(source: Youtube)
A dusty road ran through the centre of Žibirotv village, some houses still had thatched roofs, and along the houses ran roofed exterior corridors with decorative pillars.
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Sixty-six years ago, this small town in central Slovakia was transformed into the film village of Glogovo. It became the central location of the Slovak-Hungarian film classic "St. Peter's Umbrella" (1958, Dáždnik sv. Petra).
The film is an adaptation of the 1895 novel of the same name by the Hungarian writer with Slovak roots, Kálmán Mikszáth.
"Some tourists stop here and there even today. They are interested in which sites the film was made," says mayor Dušan Laco. He has been in charge of the village of 70 inhabitants for almost 36 years.
"I was little, I don't remember much about filming. Several villagers were extras in the film, but many of them have already died," he notes.
His mother also appeared in the film. She is 92 years old today. She was an extra at the funeral scene, when the deceased miraculously came back to life.
"It was filmed here in the yard of this house with a green gate. At that time it still had a thatched roof," the mayor points to one of the houses.
Decorated columns have disappeared
The house, which was converted into a parsonage, no longer has a wooden gate. It was replaced by a metal one. Apart from that, it hasn't changed significantly from the outside.
"I don't know if it still has the exterior corridor. Some villagers have glassed them in to expand the interior space. I think they have already removed the pillars from the corridor in this house," says the mayor.
You can't see the yard from behind the tall gate. The Czech-Slovak film database (ČSFD) writes that the decorated exterior corridor with pillars was only a prop. However, the former owner of the house, Juraj Kozelnický, told the MY paper years ago that the house had to be partially modified because the colonnade and vaults no longer had good statics.
"Unknown people often stop here and want to see the yard as it was in the film. They automatically look for the statue in front of the house, which is no longer there today," Kozelnický then said.
The mayor does not know for sure where the residents of the house were living during the filming. "Probably in the back of the house. There is a kitchenette and a small room. Filming was done only in the front part of the house," he notes.
The house has remained in the hands of the family to this day, belonging to the great-grandson of the villagers who experienced the fates of the main characters first and under their own roof. "He doesn't live here permanently, but he visits regularly with his family," explains Laco.
According to him, half of the houses currently serve as weekend houses.
Above the house stood a church with a gate that led nowhere. It was just a prop. "We only pretended that we were entering the church. The interior scenes were filmed in the church in the nearby Štefultov," explained Anna Môcová.
The film prop was also a well with a high decorative fence. It was placed in front of a former pub, which later became a grocery shop. In the movie it had a classic wood shingle roof. Today the roof is flat. The building has been closed for 20 years. The only grocery shop in the small village was not doing well economically and closed down.
Two premieres
According to čsfd.sk, the film was shot from June 16 to September 11, 1958 with a budget of approximately €160,000. The opening scenes were created on the Františkánske Námestie square in Bratislava, which represented the town of Banská Bystrica in 1873.
The romantic comedy premiered first in Hungary on December 17, 1958. A few days later, on December 29, the premiere took place in Slovakia.
""At that time, we could hardly travel, not even to Czechoslovakia," said Hungarian actress Mari Törőcsik. She portrayed young Veronka in the film.
But "St Peter's Umbrella" wasn't the only film that was filmed in Žibritov. In 1968, the exteriors of the village were used for the Czechoslovak war drama "Footprints on Sitno" (1968, Stopy na Sitne).
©My Zvolen
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