2 7  S T U D I A  M Y T H O L O G I C A  S L AV I C A  2 0 2 4
173 – 193 |  h t tps: / /doi .org/10.3986/SMS20242711 |  CC BY 4.0
In Search of Treasure in 
Šalek : Creating Local Identity 
through Narrative Ostension
Ambrož Kvartič
People transform concrete real-life events into narratives, but the reverse is also true; 
folklore and narratives in general can also provoke a creative or active response in people 
and significantly shape their worldview and way of life. The cases in which this happens 
(through processes of narrative ostension) are also of interest to folklorists, as they provide 
crucial contextual information about how (folk) narratives function, spread and acquire 
meaning. Stories about hidden or buried treasure are among the most important narratives 
that provoke such ostensive (re)actions. People who live with them sometimes venture out 
into the symbolically significant but very real elements of local space (e.g. castles) and 
actively search for the treasure mentioned in a legend. Such is the case of Šalek Castle (in 
Velenje), where local folklore about buried treasure has prompted several generations of 
locals to head up to the castle and start digging.
KEYWORDS: treasure folklore, narrative ostension, legend-tripping, spatialisation, 
Šalek, Ekenštajn 
Ljudje ustvarjamo svoje zgodbe iz konkretnih resničnih dogodkov, vendar drži tudi obratna 
pot – tudi pripovedna folklora (lahko) vzbudi ustvarjalni, tvornostni odziv ter pomembno 
zaznamuje in sooblikuje naše ukrepanje, pogled na svet in način življenja. Primeri, ko se 
to zgodi (s procesi, ki jih folkloristika obravnava s skupnim konceptom pripovedne osten-
zije), so za folkloristične raziskave prav tako zanimivi kot samo pripovedno gradivo, saj 
prispevajo pomembne kontekstualne in performančne podatke o tem, kakšno vlogo ima 
pripovedna folklora za svoje nosilce, kako se širi in kako pridobiva pomene.
Pripovedno gradivo o skritem oziroma zakopanem zakladu je med najvidnejšimi primeri, 
ki sprožajo takšen tvornostni odziv. Ljudje, ki živijo s temi zgodbami, se tu in tam od-
pravijo aktivno iskat zaklade iz pripovedi, pri čemer vstopajo v s simbolnim potencialom 
zaznamovane elemente resničnega izkustvenega prostora – na primer na gradove. Tako 
je tudi v naselju pod gradom Šalek v Velenju, kjer je lokalna pripovedna folklora o zako-
panem bogastvu spodbudila številne generacije domačinov, da so se povzpeli do grajskih 
ruševin in začeli s kopánjem.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: folklora o zakladih, pripovedna ostenzija, legend-tripping, 
prostorjenje, Šalek, Ekenštajn
“What are you hiding in your depths, castle of Šalek –
Among the evil rocks, within the unknown tunnels?”
(Štefanija Prislan)
AmBROž KVARTiČ174 
iNTRODUCTiON
Exploring the narrative folklore of the place where a researcher grew up is not without 
the hidden bias of nostalgia. i spent my childhood living just below the ruins of Šalek 
Castle in Velenje and climbed its stairs countless times with my peers. As we got to know 
and experience the limits of our ever-expanding world, there was one story (legend) 
connected with “our” castle that proved to be the most persistent. it was the one about a 
tunnel connecting it to the neighbouring castles of Ekenštejn and/or Velenje, and about 
the treasure hidden within this tunnel. There were several versions of this story, told to 
us wide-eyed youngsters by the older inhabitants of Šalek and by our extended families. 
Not only did we listen to the stories, we followed them up the hill to the castle ruins in 
search of the coveted riches they promised. Of course, we would be the ones to find the 
treasure, as we seemed to be the only ones ever to have had the idea of going to look for 
it. We found nothing of course.
Then decades passed and all this came back to me as i looked at my hometown 
through the eyes of a folklorist, equipped with concepts, paradigms, methodological tools 
and piles of comparative material. Two worlds that had shaped me came together in the 
most fascinating way, resulting in a truly unique research project that is presented here. 
i soon realised that the treasure hunts of my youth were merely a continuation of the 
long-standing practice of many generations of Šalek inhabitants, who had also followed 
the stories up to the castle, convinced that they would be the ones to find the buried 
treasure. This confirmed an important folkloristic postulate that, although concrete (his-
torical) events are transformed into narratives through the process of folklorisation, it is 
just as likely that narratives also elicit a creative or active response in their bearers and 
shape their world and way of life within their experiential reality. That is why i decided 
to study the treasure (folk) tales of Šalek in detail through fieldwork and interviews. i 
wanted to investigate their variability and contextual dimension, their role in building 
local identity, their ability to convey messages and their potential to express the cultural 
peculiarities of a place I once called home.
