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Five years ago, my husband Mario and I bought a dilapidated house built by Adam Valtmajer in 1921 in Katoliçcaron;ko surduk, opposite the Zmajevac restaurant and brewery, and therefore in the heart of Zmajevac. The idea of buying was mine, because I fell in love at first sight with this lovely little street, and my husband supported me in fulfilling my dream. “So we started an adventure”, says Bernarda Fois, a compassionate Slav woman living in Osijek. Originally, they wanted to create a space for private parties on the first floor, as well as an apartment for overnight stays, but when they came to the stage of near completion, they realized that this was a space they should rent, because Zmajevac lacked accommodation capacity. The house, located on the main street of Surduk in Baranja, is named Ondine, which is the name Bernarda’s husband affectionately calls her, and also the nickname he gave her after a movie of the same name about a mermaid.
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A couple transforms a school bus into a home
Baranja Surduk is a street or road that goes through the hill, scattered all over Baranja, and is traditionally full of houses called “crocodiles”, which are actually deep buildings with buried wine cellars, with a cool temperature of 12 to 15°C all year round. This is the ideal temperature for storing wine, and in the front part of the cellar the scum is crushed and the resulting wine is poured into barrels. The dragon crocodiles are very famous and are a real tourist attraction. Most of them are at road level, but there are also some underground. Some were dug into the ground more than a century ago and are usually surrounded by brick walls, giving them a unique wine cellar architecture.
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– We came to the conclusion that we would rent the entire house, which includes a studio apartment on the ground floor, and areas for wine tasting and shopping, a cigar bar and a d&zcaron tonic bar on the first floor. Our crocodile is buried in the ground and is 13 meters long. Its original length was 17 meters, but we had to shorten it due to static disturbances. The temperature is almost the same all year round. He dug it by hand and built it with bricks. Like the rest of the place, it also hosted a bar, which we adapted to today’s needs. It is equipped with a ventilation system and floor heating so that all visitors feel comfortable in the space. At the bottom of the crocodile, a few steps from the ground floor, we are planning a glass wine cellar, but the project is still under construction – explains Bernarda, adding that the shape of the crocodile remains in its original state.
– During the restoration, we only sandblasted the bricks. At the entrance to the crocodile, we placed a stone with the initials of the previous owner and the year of construction, although we did not know him. We found that stone in the wall and decided to beautify it. We placed triple glazing over the stone and decorated it with greenery and lit it up – says Bernarda, a former banker who, together with her wife Maria, also furnished the upstairs apartment.
The master didn’t really have a choice, so, he admitted, they did, and the husband was very capable and did a lot of it himself, with the help of Bernarda of course, who was just an apprentice throughout the story.
– We didn’t have a designer, everything was designed by ourselves, and our guests and friends liked it, which made us very happy. We were very encouraged by the comments of our guests. We found the house in a dilapidated state, we had to completely renovate it to comply with today’s regulations and adapt it to the new use of the building, since the existing house had no living space, we converted it into a studio apartment. The arrangements took a few days. Two years, and soon we will be done with it. We did not receive any incentives for this, the entire investment was our own. We did not save money, we wanted to do something in our own way, and I hope we will succeed. We used a lot of bricks, wrought iron, walnut, applied vintage tiles, and the fireplace on the first floor creates a special atmosphere in winter. The entire carpentry of the house is made of Siberian larch and was done by the masters who restored the carpentry of St. James’s Cathedral. Petra – proudly describes to Bernard every detail they thought of.
As a true hostess, she also offers her guests breakfast, a speciality from Baranja with kulen and sausages. They will be very happy, he says.
– Our guests are wine lovers, who love to have fun and socialize, and are mostly cheerful and cheerful people like us. The lower floor can accommodate thirty people. We do not offer food, since the Josiça restaurant is across the street, so our plan is to offer the space, but if anyone wants food, we will also provide it in cooperation with the restaurant. A two-purpose kitchen has been built in the lower part, covered with a large walnut panel, and in fact the guests who rent the space will only see a large bar, and if we really want to make something for ourselves or for our guests, we can. . In the crocodile shop there are handmade tables and chairs, simple and very comfortable, and the armchairs near the cigar bar are made by a Danish manufacturer – our interlocutor told us.
By consent the entire lower space can be rented out for various events, seminars, presentations, parties as well as birthday celebrations, baptisms, weddings, engagements etc.
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