Airbeletrina,
15. oktober
―
A few days ago, we visited Nova Gorica. A friend took us to Rafut Park, a place set right on the border of two countries. Today, this border is almost invisible—not really invisible, but rather appearing like the colours in an aquarelle, flowing into one another, so that Slovenia gradually merges into Italy. But in the old days, when our imagination was budding in Yugoslavia, this was the border between two worlds, between two clashing ways of life. Back then, the neglected Rafut Park, with the Rafut Villa housing the Institute of Hygiene, marked the point where Yugoslavia ended. Above the Institute stood the famous Franciscan Kostanjevica Monastery containing the Bourbon tomb, where King Charles X of France, some members of his family and one minister await resurrection. To us, however, the children of our time, the Institute of Hygiene had much greater significance.
The Rafut Villa (Photo: Miljenko Jergović)
When I found myself before the entrance to the park, the first thing I saw felt intimate and familiar. The architectural features of the portal, its shapes and ornaments, form part of my somewhat complicated native perception of the world. So it was only natural that I felt a special kind of affection towards those features, similar to the affection I feel for Anton Laščak—also known as Lasciac Bey or Laščak-beg—who decided to build a villa here, in his homeland, unaware of what life would have in store for him, or what great history would take away.
Anton Laščak was born in Gorizia into a Slovenian family. He studied architecture in Vienna, but by his cultural and national affiliation, he was Italian and Friulian. He is said to have publicly spoken Slovene without shame, but did not consider himself a Slovenian. My grandfather, Franjo Rejc, was a ten-year-old boy growing up in Tolmin when Laščak purchased the property in Pristava, on the southern slopes of Kostanjevica, intending to build a villa surrounded by a large park where he, alre