Šalék is a small hamlet, a former village on the eastern edge of the Šaleška valley in 
the Styria region of Slovenia. In 1979, Šalek ceased to exist as an independent settlement 
and became a district of the town of Velenje. The old centre of the village lies just below 
a steep rocky hill on which stand the ruins of Šalek Castle, after which the entire Šaleška 
valley is named. The first mention of the castle dates back to 1154, when it was known as 
Schalac,1 making it possibly the oldest castle in the Šaleška valley. Abandoned in 1770 
after a series of fires, only the central tower remains with its (rather unique) triangular 
floor plan. Šalek Castle stands at a strategic position on a cliff at the northernmost point 
of a larger rocky ridge, on which the ruins of another medieval castle, Ekenštejn (also 
known as Fire Castle or Zgornji (Upper) Šalek Castle), stand to the south-east and slightly 
higher than Šalek.2
1 See Blaznik 1988: 383.
2 For more on the hamlet of Šalek and the two castles, see Stopar 1975.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 175 
The area encompassing the two castles and the rocky ridge that connects them is the 
key location of the (folk) stories and accounts that I present in this article. Although the 
Šaleška valley, like many other areas in Slovenia, is full of folk narratives about treasure 
and accounts of the search for it, I have limited my research to this particular area. The 
research process took place between 2006 and 2019. it involved interviewing twenty-seven 
inhabitants of Šalek and Velenje – the very people who perceive this castle space as an 
element of their (spatial) identity. They either provided me with memories of their own 
treasure hunts or shared second-hand accounts of them.3 The interviews were generally 
full of joyful reminiscence, with people willingly sharing their own accounts of treasure 
hunting. i am convinced, however, that me being a de facto member of their local com-
munity, sharing and comparing my stories with theirs, helped foster this willingness.4 I 
conducted a couple of the interviews while wandering around the castle ruins, enabling 
the informants to point out specific spatial elements as they told their story. in addition 
to the interviews, i used some older written accounts5 in my comparative analysis of 
narrative material.
Before presenting the collected material and the interesting effects that these stories 
have or had on the inhabitants of Šalek, i must first give the reader a general outline of 
the narrative folklore about treasures and treasure hunting (in Slovenia), as well as the 
important folkloristic concept of narrative ostension. This should help to explain the very 
tangible effect that narrative folklore can have on real life, “reaching out” to it and even 
prompting its bearers to take concrete action.
“TREASURELORE”: NARRATiVE FOLKLORE ABOUT BURiED RiChES
Legends, tales and other narratives about hidden/buried treasure and treasure hunting are 
one of the most important constants in the repertoire of narrative folklore in Slovenia, 
Europe and the world. They are a rich, varied and interesting mix of genres and themes,6 
within which narrative folklore researchers have identified a wide variety of interpreta-
tive emphases: “[…] they reflect memory tales, superstition, real-life poverty, but also 
the desire to suddenly get rich.” (marks 1987: 61) Viewed as a commentary on, or an 
illustration of, the social and economic status of the storytellers, it can be assumed that 
folk narratives about treasures form around traditional and contextual views of the actual 
and symbolic possibilities for improving one’s economic situation (Kalda 2014). From 
this perspective, these narratives reflect people’s experiences and their hopes, and point 
3 To preserve their anonymity, only the key contextual information about the informants is given (gender, 
year of birth, and the year of recording). The only exception is Štefanija Prislan from Šalek, who died several 
years ago and whose diaries and poetry are also (at least partially) publicly available texts.
4 The research project was not intended to be an auto-ethnography. however, it turned out that my own 
“narrative-repertoire” played an important role in shaping the interviews themselves. in some cases, it was the 
telling of my story that sparked a detailed narrative from my interviewees.
5 Rare as they proved to be; namely a work of satirical travel writing (see Alešovec 1884) and some diary 
entries by the aforementioned Štefanija Prislan (see Prislan, no year given).
