In the period 14-16 May 2025 students of additional Slovenian language classes in Banja Luka and Slatina and members of the Association of Slovenians "Triglav" visited the Slovenian community in Porabje /Raba Valley/, more precisely in the town of Števanovci in Hungary.
It was a three-day program organized for us by teacher Metoda Perger, during which we could see how the Slovenian national minority lives in Hungary, how classes are organized, as well as how they preserve Slovenian customs and traditions.
We set off on our journey to Porabje on Wednesday, 14 May 2025 and our first stop was the Regional and Study Library in Murska Sobota. It is the central regional library for the Municipality of Murska Sobota, i.e. for 12 municipalities (including Beltince, Hodoš, Kuzma, Moravske Toplice, etc.) and the regional library for Prekmurje, Prlekija and Porabje. The library has a department for learning, general education and youth, and collects Slovenian printed materials, scientific, professional books and literature and other materials about the region, especially older Slovenian Pomurje printed materials and literature in the Hungarian language. It ensures a regular flow of Slovenian literature to the Slovenian Porabje in Hungary and exchanges scientific literature with Hungarian and Austrian libraries. Our hosts, librarian Metka Celec and deputy director Albert Halász, briefly introduced us to the work of the library and the numerous projects in which they are involved.
After visiting the library, we went on a short tour of Lake Sobota, which is an artificial lake, but which looks as if it has naturally sunk into the surrounding area. On the shore of the lake is the Expano pavilion, which was created as part of the "Gate of Pomurje - Regional Promotional Center" project and represents an investment in strengthening the tourist, economic, cultural and sports potential of Pomurje.
After a short walk, we continued our journey to the village of Števanovci in the municipality of Monošter, where our hostess, the director of the Bilingual Primary School "DOŠ Števanovci" Agica Holecz, was waiting for us. We settled in a home next to the church, and after dinner, in a conversation with Agica, we heard about the history of the village, which was named after the Cistercian abbot Saint Stephen Harding from England, and then visited the church dedicated to him. The current church was built in 1785 on the site of the previous chapel, and the interior is richly decorated and painted. In 2005, a memorial plaque was placed in the left aisle of the church with the names of the parish priests and chaplains who served here between 1785 and 2001. Among those priests there were many non-Slovenian nationalities, but many learned the local Slovenian dialect and celebrated mass in it.
The Holy Mass is done in the Slovenian language once a month, and the Slovenian prayer is also present at the Hungarian masses. The organ turned one hundred years old in 2007, and at that time its restoration was carried out. Since 2010, the liturgy has been accompanied by a permanent church choir. In front of the church there are magnificent linden trees, which give the place a unique atmosphere and whose shade we enjoyed during our visit.
The second day of the visit, on Thursday 15 May 2025, after breakfast we visited Števanovci Bilingual Elementary School, where students Melissa and David introduced us to schooling, traditions and customs, meals and life of the Slovenian community in Porabje in general then and now. In interesting presentations, we could see how much living conditions have changed for the better and how much traditions, customs and food have been preserved. The hosts also prepared two interesting workshops for us, a pottery workshop and a crepe paper flower making workshop. We all participated and learned about the process of making decorations and the techniques that need to be applied to make them as beautiful as possible, and everyone took home what they had made as a souvenir. At the pottery workshop, with the help of a true pottery master, some immediately and some after several attempts, we managed to make bowls, cups, and saucers that our teacher Metoda, after drying and firing, will bring to Banja Luka in the future.
After the workshops, we went to the Border Guard Museum in Števanovci, where in the former caravel, at the permanent museum exhibition, we got an insight into the daily life of the border guards, who served here until 2006. We saw the duty room with the entire telephone exchange, as well as uniforms and weapons, and items from the 1970s and 1980s: guards' jackets, boots, water bottles, patrol bags, chemical protection equipment and much more. An interesting item from the harshest times of the "Iron Curtain" is the "footwear" used to deceive border guards: deer hooves tied to shoes, leaving false animal tracks. Another unusual exhibit is a notebook in which the names of those locals who reported or helped catch illegal border crossers are recorded. In the courtyard, we saw a Lada Niva off-road vehicle, a border stone, a border guard's cabin and a short section of the occupied border strip with barbed wire. The original border gate from the Hegyeshalom crossing to Austria is also on display, and even an amphibious vehicle used for patrolling Lake Nežidar and its surroundings.
After visiting this museum, Agica took us to visit the village of Andovci, the smallest Slovenian village in Porabje, where, in the courtyard of the Porabje estate, we could see the Little Triglav - a rock that the Triglav National Park gave to the Andovci. Today, it is a unique national and cultural monument, a true "symbol of Slovenian identity" in the far western corner of Hungary. One stone from each region of Hungary where Slovenians live is embedded in its base. So, not only from the seven Slovenian villages around Monošter, but also from Szombathely, Budapest and Mosonmagyaróvár. From this point, a group of enthusiastic Slovenians from Porabje set off to Triglav every year, on a three hundred kilometer hike.
An important tourist and cultural monument in Andovci is a century and a half old Porabje Household. Even after renovation, the exterior and interior of the building faithfully preserve the former rural way of life. In an authentic living environment, we had the opportunity to walk from the kitchen with old tiles and a built-in stove all the way to the rustic bedroom. The thickness of the walls of the building reaches half a meter and serves as excellent thermal insulation. This memorial house contains preserved objects from ancient times that gave us a glimpse of how people in these areas once lived and what jobs they did.
Although the weather was cloudy and sometimes rainy, we couldn't help but take the youngest ones to the Ecological Adventure Park in Andovci. The Cekinček Adventure Trail is a combination of nature and an adventure park. Protected plants and animals in the landscape are presented on trilingual billboards along the trail, which is about a kilometer long. Visitors progress from station to station by solving interesting and playful tasks, and must, among other things, navigate through a maze and use binoculars to find hidden animals in the park.
We also managed to visit the real Hungarian tavern Székely Tanya near Monošter, where we could get an impression of the traditional Hungarian restaurant and buy some souvenirs, after which we walked around Monošter or Szentgotthárd, as it is called in Hungarian. It is a city in western Hungary in the Iron County. It is located on the banks of the Raba River along the border with Austria and is the cultural center of Hungarian Slovenes.
The last day of our visit began with a tour of the August Paul Museum, where the hostess Margit Mayer took us through the Styrian house, which was originally built for factory workers, and since 1982 has housed an exhibition of local history named after August Paul and a collection of Slovenian national items. The permanent exhibition presents pottery and the way of life of Slovenians in the area around Monošter. The museum was named after the linguist and ethnologist August Paul, who studied the life and language of the people who lived here.
After that, we went to Radio Monošter where we gave an interview to journalist Valléria Czászár and spoke with the radio director Attila Bartakovics.
Full of impressions from this trip, we headed home in the hope that we would be able to host some of the new friends we had made on this interesting trip, which was made possible with the financial support of the Office for Slovenians Worldwide.
Ana Marjanović
