P.S. ETHNO HER. 2018 BRATINA

Bratina near Pisarovina is the centre of a cluster of villages south of Zagreb and today, it is the name of a town. It is mostly a lowland known for the remnants of former wooden architecture and houses covered by hay. Prior to 1848, the villagers from the Bratina area were peasants on the property owned by the noble Erdödy family. The customs and the material culture of this area are similar to those of the noble farmers in Posavina and Pokuplje. The folk costume belongs to the Kupinec-Bratina version of the Pannonian type.
The women's costume consists of three basic woven flax parts: rubača (skirts sewn onto the vests), blouse called oplećak and zastor (apron). During weaving, the cloth was embellished with distinctive stylised geometric colourful flower motifs. The basic colour of the embellishment, various shades of red colour, black and white, their combination or nonexistence symbolise the social, age and cast status of the woman wearing it. The women's headwear also indicated the cast and age status. In some areas of Pannonian Croatia, the girls' parta indicated their maturity until they got married. In Bratina the symbol of girlhood was hair braided into two braids and twisted around the head. At the front, the head was covered by a parta, a narrow and soft decorative ribbon placed on the hair from ear to ear.
The parta in Bratina was embellished with sewn in multi-coloured glass beads skilfully arranged into flower motifs. The multi-layered headgear of married women was especially rich. The upper cap was tied low on the back of the head. It was richly embellished for special occasions with jewellery of various shapes and decorative ribbons with glass beads. In Bratina women were not buying finished jewellery. They would get glass beads of primarily central European production and they would skilfully embroider the motifs using glass beads on the ribbons for headgear and make necklace strings according to traditional samples. 
 
 
 
Dr. Tihana Petrović Leš, PhD
Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies at the University of Zagreb