A VISIT TO THE
ETHNOLOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE SUČIĆ FAMILY IN THE STORK VILLAGE ČIGOĆ
The village Čigoć in the nature park Lonjsko polje (The field of river
Lonja) became well known as the European stork village. This village
is a true phenomenon. It is surrounded by unusual landscape - swampy
river covered by water lilies, numerous shades of green colors of the
plains, flora and the river itself. The village is filled with old houses
typical for Turopolje region, and its interior stays hidden beneath
embroidered curtains on little windows. The roofs of these old wooden
buildings are tempting stork flights to return to this region each year.
They have created circa forty nests in the village - there is hardly
a house without a longlegged guest. The entire village is a little ethnological
or nature museum.
This was precisely what the elderly couple Sučić became aware of. The
spouses have collected ancient tools and decided to share them with
interested people. Their dedication is extraordinary - through these
objects they willingly tell us a story of their forefathers. Their land
alone is a home for seven stork families, so it seems as if destiny
picked their estate to demonstrate us the essence of the region. Mister
Sučić is fancifully describing the usage of different tools and objects,
and the old lady shows us the embroidery of Turopolje which she still
makes on the loom, and is transmitting her knowledge to her grandchildren.
This rich ethnological collection still
doesn't have an adequate protection. The money from entry tickets to
the nature park, the most interesting part of which is the Sučić estate,
only in its smallest part comes into the hands of the couple, and it
should be emphasized that these two elders perform all the restoration
and cleaning work with no professional help.
One particularity of the wooden houses of Turopolje region is that they
rarely had more than one little window per room - there were high taxes
for every additional window. The taxes were applied to chimneys as well
- no chimneys were allowed without paying taxes. Therefore, the peasants
were using the smoke in the attic for meat drying.
The storks are known as baby-bringers
and builders of nests on the top of the chimneys. Ironically, the old
roofs chosen by the storks of Čigoć have no chimneys at all, and the
whole village has only three children who frequent school at this time.
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