Museum memories

Fieldwork in Brežice, Slovenia

Our first day of fieldwork was Monday 15th May 2023. We made a planned walk into town along Old Justice Street, Ulica stare pravde, and made a stop at the water tower, Vodovodni stolp Brežice. The weather was brightening all the time after a couple of rainy days.

The Posavje

I made my first visit to The Posavje Museum in Brežice just before 5 o'clock on Tuesday 16th May 2023. That was my reconnaissance visit aiming to look in almost every room for first impressions and to see if any artefact would stay in my memory for later detailed investigation. I also had in mind the painting from the museum's web list, of the hay-drying racks and buckwheat in flower by Miroslav Kugler because we had discussed that on the dialogue platform before my visit to the university tourism faculty. Alas, I could not find Kugler's painting but I wanted to keep moving rather than make a focussed study at this initial stage.

An Ellipse of Plateaus

On Wednesday 17th May 2023 at 11h43 I was writing in the Kava Jazz Pub at 2 Trg Izgnancev, working on an elliptical table top, sipping a Hausbrandt coffee in a branded cup. I made this Step 2 Journaling entry sitting at this writing plateau, 'The buildings on this west side of the Road of the First Fighters are only 10 to 15 metres in depth. Then behind them, on the western edge of Brežice, the ground drops away again, leaving the whole street as a combe ridge. Placing a settlement near the top of a combe suggests a Celtic origin for the site of the town, and the location of Brežice is on the south eastern extent of the early Iron Age period of proto-Celtic culture, from around 450 BCE. Vessels decorated with narrative scenes emerged in this era, for example, the Slovenian Vače Situla vessel, made of bronze, 23.8cm high and holding about 2 litres of liquid. Horses and people are depicted in bas relief on this Celtic artefact’.

Riverbank or Slope

That something happened to the land level just behind the main street was apparent when I explored the alley called Holyjeva steza or Holly's path. I speculated that the town's name, Brežice might mean ridge or combe. I asked Jasna via text message, a rapid reply 'It means breg - riverbank, slope'.

A connection had been made from my memory of the museum visit of the day before, when I had noticed, but not spent much time with, the Etruscan situla held in the museum along with the fibulae fastening pins, which served as buttons on Celtic clothing before button-holes were invented. A Taurisci Celtic site from between 250 BCE and 150 BCE was discovered in 1948 when the huge veterinary clinic was built in Brežice. This helps position, at least the cemetery of the tribe, on today's town layout, but not perhaps their Iron Age dwellings. 

I walked from my hotel, the Pr’ Šefu at Prešernova cesta 17 along to the animal clinic and the lie of the land became clear on foot.  The ground here drops away and levels towards the river Sava, well south of the town's combe ridge.  

Journaling back in March 2023

Hermina had described in her journaling in March the places that were her favourite stopping points around the town, 'The next ''plateau'' will be the Wild Chestnut Avenue next to the Castle of Brežice. The natural heritage is very important, so we have to admire it. On the avenue, there are also information boards, where you can read something about history of the town'. 

I, too, had been drawn to this smoothed, gravelled space. For me, it was the planting of new young chestnut trees that inspired me. There were park benches, too, but as I spent time there I noticed a link with water and the river in the form of an old hand pump and a more recent drinking fountain. I wonder where the drinking water comes from now, the Sava? The Celts living there would have used a situla for carrying and sharing water with their families and tribe. A small, low doorway with an arched lintel had been cut into the massive stone wall of the castle on this plateau. This would have allowed food and drink to be brought into the heart of the living space of the castle more easily. I looked up at the white rendered upper half of the stone wall and imagined projected images on summer evenings of those who have known this secure, flat place on which to sit and write. 

The Whole Travel Story

This article is an update on the chronicle of our tourism research project in Brežice, Slovenia.  Three previous articles, all posted here on our magazine blog are called:

Chronicle, dateline March 30, 2023 

Deep-mapping in Slovenia, dateline March 11, 2023 

In the Middle of Things, dateline  April 06, 2023 

If you would like to use our method of plateau journaling for your own more literary travel writing or city branding then a full explanation can be found in our Routledge book here on Amazon Travel Writing for Tourism