Lah’s kozolec from Migolica

Lah’s kozolec (hayrack) was in the possession of the Lah family, locally known as Bajčevi, in Migolica near Mirna and dates from the time between the two World Wars. Nobody knows anymore when exactly it was built, or who set it up. The last owner, Jože Lah, believes that the Lah family built it with the help of a self-taught carpenter and their fellow villagers. Jože Lah remembers well the time when its roof was thatched, before the straw was replaced by fibre-cement roofing in the 1970s and later by “trimoform” – roofing produced by the Trimo company from Trebnje. The kozolec was probably moved a few hundred metres below the homestead before the Second World War.

Lah’s kozolec, owned by a small farmer, is a single stretched kozolec with five windows , known as “ajnfuger” – the expression derives from the German word for simple. It was the tallest kozolec in the area as it was two “lati” (cross members) taller that the rest. It measured an impressive 29.35 m in length, 1.65 m in width, and 5.25 m in height. This particular kozolec is unusual because the pillars were not made from a single piece of oak, but from two connected pieces. When the pillars rotted down, new ones were simply grafted in. Originally, the kozolec probably stood in the vicinity of the homestead, however, it was moved a few hundred metres lower to the edge of the meadow bellow the orchard to save space. Only the overhang from the 1980s still marks this location. The new location was better as the windiness of the open valley meant that the feed and grain dried well. However, the remoteness of Lah’s kozolec also meant that it attracted birds and wildlife. Even the homestead’s hens would come and pick the feed from the lower cross members, forcing the family to hang the produce higher up.