The year 2022 is very important for the Croatian town of Sinj because as many as six organizations are celebrating their big anniversaries. Below we present interesting information about each of them...
Sinj’s Brass Band
The chief leader, Mr. Petar Pavlović Picin, told us more about this traditional music organization...
This year we are celebrating the 160th anniversary of the activity of our Brass Band, which ranks it among the oldest cultural societies and associations in Dalmatia. With many years of existence, our band has played an extremely important role in the development and promotion of musical culture in the town, and by gathering a large number of school youth, it has also played an important educational function. Without The Sinj’s Brass Band, we cannot imagine the celebration of any significant event from the past or present of the town of Sinj, especially well-established event The Days of Alka tournament and the celebration of the Assumption of Mary. Brass band melodies have become a part of the life of all Sinj inhabitants.
Photo: Facebook/Gradska glazba Sinj
During its activity, the Brass Band has performed successfully throughout Croatia, as well as abroad. There is one record in the archive of HAZU (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, year 1863, book VII, page 133) according which The Town of Sinj Brass Band took part at the Alka tournament already in 1863. From friar Šimun Milinović’s records, who documented the events of the previously mentioned Alka, it can be concluded that the Brass Band existed even earlier. It is assumed that it was founded in 1862.
Sinj’s Brass Band today has about 60 members. The biggest challenge is the leave of the members who go to study in bigger cities, and it is always necessary to find adequate replacements for the certain music sections.
The central celebration of the Brass Band was held at the end of July 2022, under the high sponsorship of the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović, and was organized by the Split-Dalmatia County administration, the Town of Sinj and the Tourist Board of the Town of Sinj. The final concert of the 160th anniversary celebration will be around Christmas time this year, when, with Christmas and New Year's compositions, this great jubilee will be concluded.
Photo: Željko Zrnčić
Mountaineering Society ''Svilaja''
The current president of the society, Mr. Zoran Vejić, will present Mountaineering Society ''Svilaja'', which has been operating in the area of Cetina region for a hundred years, and today counts around 180 members...
The Mountaineering Society ''Svilaja'' from Sinj was founded in 1922. The main initiators and founders of the society were Danilo Milošević and Šimun Bradić Odrinski – a wealthy merchant from Sinj and the secretary of the Kotar district. At Odrinski's suggestion, the society has its current name. Antun Majić, Juraj Tripalo, Mirko Kačić and many others are mentioned in the documents among the first hikers from Sinj. All of them are considered the founders of the society. The society was officially registered in Zagreb two years later, on the 25th of May 1924, as the Mountaineering Society "Svilaja" Sinj and as a new branch of the Croatian Mountaineering Society in Zagreb. In the long history of the society, they conquered almost all the peaks in Croatia, as well as those outside the homeland. One of the most significant climbs was in July 2013, when all members of the society climbed Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece with its Mitikas peak, 2917 m high. It is also the second highest peak in the Balkans, after Musala in Bulgaria (2925 m), which the Sinj mountaineers also successfully conquered in 2009.
Photo: Željko Zrnčić
Today, Mountaineering Society "Svilaja" takes care of the trails on Svilaja, Visoka, Visošnica, and a part of Dinara towards Troglav and Sutina. After 100 years of activity, they got their own mountain lodge "Orlove stine" on the Svilaja Mountain. The capacity of the lodge is up to 50 beds with a large living room.The lodge is equipped with electricity from solar panels, and it draws water from its own cistern, so it has all the conditions to accommodate arround fifty hikers.
Our Lady of Sinj Magazine
Below is a short interview with the former guardian of the Shrine of Our Miraculous Lady of Sinj, friar Ante Čovo.
This year marks exactly one hundred years since the first publication of the magazine of the shrine and parish of Our Lady of Sinj. The path was long, difficult, uncertain, full of ups and downs and demanding considering the political conditions and circumstances of the time.
Photo: Tourist Board Sinj
Originally, the Magazine of Our Lady of Sinj appeared in 1914, and on the feast of Candlemas, i.e. the apparition of Jesus in the temple, on the 2nd of February 1922, friar Stanko Petrov, a young professor at the Franciscan Classical High School in Sinj, signed the introductory article of the new magazine, which was called Our Lady of Sinj - a magazine for the education and instruction of the Catholic people. He was its editor-in-chief until 1930, and under the leadership of future editors, the paper provided to the believers of Cetina region, in prose and verse, very useful and entertaining reading from the pen of good collaborators. This continued until the end of the Second World War, in November 1944, to be exact. Then the communist authorities completely banned it, as well as all the Catholic press, and at the same time there was persecution and arrest of many Catholic priests.
Then began the period of imposed silence that lasted for 30 years, which we here called the "specially imposed winter", during socialism. Only after the session of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the authorities of that time relaxed slightly, so finally the Shrine in Sinj decided to renew its Magazine of Our Lady which had been banned for three decades. The first new issue was published on the 1st of May 1974, and four issues were published by Christmas. The editor-in-chief at that time was friar Mario Stipić a professor of physics and chemistry at the Franciscan Classical High School in Sinj and the economist of the Sinj monastery. In recent times, the chief editors of the paper are mainly the guards and managers of the Shrine of Our Miraculous Lady of Sinj.
