Slovenian folk art: Beehives

As a honey lover and an artist I was delighted to discover that Slovenians have been painting their apiaries, or kranjichi in Slovene, for centuries. In the 1700’s and 1800’s they were mainly religious scenes that illustrated bible stories, much the way that stained glass windows do. In a deeply Catholic country the beehive folk art connected the relationship with the bees to the divine. Later panels were often humorous. One of my favorite is a scene of a pig chasing the butcher. Check it out at http://viewfromthepier.com/2013/06/25/beekeeping-in-slovenia/. The beehive museum outside of Ljubljana is definitely on my list of places to visit.