The Museum – PINTARSTVO Project, 2012

At Küzma homestead, over the last 15 years, we have frequently hosted various groups of visitors (day-trippers, winemakers, cyclists… tourists from nearby thermal spas…), and from this experience, the idea arose to set up a museum at home and, within the museum, a genuine rural accommodation.

We held the opening during the celebration On the 91st anniversary of the coopering family tradition, as a gift to the Küzma family, for the 90th anniversary of the coopering tradition, we applied for the LEADER grant. The grant, aimed at rural residents within the municipality of Beltinci and other municipalities within the area of the Local Action Group ‘Good People’. In the project, we collaborated with the Gančani local community and the SODAR Gančani tourist association.

We applied with a project titled ‘PINTARSTVO – Rural Tourism and Cultural Heritage.

At Küzma homestead, we take pride in our family tradition, which has successfully been passed down from generation to generation. We are proud that, with the help of LEADER funding and our own resources, we will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage, showcasing and presenting the traditional craft that characterizes the rural village of Gančani.

The tourist accommodation at Küzma homestead will offer visitors/tourists the opportunity for an individual presentation of the workshop and the slogan ‘Try how a cooper’s work is done.’

Until not long ago, there were 12 master coopers operating in the village of Gančani. However, we are the only ones remaining who have registered cooperage craft. We manufacture barrels and other wooden products, and we are among the few coopers who repair and restore old barrels.

The cooperage craft has been taken over by the fourth generation of the Küzma family, led by Anton Jr., aided by his sisters Gabrijela, Mirjana, and Tadeja.

Everyone in the family will continue to strive, ensuring that the wooden products from our cooperage homestead will always reflect quality, both at home and worldwide.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed in any way to the realization of the museum reconstruction, especially to our customers, our family, our relatives, neighbors, the Gančani local community, the SODAR tourist association, the development agency SINERGIJA, and all those who spread the word about our cooperage craft.