It is open every day and welcomes about 50 thousand visitors per year. In total, half a million tourists have visited in the 10 years since its establishment.

To celebrate the anniversary, the Old Vine House has organised an exhibition and set up a website called staratrta.si.

In 2005 the municipality of Maribor bought the ground floor of the building that now hosts the Old Vine House from a company called Terme (Spa) Maribor. The building had been a restaurant before that but was out of operation for ten years, with faeces and dampness spreading in it, which is why a thorough renovation was needed. The inhabitants of the house on the first floor initially opposed the renovation but a compromise was reached and work could start. In 2007 Maribor thus created its main tourist site, which has since greeted more than half a million visitors.

The building that now boasts the world’s oldest vine growing on its façade, was part of Maribor’s defence wall in the 13th century. In the 16th century, the inner rooms were added and a vine was planted next to the building. During the construction of a dam for the Zlatoličje hydroelectric power plant in the 1960s, it was almost decided that the house should be demolished.

“When it was discussed in 1968 that the level of the Drava would increase and flood everything in this area, the planners also considered demolishing the northern side of the Vojašniška Street, including this house where the vine grows, which means the vine would be destroyed alongside the house,” explains the city vintner Stane Kocutar.

Maribor’s main tourist attraction, which lies in an area of the Drava riverbank called Lent, welcomes 50,000 visitors per year. The house also hosts numerous events related to wine and cuisine, offers an extraordinary selection of wines from the Štajerska region and is open all 365 days a year.

Matej Korošec, TV Slovenija; translated by K. Z.