''Rera'' the rail of Sinj
Photo: Tourist Board Sinj
We all know the story of the train, the famous Sinj ferrata, or as it was popularly called Rera - a narrow-gauge railway, which ran between Sinj and Split from the 12th of September 1903 till 1st of October 1962. In economic and social terms, it was the main link between the Cetina region and the largest Croatian city in the south. In the following, we present an interesting testimony of one resident of Sinj, born in 1952, who as an eight-year-old had the opportunity to ride the famous train that meant life for Sinj and the Cetina region.
What are your memories and experiences as a boy riding the ferrata?
My first memories of the Sinj ferrata, the so-called Rera, come from my early childhood when, as a boy who lived near the railway station, I used to run to watch that train. That was something imposing for me and my peers back then, and its whistle would wake us up every morning. I think I was in the second grade of elementary school when I rode a Rera for the first and only time. Our teacher organized a visit to Split and the ZOO on Marjan. It was a very interesting and special experience for us children at that time, which lasted as long as 3 hours in one direction. Then my parents experienced my first independent trip. It was also my first visit to Split and the ZOO. Really something so unique that I saved those memories for a lifetime.
I remember when the Sinj ferrata stopped operating on the 1st of October, 1962. As a 10-year-old, I was sad that the authorities of the time stopped traffic on the Sinj-Split railway. Everything suddenly stopped, like in a black and white movie. However, as I was young and growing up at the time, I was not aware nor did I take into account how hard it was for adults, farmers and workers who would go to work in Split. All those old ladies from Hinterland, who would load themselves with jugs of milk, water barrels, homemade cured meat products, cheeses, eggs, fresh meat, but also live animals, I'm sure that the cancellation of the train line was extremely difficult for them.
Klapa Sinj (Dalmatian traditional a cappella singers of Sinj)
This year Klapa Sinj is celebrating 40 years of its existence, and we spoke with musician, producer and leader of the a cappella singing group Mr. Mojmir Čačija, who told us something about the foundation of the Klapa Sinj, its members and guest appearances, both in Croatia and abroad...
Photo: Bere Alebić
This year we are celebrating our fortieth anniversary, which seems very important to me personally. The Klapa Sinj was founded in 1982, since then it preserves and cherishes the original Dalmatian harmony songs and promotes Croatian musical heritage in the homeland and abroad. The group consists of a dozen singers (mostly 8 to 10 members). We marked this year's anniversary with a traditional festive concert on the 9th of August in Sinj during the 'Alka festivities', and we also plan to have a festive concert in Zagreb at the Croatian National Theatre, probably in the autumn or winter term.
We have performed at all festivals in the country (we have more than 20 awards from the famous Croatian a cappella festival in Omiš), as well as on world stages, but the festival of spiritual harmony singing to the Virgin Mary the Lady of Sinj is especially important to us.
A lot has happened in these four decades. We have more than 30 national and international awards. Wherever we went to the festivals abroad, we always brought gold medals. Our future lies in trying to maintain this group of singers as it is now, and rejuvenate it every now and then with new singers so that the tradition of a cappella-singing in Sinj continues. A good indicators are the new groups, which have recently started following our example, in our neighbourhood in Hrvace, Otok, Trilj, Dicmo and elsewhere. We certainly helped profile the new generation of traditional Dalmatian a cappella singers.
The Maligans of Sinj Fan Club
Club motto: Let them come!!
Photo: Facebook/KN Sinjski Maligani
The Maligans of Sinj are a passionate and energetic group of fans of the Alkar Basketball Club who have followed them since the very beginning of playing basketball in Sinj. They were officially founded in 1982, and are still active today. However, Alkar fans followed the club much earlier, since its foundation in 1955, as evidenced by numerous photos from matches on the playground next to the town cinema, which was then called Dinarka.
The most important event in the history of the Alkar basketball club, and Maligan fans as well, is the final of the Cup of the former SFR Yugoslavia in Metković in 1984, between Alkar and Bosnia, which our players of Sinj unfortunately lost. However, it was a real trial by fire and full recognition throughout the country at that time.So, in addition to the most important secondary thing in life – football, basketball was already very popular in Sinj at that time, and it can rightly be said that Sinj was one of the important Croatian basketball centres at the time.
In addition to Alkar basketball club, The Maligans of Sinj are also great fans of Sinj's oldest football club FC Junak, founded way back in 1916. This year the Fun Club Maligans are celebrating 40 years of their existence and want to thank all members, all dear people, and especially the leadership of the town of Sinjwho helped the Club of the Maligans of Sinjin many ways.
We wish the town of Sinj and its organizations and symbols, a happy year of great anniversaries, as well as prosperity and blessings to all residents, with the intercession of Our dear Lady of Sinj!