“I’m sitting on a bench smoking a pipe of tobacco…”.

Europe was introduced to tobacco and pipe-making after the discovery of America, and this still popular habit spread to Slovenia in the 18th century, where pipes were made mainly by small rural workshops. The largest ‘pipe’ centre was in Gorjuše and Bohinj, where the famous Gorjuše pipes were made, mentioned in 1795 in the Great Pratika by Valentin Vodnik. Until the beginning of the First World War, pipe making was a profitable business, with almost half of the villages in Gorjuše producing between 3000 and 3500 pipes a year. The pipes in Gorjuše came in many sizes, shapes and decorations. They were carved from pear wood and the decorative parts were made of mother-of-pearl, silver sheet or brass. In the 20th century, the trade in Gorje pipes began to decline and the once widespread activity, which was an important source of income for mountain farmers, is now just a form of historical memory.