Book Šenkova domačija

Many people would like to check out how life was 100, 500 or even 1000 years ago. If only we could sit in a time machine and turn back time to see what was going on in our house, in our village or somewhere else in the world. We wondered the same thing when we started renovating our old house. All we knew about it was that it was very special, very old, at least 500 years old, maybe more, and that we had to respectfully preserve and restore it. Can we even imagine how long does 500 years take, what all can happen in that period and what was happening so long ago? This was time of the Middle Ages, time of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America, time of Primož Trubar and first words written in Slovene language. After the great lake drained and the earthquakes shook our country and finally gave it its present appearance it was also time of the settlement of the valley of Jezersko.

Many distinguished historians have already written about Šenk's homestead and its old house. However, everyone was just guessing how old it really was, and we didn't know who its owners had been until this year. In the last six years, our old house has got a new look and also a book about its complete history, defined by dates and documents. After a long research and study of archives historian Polona Zalokar managed to collect all the information. She comes from the well-known Roblek family from Bašelj. We were already classmates in Preddvor, later we also attended the Kranj secondary school for four years. We met again at one of the classmates’ meetings where we also spoke about our work. She told me that she worked as a freelance historian and that she had just finished one of her projects. After hearing about her career, I persuaded her to do a little research in the archives about my ancestors. This little browsing developed into extensive research that Polona conducted for several years. With the help of documents, she compiled quite a few Jezersko family trees and set the order of the owners of Šenk’s homestead from 1524 onwards. Since we collected lots of material, we have decided to publish everything in a book together with the Gorenjska Museum and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. And soon monograph with a meaningful title Šenkova domačija na Jezerskem 500 let (Šenk Homestead at Jezersko 500 Years) was created.

The book reveals a part of the history of Jezersko valley on more than 200 pages. Many people can find one of their ancestors in it and get to know life on Jezersko in the last 500 years. The work is also interesting from a broader point of view, as it is the first documented history of our place, which very clearly outlines the life and work of our ancestors. Conservator Saša Roškar also added her contribution to the book. She refuted many a thesis of her predecessors and with the help of dendrochronology and removal of plaster off the house she determined all the development stages of Šenk’s Homestead. There were four construction stages, with the last one happening somewhere in between the end of 18^th and beginning of 19^th century.

We honoured and celebrated 500 years of the Homestead by presenting the book in Korotan hall on 3^rd November 2021. All stakeholders involved participated; both authors, Drejc and I. We had a conversation, which offered an interesting insight into the history of the place and life in Jezersko. It was moderated by Tanja Dolžan Eržen from Gorenjska Museum. I believe many people were unable to attend the presentation of the book due to a complicated health situation. This is why I hope that I managed to arouse a bit of interest in our history, and you will be more than happy to find the book, which you can buy from us or at the TIC and also borrow from the Jezersko library.

The publication of the book was co-financed by Šenk's Homestead, the Gorenjska Museum, and the Municipality of Jezersko. I would like to thank them both for their help and cooperation. I wish a lot of curiosity to everybody living on Jezersko and to other readers and I hope that the book will brighten up the days ahead of us and enrich you with a piece of history that we have presented.