The Art of Creating a Village

Let's start with a little of mathematics. How do you build a village? Well, it takes a special equation to build it. There has to be one house first, then another one and more to follow. And it's not only about the buildings, it's about the people as well. There has to be a reason why these people form a village together. The reason might be nature, infra-structure, interesting places around or just a very good accessibility of big towns, airports, train stations and harbors. All of that is true for Hotel Village Balatura. But the reason why one little hotel grew into a whole hotel village is a bit more complicated. And it has a lot to do with the people in it.

Balatura people

  So first, there are Anne-Kathrin and Gordan Godec. They are both builders. But they are building in completely different realms. Whereas Gordan - who is a journalist, too - rebuilt and created throughout the years a lot of houses in this valley and turned into an expert of architecture and rural design, Anne-Kathrin built imaginative worlds in books and projects and connected to the literature domains and community of the region. That's how the property of Hotel Balatura became a real place AND a metaphor, a holiday home for literature (in the first place), music, art in general and a virtual and physical place for all kinds of events.

In 14 years of Hotel Balatura's existence there were many, many regular hotel guests and lots of artists passing by. There were reading events, festivals, concerts, public conversations and a lot more. The hotel's program is nowadays focused on workshops, seminars, yoga retreats and summer schools while still offering space for individual tourists.

And then the magic started to happen: there were some few, very special hotel guests who decided to add some buildings to the hotel. All of them love the place, the architecture and the content, all of them are - deeply in their souls - artists or at least art lovers. And all of them have there special visions for a place like this. 

They individually bought abandoned houses or ruins in the neighborhood of the hotel, and re-constructed them together with Gordan to make sure that the structure would fit into the spirit of Hotel Balatura. Each house brings a benefit for the whole, that's how Balatura got a pool, a wonderful workshop space for cooking schools and a seminar house.

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 Daniel Bindernagel is the oldest friend of Hotel Balatura and gave us now what the hotel needed most as a place for retreats, yoga and workshops: a seminar house. At home in Switzerland Daniel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist For many years he is engaged in the subject of idiolectics, a method for conducting conversations (check it out, it's fascinating!), organising conferences and publishing books around that subject together with other practitioners. 

 The seminar house, better known as "Dom kultura", has a small and a big hall for any kind of group activity, and a fantastic roof terrace with a view. It will be great for all workshops, but yoga and dance will profit the most - there's a lot of space in the sun-flooded halls.

Ricarda Martens and Gerhard May joined us many years ago for a music workshop and came back (to us and Marko's music) over and over again. In her other reality far away from Croatia Ricarda is a pharmacist and Gerhard is a publisher. But when they come here they seem to switch realities. While Ricarda is always engaged in some kind of sewing-knitting-drawing artwork, Gerhard's guitar play, his harmonica sound and especial his sonorous voice float in the corners of our hotel.

Together with the house and the 6 new rooms they gifted Balatura with a long-awaited benefit: a swimming pool. Furthermore the construction of their house will soon offer a great exhibition hall for artwork. Another new attribute which will enable the hotel to seriously enter in the world of visual arts.

Elisabeth de Ahna and Jörg Weimann are based in Berlin. Elisabeth is an architect with a passion for vegan food. But she is not only cooking with her vegan ingredients, she turns them into art and makes stunning photographs. Jörg is chief physician of the anesthesia department and intensive care station in a Berlin hospital. He is a very experienced and grounded person and one of the best conversation partners for deep philosophical questions we know. Their house has an apartment and two rooms and the former carpentry workshop is turned into a spacious place for cooking seminars. And there is still room for a large gallery to hang out, read and smell what the group is cooking down below. (And be the first to taste it!)