Category:Intangible heritage

UNESCO defines the intangible culture as practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.

In Slovenia it is usually divided in the following areas:

oral traditions and folk literature (e.g. storytelling)
performances and presentations (theatre e.g. Škofja Loka Passion Play, singing, instrumental music)
customs and habits (seasonal customs e.g. Kurentovanje or Mardi Gras at Cerknica)
knowledge and practices concerning the environment
traditional craftsmanship (e.g. lacemaking from Idrija, traditional salt making)
cultural environment

Its safeguarding is based on the UNESCO Convention (2003) and the state law on natural and cultural heritage (2008) and is coordinated by the Slovene Ethnographic Museum.

Currently the national register lists over 30 items of Slovene intangible heritage (among them the Škofja Loka Passion Play, the Laufarija in Cerkno) and the procession of the Kurent - Korant.

Cerkno Museum

The Cerkno Museum was established by Idrija Municipal Museum in 1978 as a branch museum about the NOB (National Liberation Struggle). Today this institution is the only one that studies the rich heritage of the Cerkno region in an integral way.

In 2006, on the 50th anniversary of the revival of the Cerkljanska Laufarija, a new permanent exhibition entitled Pust is to Blame! - A Story about the Cerkno Laufarija was put on display. The Cerkno laufarji are among the most famous carnival figures in Slovenia, whose wooden masks called larfa are cut from the wood of the linden tree.

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Triglav National Park

Triglav National Park (TNP) is Slovenia's only national park. It is named after Mount Triglav, the highest mountain in the heart of the park, which is also the highest summit in Slovenia (2864 metres). Triglav is also a national symbol which can be found in Slovenia's coat of arms and on its flag.

Triglav National Park extends along the Italian border and close to the Austrian border in the northwest of Slovenia, that is, in the southeastern section of the Alps. Its territory is nearly identical with that occupied by the Eastern Julian Alps. The park covers 83,807 ha, or 3 % of the territory of Slovenia. It is relished for its pristine nature with beautiful trekking paths into the high mountains, glacier lakes, cosy lodges and shelters and a lot of historic ethnographical and natural monuments. TNP was among the earliest European parks; the first protection by law dates back to 1924 when the Alpine Conservation Park was founded, but the first serious idea for protection came from seismologist and natural scientist Albin Belar already in 1908.

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