The country villa in the village of Tomaj in which the celebrated modernist poet Srečko Kosovel spent the last days of his life has been restored to how it looked when his parents and siblings moved in, the year before his premature death a century ago.
The €1.3 million renovation has brought back the vivid colours of the interior and restored sweeping views of the surrounding vineyards characteristic of the southwestern Kras region. The property’s structural integrity has been strengthened, while the garden and adjoining shed have also been restored.
“We are very proud that the result is the closest possible approximation of the house as it was in 1925,” Sežana Mayor Andrej Sila said at the opening ceremony on 16 June.
The property will now serve not only as a museum dedicated to Kosovel and his family but also as an events venue and meeting place.
Coming home
Srečko returned home to his family, to the new villa, two months before his death at the age of 22. While showing the room in which he died to reporters, curator Janez Vrečko said the poet had died in terrible agony and that doctors were unable to help him.
The poet had caught a cold after missing a train from Zagorje to Ljubljana and spending the night in the freezing-cold waiting room. After recovering somewhat he travelled to Tomaj, but then developed influenza and finally meningitis, dying on 27 May 1926.
Some of his personal items are on display at the villa, including his signature wire-rimmed round glasses, his christening robe, and a pen, the rasping sound of which Vrečko says kept the poet’s roommates in Ljubljana awake at night because Srečko worked tirelessly.
Often described as the Slovenian Rimbaud, Srečko Kosovel was a visionary poet both in terms of style and subject matter. He left behind more than a thousand poems, ranging from impressionism to expressionism and constructivism. His poetry also includes elements of Dadaism, surrealism and futurism.
“I work so much I don’t get even an hour’s rest all day,” he once wrote. He is said to have slept only two hours a night.
Artistic family
Srečko was the youngest of five children of Anton Kosovel, a teacher and choirmaster, and Katarina Kosovel, a cultured and knowledgeable woman. The parents nurtured their children’s artistic talents and often took them to the theatre in Trieste. His brother was a poet and journalist, while one of his three sisters, Karmela, was a pianist.
This can be seen at the family home in Tomaj, which still keeps their grand piano.
“During the renovation we discovered interesting ornamental borders, painted decorations in the rooms, and vibrant colours, which we have brought back,” Eva Senekovič Ravnikar of the a2o2 arhitekti architectural firm told TV Slovenija.
