Ship model "Barque"

Ship models constitute one of the most important collections of the Piran Maritime Museum, for we get acquainted via them with the vessels that can no longer be seen today. One of the most attractive models of larger dimensions (in total: 190 cm x 48 cm x 185 cm) is the model of a barque, now on display in the Izolana Collection in Izola.

The barque was considered the most characteristic as well as very safe merchant sailboat in the 2nd half of the 19th century along the entire eastern Adriatic coast. Shipyards on the Austrian coast most often built, in contrast to other world shipyards, vessels with three masts and a carrying capacity of 250 to 1,000 tons. These ships sailed mainly on routes between various Mediterranean ports, on the Mediterranean-North Sea route and on the route between European and North and South American ports. According to Miroslav Pahor, most Slovenes were, interestingly, barque owners.

Our barque model has been preventively repaired several times (for the first time around 1970), considering that it was in very poor condition. In 1993, Leopold Belec and Ilonka Hajnal, the Maritime Museum’s retired employees, embarked on a detailed conservation of the hull. It was only in 2004-2006, however, that it was scrupulously conserved and fully completed by Leopold Belec. He worked thoroughly on all individual parts of the model, replacing the utterly weathered cords, substituting the demolished sails with new ones, fabricating the missing minor elements of the ship, etc. Prior to these works, the model was without a base, which was then also made by Leopold Belec on the pattern of the bases manufactured for Gruber's models.

References: 

- Pomorski muzej- Museo del mare »Sergej Mašera« Piran - Pirano, history documentation.
- Terčon, Nadja. Z barko v Trst : pomorstvo v Piranu, Izoli in Kopru ter gospodarska vloga severozahodne Istre v odnosu do Trsta : (1850-1918). Koper: Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče: Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko; Piran: Pomorski muzej "Sergej Mašera", 2004. 

- Bonin, Flavio. Jadrnice na Slovenskem = Sailing boats in Slovenia. Ljubljana: Kmečki glas, 101 zaklad, knj. 4. 

Nadja Terčon