In an instant world, we are hungry for nostalgic stories that go back years and decades and centuries. Mariborska Skrinja is full of stories and just as homely as it was twenty years ago.
In this pre-holiday season, when thoughts are already drifting to our loved ones, only these are too often connected to large shopping centers, which create needs that do not exist and arouse feelings that are not genuine. But isn't it nicer to choose small attention in a small shop, where we are always happy to chat with the saleswoman, who is both the owner and often also the artist of what she offers?
There are still such mini shops, we just have to make a little effort to find them. One of them is Skrinja from Maribor, whose story was shared with us by Kaja Hrašovec, who with her sister Iris is trying to keep the shop in which the energy of home can still be felt.¸The story is as Kaja tells us that the idea of a shop with the products of home crafts grew on the meadow of her mother Santa's imagination. We have found the shop since 1992 in the courtyard of the unrenovated Vetrinjski manor, and a muddy path led to it. From the beginning, Oma has been the most memorable for the locals in this small shop. As Kaja tells, those were the days when she and her cousin would happily crouch in the store's narrow warehouse looking for treasures. Kaja and Iris took over Skrinja three years ago, and since it is a family heirloom, they focused all their efforts on keeping the shop alive. In the beginning, Iris, who is more artistically oriented, took the reins and started realizing her vision of beauty in Skrinja. Kaja, otherwise an architect, approached it in her own way and started renovating the yard with a brush and ideas.
Skrinja, now at Gosposka 28, was joined by the sisters to a wider circle of artists and admirers of the beautiful. At the same time, they wanted to revive their beautiful yard with events during Lent and occasionally during the year. In December of this year, the cooperation of people involved in the courtyard of Gosposka 28 led to the creation of the Fairy Town; knitted lanterns that warm hearts and tell a story of connection.
The chest is still full of stories, even if it is half alone in the half-abandoned Gosposka street, exactly where the once main shopping street in Maribor has today been "replaced" by a shopping center. But in Skrinja it still smells like potpourri and we can still have a friendly chat. You can find it on Gosposka, if you turn at number 28 into the underpass decorated with knitted lanterns and then right up the stairs, the third door handle.
