As part of the Days of European Cultural Heritage 2021 project, at the end of September, organized by the Beekeeping Association of Velika Lašče, KUD Primož Trubar and the Municipality of Velika Lašče, an event was held in the hall of Levstik’s house in Veliki Lašče to celebrate the 190th anniversary of the birth of Fran Levstik with the presentation of a reprint of Levstik’s Bučelstvo. At the event, the Slovenian writer and countryman from Veliko Lašče, Fran Levstik, was presented as a beekeeper by the renowned beekeeper Franc Šivic and the president of the Beekeeping Association of Veliko Lašče, and as a writer and national revivalist by the literary historian ddr. Igor Grdina.

We know Fran Levstik as a poet, writer, playwright, critic and linguist, but less as a beekeeper. As Brane Borštnik found out in his research, after Fran Levstik unhappily dropped out of high school in 1853, he returned to his native Spodnje Retje and started writing about beekeeping. He didn’t just write about beekeeping, he also kept bees for a few years, namely for the next two years in Spodnje Retje, where he lived as a beekeeper at the home of the Ilijes, and later also in Turn with Count Pacer. He was a student of Retje beekeeper Jože Oblak. “The framework of the apiary where they kept bees is still standing in the immediate vicinity of the hayloft, where the legend of Martin Krpan originated. The owner was Tišler’s father, who confirmed this and allowed us, the beekeepers, to cover the beehive with straw and fill it with kranjiči on the 150th anniversary of Levstik’s birth. The father died, but the heirs covered the beehive with bricks and the beehives disappeared,” said Brane Borštnik.

You can read more on the website:  https://trobla.velike-lasce.si/si/kultura/833-levstikovo-bucelstvo