STA, 27 May 2019 - Three Slovenian and three Croatian archives have joined forces for a project presenting various topics related to wine and wine-growing on both sides of the border, which is expected to result in a travelling exhibition.
The agreement on cooperation in the Wine at the Border project was signed in Maribor on Monday by representatives of archives from Croatia's Varaždin, Zagreb and Štrigova and from Slovenia's Maribor, Ptuj and Celje.
The project is a continuation of years of successful cooperation between the six archives, coming after two similar projects. This time, the institutions want to present the wine-growing heritage of the area they cover.
"We want to present the rich history in this field by means of the archival material," Ivan Fras, the director of the Regional Archive Maribor, said on the occasion.
Borut Batagelj, the head of the Historical Archive Celje, added that it was not an extensive research project, but a presentation of the related material kept in the six archives.
The final product of the project will be a catalogue and a travelling exhibition on the wine-growing districts from Prekmurje to Posavje in Slovenia and from Međimurje to Zagorje in Croatia.
The project, whose Croatian part has already acquired EU funds, aims at presenting the border area as a whole, said Batagelj.
"Several topics will be presented: from the cultivation of land, vineyards, wine cellars, sale and consummation of wine to anti-alcohol movements," he added.
"The border is what actually connects us in this aspect, which is especially topical in the time when we are getting the feeling that the two areas are being increasingly divided."
Darko Rubčić, the director of the National Archive in Zagreb, is convinced that further cooperation between the institutions will help people from both sides of the border learn more about each other.
"Archives, which are frequently recognised in the public as defenders of national interests, want to show with such joint projects that relations in the closer border area have always been good," the initiators concluded in a press release.
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