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In Rijeka, on December 15, a new product of the family craft distillery from Gorski Kotar, Lynx Craft Distillery, Pelinkovac 'Pelinova kći', was presented as a result of cooperation with the cultural and tourist route Putovi Frankopan of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
Pelinkovac with Goran meduna combines cultural heritage and local Goran products in a new product of the representation of the old Croatian Frankopan family, whose history and activities are inextricably linked to the green heart of Croatia and has an important historical role for the Goran region.
The name of this strong drink, a combination of wormwood and Goran honey, is not a random choice. "That is the name of the Francopan musical Pelin's daughter, for which the libretto was written by Velid Đekić", she said at the presentation held at the Principij gallery on Friday Sonja Sisic, head of the Administrative Department for Culture, Sports and Technical Culture of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
For the story of Ana Katarina, Đekić uses historical factography as a starting point for building a bittersweet portrait of an authentic, full-blooded heroine. A heroine whose external character we may not know for sure, but we know her deep role in historical events of national importance.
It is difficult to say which dimension is more exciting in that story - personal or national, real or imaginary, it was heard at the presentation.
The creator of this extraordinary drink is Marin Mihaljević Žulj, a professor of strong alcoholic beverages at the University of Zagreb and a lover of distillation. His wife, Maja Žulj Mihaljević, doctor of biotechnical sciences, replaced her successful scientific career with an entrepreneurial one in order to devote herself to what she loves most - her family and plants.
Bitters is a traditional alcoholic drink that has not lost its popularity for years and is one of the favorite herbal liqueurs in Croatia. One of the reasons for that is medicinal properties of wormwood, of course with moderate consumption.
The wormwood plant is extremely medicinal, and its benefits have been known since ancient times, since the first Frankopans. Francopans were the first feudal lords of Gorski kotar, which they received as part of the old Croatian parishes of Modruša and Vinodol.
It is known from the documents that the coastal settlements of Vinodola in the Goran region had their own municipal areas which they used jointly for summer grazing of cattle and supply of timber.
Due to the inhospitable landscape, today's green heart of Croatia was in the past an almost uninhabited and poorly connected area that separated the interior of Croatia from the Kvarner coast.
It is interesting that in antiquity traffic routes were formed north and south of this area.
Furthermore, in the period of the Great Migration, in order to protect against invasions from the east, the Roman Empire built an alpine defense system - Claustra Alpium Iuliarum - which stretched from Tarsatika on the sea across Grobničko polje to Prezid in Gorski Kotar and further towards the Julian Alps in Slovenia .
/ / / Claustra can be compared to Hadrian's Wall, and many don't even know where it is
In the organization of the church authorities, Gorski kotar belonged to the diocese of Krbav, and then to Modruška. From the 14th century, there was a significant development of certain places because the Frankopans established trade connections of their properties on the coast with those in the hinterland and with the neighboring regions.
Along the way of the route that connected the coast with Modruš and Zagreb, way stations, rest areas, and then settlements were developed, which consisted of a dozen houses with fifty or more inhabitants.
In the Modruški urbar from 1486, the Goran villages of Vrbovsko, Bosiljevo, Lukovdol and Gomirje as part of the Modruš estate of Prince Bernardin Frankopan.
With the permission of King Žigmund, Ivan Frankopan begins exploiting the mineral wealth of Gorski kotar.
Since the end of the 15th century, it has been threatened by constant incursions and robberies by the Ottoman army, as a result of which part of the resident population moved to safer areas, and refugees from the occupied areas of Dalmatia, Lika and Bosnia moved to Gorski Kotar, according to page Francopan cities.
After the execution of Frankopan and Zrinski, their estates were looted and the decline of this region began. Only later by building roads Gorski kotar takes on the role of the most important traffic route that connects the interior with the port of Rijeka.
And a little about meduna..
Goranski medun is a forest honey with a mark of origin. This unique product is obtained by bees collecting honeydew, which they then process.
It is not available every year, and in larger quantities it can only be found approximately every 7 years, which means that it is rare and unique.
/ / / Goranski medun - the 39th Croatian product with a protected name in the European Union
