Jože Vratar
Jože Vratar became famous for his double role – he was a bandit and a robber who easily opened all the locks that protected the property of wealthy merchants, goldsmiths or lawyers, and he was also marked by his generosity and empathy for the poorer classes and needy people with whom he shared his booty.
Vratar is said to have been born between 1890 and 1895 in Lendavske Gorice. He lived near the wayside cross in front of the former village hall, in a traditional house known as cimprača, next to which there was an orchard and a vineyard. His name is the stuff of legends…
According to some older residents, Vratar was said to have been unruly even as a child. When his mother went to work, she would tie him to the table with a rope, but at some point, he bit through it and escaped. It was for this reason that he was said to wear a box around his neck containing a note with his name and address, and a request from his mother that if anyone found him, they should bring him home.
According to folklore, Vratar was pleasant looking, making him irresistible to many a young woman who fell for his charm. His popularity among the locals is also evidenced by the fact that, due to his abundant gifts, he was godfather to more than forty children. At the time he began burgling and robbing, he was called “the invisible one” because he always eluded law enforcement and the gendarmes who lay in wait. He chose one of the tombs at the edge of the cemetery of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity as his hiding place. It was one of the larger masonry tombs with a double stone slab which still stands today. At the head of the tombstone is a statue of two children and to this day it is one of the most beautiful monuments of sacral heritage. He dug an entrance to the tomb into the side and covered the hole with ornamental evergreen shrubs.
The fatal ambush for Vratar was set up for him at the very chapel mentioned above, from where he initially managed to escape towards the village of Trimlini. On the edge of the village, he climbed to the top of a huge oak tree to confuse his pursuers, but he was unsuccessful, as he was immediately spotted. That's when one of the gendarmes allegedly shot him in the chest. According to people´s accounts, Vratar was supposed to have an assistant among the gendarmes to guard him while he robbed. The first gendarme did not kill Vratar, but he was said to have been killed by his inside man who rushed after them. He was afraid that Vratar would betray him. There is a document about the event, namely a postcard, on which a dead man with a thick black moustache lies under a tree. Vratar was buried in an unmarked grave in the middle cemetery of Lendava. Boxwood grew on it, the exact same kind with which Vratar obscured the entrance to his former hiding place.
According to all accounts, the funeral was conducted with neither cross nor honour, and when the gravediggers were lowering the coffin into the grave, one of them is said to have slipped and fallen on it, so that the body fell out of the coffin. Although many did not know Vratar, his character stirred people’s imagination for quite some time.
Sources:
https://www.lendava.si/Files/eMagazine/76/957727/vitrina2_2024.pdf
