{"id":30369,"date":"2026-03-23T15:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/?post_type=exhibition&p=30369"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:23:22","slug":"nematerijalna-bastina","status":"publish","type":"exhibition","link":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/en\/exhibition\/records-of-togetherness-and-intimacy\/nematerijalna-bastina\/","title":{"rendered":"Intangible cultural heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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RUKAVAC (OPATIJA, Region of Kastav\u0161tina, area between the city of Rijeka and the U\u010dka mountain)
<\/strong>Zvon\u010dari<\/em>
Traditional local carnival processions equipped with sheepskins and bells pass through the wider area of Kastav\u0161tina, moving in a peculiar way and ringing bells, evoking the age-old custom of invoking livestock magic.
This traditional custom was declared an intangible cultural asset of importance for the Republic of Croatia in 2007, and then in 2009 it was included in UNESCO’s representative list of intangible cultural heritage of the world.)

Vinko Malinari\u0107, 1966.

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Photo archive of the Conservation Department in Rijeka
<\/strong>Inv. No. 20270, neg. I-9363<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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NOVI VINODOLSKI
Novalja mesopust, Carnival event on the main square<\/em>
<\/strong>A special ceremony in the series of Novljan mesopust customs is the Novljan kolo, which is played on the three main days of Carnival – on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, before Ash Wednesday. It begins in the afternoon when a procession of women, men and children, dressed in national costumes, led by the sound of sopils and singers of the round, kolo, comes to the square in front of the town hall. The singers start singing Uskok heroic folk songs and invite the people in round which soon create around them. The performance lasts until the evening hours, so the whole town is in and around the kolo. On the facade of the town hall is placed Mesopust, a straw mannequin representing a well dressed man with a top hat on his head in a sitting position, who will be tried and who will be burned on Mesopust Tuesday for everything that is wrong in and around Novog, the day before Ash Wednesday.

Vinko Malinari\u0107, 1966.<\/strong>

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Photo archive of the Conservation Department in Rijeka
<\/strong>Inv. No. 20253, neg. I-93463<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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KLI\u0160EVO (Konavle, Dubrovnik area)
Wedding in Dubrovnik seaside area<\/em>
<\/strong>The traditional seaside wedding in the villages of the Dubrovnik coast lasted five full days, from Thursday to Monday, and culminated on blessed Sunday. The wedding ceremony was announced by gunshots from holsters in the stillness of the day and female singers who described the very act of marriage with a song. The male and female wedding procession, led by a flag bearer, met in front of the church where the bride would be taken after the ritual negotiations. Traditional wedding ceremonies are still bursting with symbols of well-being, happiness and health. There was always a toast at the table, and the return to the front of the church was reserved for the big wedding lin\u0111o, a round that the old respectable groom would start with the bride, and soon they would be joined by the other guests, and associated guests and spectators.

Dubravka Beriti\u0107, 1966.

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Photo archive of the Conservation Department in Dubrovnik
<\/strong>Inv. No. 892-8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DUBROVNIK
Festives celebrating the day of Dubrovnik’s patron St. Blasius in the area of Pile<\/em>
<\/strong>The feast of St. Blaise in Dubrovnik has more than a thousand years of tradition since it began to be celebrated in 972, according to legend, a year after the saint defended the city from the attack of the Venetians. The festival begins on Candlemas or Kandelor and lasts until the first Sunday after the feast of St. Blaise. In addition to the residents of Dubrovnik, residents of Rijeka Dubrova\u010dka, Dubrova\u010dka \u017dupa and Konavalo participate in the Festa with equal enthusiasm and joy. In general, the Feast of St. Blaise is a celebration of banners, church or fraternal, their flag bearers and the entire regiment accompanying the banners. The number of flags at Festa is not limited. The Waving of the flag is the most visually effective part of the Festa, so it is not surprising that the protocol pays the most attention to it. According to the Festa protocol, the flags are flown in front of the city gates, in front of the cathedral, in front of the statue and in front of the church of St. Blaise. Flying the flag is not an easy task and requires a lot of skill.
In 2012, the Feast of St. Blaise was included in the UNESCO’s list of world intangible cultural heritage.

Dubravka Beriti\u0107, 1966.

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Photo archive of the Conservation Department in Dubrovnik
<\/strong>Inv. No. 573-2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intangible cultural heritage refers to practices, performances, expressions, knowledge, and skills that communities, groups, and individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage, transmitting them from generation to generation. Unlike tangible heritage (monuments, objects), intangible heritage is \u201cliving,\u201d constantly evolving, and provides a sense of identity and continuity.<\/p>\n

The following photographs, taken in the early 1960s, illustrate that the recognition of the importance of intangible heritage among Croatian conservators preceded UNESCO\u2019s Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore (1989), the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (1998), and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) by two decades or more. These international frameworks ultimately led, in 2006, to the adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, following ratification by a sufficient number of states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29328,"parent":30342,"menu_order":9,"template":"","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/?post_type=exhibition&p=27999"},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":{"featured":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/30369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibition"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/30342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekultura.hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}