯'wine. They all went to him!" Dušan remarks, as he looks at the board and explains where the mulberry trees used to stand, where they used to tie up the horses ...
Each plaque is placed in a village and an event is organised with a selected programme and cuisine. At this time, they give a detailed presentation of the person honoured, their activities and historical objects, as well as sharing memories and having a good time as proud villagers. "It would be a pity if it were lost, if people didn't know all this," says Dušan, who is still researching village stories.
But these are not all the activities aimed at preserving the heritage of this small Karst village. As a villager Silvo Križman his hobby of collecting old tools, especially those of various craftsmen, farmers and even military items, prompted him to set up a village museum, which is often visited by children from nearby schools. "For us, these objects are quite everyday, so we recognise them, but many people don't anymore."
Dušan joined the Dry Wall Association, where he obtained a licence to build dry walls to replace those that had been demolished. In addition, they have designed an event space in the village, which is decorated with a stone plaque with the inscription This is home. We value our heritage and creativity. "It's for the locals to feel that this is us, that this is ours," he says. There is also a plaque honouring the peasant state with the inscription: By 1960, we were self-sufficient, farming sustainably, eating organically, grazing 100 head of cattle, milking 200 litres of milk, mowing, ploughing, sowing, reaping and threshing. Followed common farming sense.
Do any of the villagers need all this? "If anyone does, it's the silence," he smiles, but adds seriously: "Well, I think they've been really positive about it all. But you have to be persistent. If you persevere, you bring the thing to an end."
Why is Dušan doing all this? "I do it not for myself, but to keep the environment alive as much as possible. But it's true that I enjoy doing it. I especially like the fact that something is being done. So we don't just do something to do it and to see it, but it's important to see it through to the end. It's important to fill people's consciousness with a sense of pride and belonging, and with that a sense of life."
Asked why he thinks our roots are so important, he responds with a story: 'I remember a student from America. When he was in Nova Gorica, looking at the young women there, he beamed. Hollywood. You have so many beautiful girls, there's nothing like it in America!' When I brought him home to Kosovelje, he had already stopped at the entrance to the village. He read the year inscribed on the stone above the main entrance. 'These are older things than the old USA!' he remarked. If you have a history, you have something more. You are not superficial. We as a nation have it, and it is worth respecting and consolidating."
The village of Kosovelje has received several municipal and national awards, but more importantly, through such actions raising people's awareness of the importance of heritage.
Are you familiar with their project to restore the Feldspital 808 chapel? >>
Petra Škarja, 24. 5. 2025
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