In late September, Tone Zafosnik, at 81 years of age and an otherwise-retired vintner, collected his basket and began harvesting the grapes of his favourite vine.

Nothing unusual, one might think, except that the crowd in attendance - about 500 people, including the press, gathered just a stone's throw from the river Drava, in Maribor, Slovenia's second city - indicated that this was no ordinary grape harvest from no ordinary vine.

Ancient Vine

"I've spent thousands of hours tending stara trta - "the old vine" in Slovenian - and driven thousands of miles for it. People jokingly call it my mistress," says Mr Zafosnik. Stara trta, now a strong, healthy growth, is in the Guinness Book of Records, recognised as the world's oldest vine at over 400 years of age. Spreading itself some 25 metres along the wall of an even older house in Lent, Maribor's trendiest district, it is a tourist attraction of growing importance.

But it was not always so. "When I first went to examine the vine in 1980, it was dying. Nobody had looked after it for a decade or more. The area then was very run down and inhabited by gypsies." However, the vine did have guardians, even if they used unorthodox methods.

"A big group of Roma came out of the basement, shouting, and stopped me," Mr Zafosnik recalls. In spite of the lack of official interest, a local police officer who knew the vine was very old, had made a deal with the residents: if they protected the vine, they could stay in their home. "I must give them credit - the Roma did their job with zeal," he says.

Given clearance to proceed, Mr Zafosnik, then a researcher at the Ljubljana Institute of Agriculture, began to revive the stricken plant, and in 1986 the harvest was sufficient to make the first wine. An earlier microscopic examination of the grain by a forestry expert had dated the vine between 350-400 years old.

Mr Zafosnik's efforts began to attract some official attention, but it was only a chance meeting with the new mayor of Maribor in 1990 that precipitated the next big step - the application to the Guinness Book of Records for the oldest vine in the world.

"In London, they did not know where Slovenia was back then. And they demanded so many documents, which all had to be translated and certified. They said they would investigate, then we heard nothing for ages," he says.

At the same time, Mr Zafosnik began offering saplings to other cities.

"We went to Tours, in France. There was a big ceremony arranged for the planting, but the French could hardly believe that little Slovenia . . . could possibly be the home of the world's oldest vine."

Official recognition for the vine came from London in 1998, though it was still some years before an entry appeared in the Guinness Book of Records. "That was a big step," he says.

Today, saplings from stara trta, a regional variety of grape known as modra kavcina , which grows mainly in Croatia and south-eastern Slovenia, are sprouting at a hundred sites from Japan to Argentina. Wine from the grapes has been given to Bill Clinton, Emperor Akihito of Japan and Pope John Paul II. Franc Kangler, the current mayor of Maribor, says the city and the country is "very grateful" to Tone Zafosnik. "Many years ago he saved it by making sure it survived its worst times, and he is still nurturing it and loving it with all his care," he says.

At his home, on the outskirts of Maribor, Mr Zafosnik displays an official certificate as "the keeper of the vine". He has never been paid for his work, but says that is of no matter.

"I'm just pleased we've saved stara trta," he says.

State Department International Religious Freedom Report 2009 - Slovenia

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion. The Government generally respected religious freedom in practice. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the Government during the reporting period.

Ancient vine nursed back to life

By Kester Eddy

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