Škofja Loka Passion Play on UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Škofja Loka Passion Play (Škofjeloški pasijon) is of exceptional importance for Slovenia and its cultural heritage. Illustrating the development of passion plays, drama and language in Slovenia, it is also the oldest surviving dramatic text in the Slovenian language and the oldest and the only director’s book in Europe from the Baroque period. The next Passion Play will be performed in Škofja Loka in 2021.

The Play was written at the beginning of the 18th century, when the performance involved the residents of Škofja Loka and people from the nearby villages. Even today, the projects involves locals and features more than thousand volunteers, around 900 people acting in the play and 200 people who help with its organisation. In 2012, it was declared a living masterpiece of national importance, and it was listed on the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage in December 2016.

The Slovenian Ministry of Culture is working hard to include other aspects of the Slovenian cultural tradition in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage:

• Kurentovanje, one of the biggest ethnological festivals in Europe, which takes the form of a Mardi Gras Carnival presenting the Kurenti and other traditional masks in Ptuj, the oldest Slovenian town;
• Idrija lace making, with its nearly four hundred years of tradition in the UNESCO town of Idrija, which also has a heritage of mercury mining;
• Traditional Lipizzaner horse breeding in Lipica, one of the oldest stud farms in Europe, famous for the elegant white horses which are the national pride of Slovenia.

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