Next week people in Dugo Selo on the Balkan Route will celebrate the traditional Martinmas. Hopefully they – and we – will remember that St. Martin is famous for having cut his cloak in two
In 1209 King Andrew II Arpad granted the land of St. Martin in Dugo Selo in Croatia to the Knights Templar. The name of the land suggests that there was at already at that time a church dedicated to St. Martin at Martin Breg. This was probably the result of Frankish missionary work from the preceeding centuries. Reconstructions of the Slavic sacred landscape have shown that St. Martin appears to have been chosen to supplant the supreme Slavic deity, Perun the Thunderer, who formerly ruled the hill. After the dissolution of the Templars, the village came under the rule of the Hospitallers. However, during the following Turkish invasions, the old church was destroyed. Later, in the middle of the 15th century the present church was constructed. Rebuilt numerous times, it was finally destroyed in an earthquake in 1880. During the communist rule in the 20th century it was allowed to decay further. However, an imposing ruin still towers over the landscape otherwise dominated by vineyards.
Between 2002 and 2008 archaeological excavations was carried out at Martin Breg and the surrounding cemetery. Not much was uncovered from Templar-time, except some tombstones, a silver coin and bits and pieces of jewellery. However, the foundation of the early Romanesque church was revealed to have been two metres thick. Presumably it was a church-fortress. Later, rooms were added to the North, which presumably functioned as the Domus of the Hospitallers.
Out of these excavations the local magistrate construed a foreshortened history of Dugo Selo as the “land of St. Martin” or Land of the Templars”. One witness to this was a publication of the excavations. Another was the inscription of the site on the European Heritage Route: Via Sancti Martini. A third was the organisation a series of medieval markets and living-history events designed to stress this heritage.
At the core of all this was also the reinvention of the old “medieval” traditions surrounding the local feast, which was traditionally held on the 11th of November.
According to this the people in the region celebrated his day by rounding up the horses for the winter and slaughtering the first animals. Foremost, though, the saint was associated with wine and viticulture. Central to the celebrations were thus the so-called baptism of wine (Baptises Wine). This custom involves the baptism of the must and involves a banquet. Served is roasted goose with mlinci, a type of pancake. During the 20th century the feast had been strictly relegated to the private sphere or the church precinct. Now, it has been resurrected as a public celebration (once more).
In a recent article the background for this spectacular “reinvention of tradition” has been explained as the wish of the Croatians to rethink themselves as Europeans. By excavating (part of) the history of their town, publicising it in a scientific archaeological report and getting themselves inscribed in a European network of heritage sites connected with St. Martin, the small and rather insignificant town of Dugo Selo has been able to reach back beyond the communist era and the Balkan war.
The question, though, is of course how they are going to celebrate Martinmass this autum. So-far more than 300.000 refugees have entered Croatia from the South. This means that as we write more than 7000 refugees are passing through the small town of Dogu Selo every day.
Many of these refugees – though not all – are fleeing the atrocities of Isil, the bombings of Assad or the Russians. Others are fleeing the subscription into an army, which they have next to no affinity with. Trekking through Europe they are unfortunately discovering that their hardships are not over. On top of being herded from one place to the other, cold rain turning into snow will soon be pouring down. This upcoming weekend, the weather is promising freezing temperatures in Dugo Selo.
Who is going to cut their cloak in two this winter?
SOURCE:
Politicising St. Martin and Constructing Heritage. A Case Study of a Small Town in Croatia
By Juraj Belaj, Marijana Belaj, Petra Kelemen, Filomena Sirovica
In: Folklore. An Electronic Journal. vol. 60 2015
Published by Published by the Folk Belief and Media Group of the Estonian Literary Museum.
READ MORE:
Templari i ivanovci na zemlji svetoga Martina
By Juraj Belaj
Pučko otvoreno učilište Dugo Selo
FEATURED PHOTO:
Refugees in Croatia shifting through hand-downs and “half cloaks” © Dreamstime 59795051/Canonman29