[wzslider autoplay=”true”]In Ljesevo, on the old road between Visoko and Ilijas, is a large house which does not give the impression that it is one of the most interesting museums in this part of BiH.
Local Museum is interesting for the simple reason that it represents the result of 40 years of work of Snjezana Popic from Podlugovi. Collecting of exhibits and recording over the years turned into a museum, which today represents a small treasure of history.
“I am collecting exhibits from 1975, I started in the attic, and now I’m in the Local Museum in the Bosnian Cultural Center ‘Visoki’,” explained Popic.
As she said, it took a lot of time, effort and money to collect this treasure, but she is happy because she finally gathered the nation’s cultural heritage of their region, or Visoko nahija (county).
“The museum includes customs of Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims, there are fireplace, traditional costumes, the part dedicated to Tito, the part dedicated to the railway station Podlugovi and a part devoted to my family. My parents made a great contribution to this society. My mother Andjelija worked as president of the women’s association, and she worked voluntarily in working actions, she was a teacher of tailoring, the initiator of employment and winner of many awards. My father Bosko was the head of furnace room at the railway station Podlugovi, he was appointed personally by Josip Broz Tito and he had the first car in the municipality of Ilijas,” said Snjezana, adding that besides her, the Museum connects hundreds of families because each exhibit has its own unique story.
“Everyone knows who gave what, who was wearing what and where it came from. I want to write these stories in the book in which everything will be eternal – because what is written it is remembered. For example, I have 20 coffee grinders from 20 families. I will take pictures of each mill and write below from which family it came. The purpose of all of this is to show what life looked like in our communion,” stated Popic.
Among the oldest exhibits is one treasure chest. Also, there are national costumes that are nearly 100 years old, a lantern from 1883 when the Austro-Hungarian rule was making railroad Sarajevo-Bosanski Brod and electric shish – one of the first in the country.
According to creator of this valuable collection, the museum is mostly visited by schools, classes with their teachers and teachers of history. This is very interesting for children, because, said Snjezana, they never had the opportunity to see something like this.
As for the location of the museum, the basement became too small, so Himzo Fazlic, the founder of Bosnian Cultural Center (BCC), provided the help.
“We wrote to the Municipality Ilijas in order to find some solutions for space, but despite interest they informed us that they have some problems,” said Popic.
In BCC “Visoki”, besides the museum, is also located the library “Vehid Gunic”, and the exhibition of paintings “From Ban Kulin to the present day” is place, and there is also a space in which will be held courses in English, French and German language.
(Source: I. P./Klix.ba/Photo: ilijas.info)
