SIMON GREGORČIČ AND CIRIL KOSMAČ: MUSEUM PRESENTATIONS OF THESE TWO AUTHORS

The house in Vrsno in which the poet Simon Gregorčič was born, and the home of the writer Ciril Kosmač in Slap on the Idrijica are examples of the successful cooperation of the local community, museums, the service for the protection of monuments and literary authors. The paper presents the course of the restoration and the adaptation of two buildings so as to serve as museums. Their appearance today reß ects the time in which they were built. The poet Simon Gregorčič (1844-1906) was special for the people of Primorje. The people accepted him as their own, and his poems, which have been set to music many times, are still alive today among us. The house in which the poet was born in Vrsno was turned into a museum back in 1966. Many people want to visit the museum to pay their respects to the “Nightingale from Gorica”. Most of the visitors are groups from Slovene schools, but lately there have been many groups of expatriate Slovenes. The Tolmine Museum plans to rearrange and modernise the collection for the hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death. Ciril Kosmač (1910-1980) took the Tolmine region into the world with his works. This was doubtless another incentive for including the author and his home in Slap on Idrijica into the comprehensive international project “Genius loci”, which provided assistance for restoring buildings linked with important European artists. After it was opened in 2003, Kosmač’s home became the central point of the educational Kosmač Trail. Through the effort of local communities and various institutions we have been able to preserve an important ethnological cultural heritage and the rich legacy of literary greats from the Tolmin region