6 See also Dolenc 2000: 60–66.
AmBROž KVARTiČ176 
to both the individual’s desire for wealth and the values of their broader community. 
This interpretive emphasis is also present among the people of Šalek, as they repeatedly 
commented on their treasure-hunting with words to this effect: “[…] no one found the 
treasure anyway. We, the neighbours, would surely have noticed if someone got rich – 
but no one did.” (Prislan, no year given: 31).
however, the economic paradigm alone – the desire for wealth and prosperity – is 
not and cannot be enough to understand the meaning(s) treasure narratives carry for the 
particular community within which they are embedded. These narratives also represent 
powerful conceptual abstractions, as they are thoroughly connected to a much wider range 
of narrative folklore and belief systems, that is, to other layers of tradition. Comparative 
analysis reveals that the treasure narratives revolve around two major cultural concepts: 
that of space and that of identity.
Narrative folklore about (buried) treasure, as well as narrative folklore in general, 
is an important element of spatialisation, that is, the process of conceptualising space 
and its boundaries (see, for example, mencej and Podjed 2010). Space is “experienced 
through a process of imaginative reconstruction” (Aitchison et al. 2002: 78), and there-
fore cannot be reduced to a mere physical reality or a “natural given”, but is also and 
above all a cultural construct. In creating space through narrative, the narrator chooses 
details from their cultural and experiential reality not for their documentary value, but for 
their symbolic or signifying potential (Simonsen 1993: 129). This potential is of course 
relative and may be defined in different ways, sometimes more narrowly and sometimes 
more broadly. it takes only a superficial examination of folk narratives on buried treasure 
to see that they emphasise the elements of (experiential) space that are (traditionally) 
considered to be manifestations of the other world and are therefore magical and (in a 
symbolic sense) dangerous (hrobat 2010: 59). These include intersections, sacral build-
ings, old trees, isolated rock formations, standalone hills and, of course, castles. Through 
time and repetition, the community and its members determine which spatial elements 
are important and subsequently become a location-motif onto which folklore material 
is attached. Quite often it is “the greatest”, the most dominant (the most important, the 
most present, the most exposed) elements of spatial reality that are the ones loaded with 
the greatest symbolic potential.7 This potential is then materialised and contextualised 
through narrative folklore. It is therefore understandable that castles, being a prominent 
spatial dominant, very frequently become elements of narrative folklore (both fairy tales 
and legends) as well as their setting (for Slovenian examples, see Kropej and Dapit 2014; 
hudales 2013; Zorec 2009).
7 Compare this to the folkloristic concept of “the Goliath principle”. Originally proposed by Gary Alan Fine 
(Fine 1985; Fine 1992: 141–143) in the context of contemporary legendry, especially mercantile legends, this 
principle was set out to describe the tendency of “folk” to attach a corporate (mercantile) legend to the brand 
that dominates the market. As this “attachment” presupposes the migratory nature of the folk narratives, i find 
the concept useful when talking about any other example of migratory folklore attaching itself to any other 
conceptual dominant within a given cultural context. This assertion, however, would require much broader 
debate.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 177 
however, the folkloric role of treasure goes a step further than merely “marking 
space”. Narratives about it are always about buried or submerged wealth that is removed 
from immediate real experience. it is frequently guarded by mythical creatures (goblins, 
talking snakes, dragons)8 or magic, making it a conceptual taboo.9 For this reason, the 
traditional belief systems present it and perceive it as an illustration and a consequence 
of a community’s contact with the other world, or of a desire for such contact. Therefore, 
as per folkloristic analysis, a (buried) treasure in folk narratives cannot be considered as 
real wealth, but as a symbol of all goods, both worldly and other-worldly. Through this 
prism, the presence of treasure (or, more specifically, the folklore about it) in a particu-
lar local community can also be understood as that community’s aspiration to establish 
contact with the other world. Through narratives and space, the fabled, mythological 
world becomes part of the domestic environment. meanwhile, the treasure represents 
a specific point in the local space that either transcends the boundaries of the terrestrial 
(hrobat 2010: 59), or represents a passage between the two worlds.
however, identity is inseparable from space. People come to know, understand and 
make sense of it through storytelling (Bird 2002: 521). identity is an ideology that is always 
in search of its material existence (Althusser 2000: 91) and finds it, among other things, 
in narrative folklore. This is why a significant part of the narrative folklore about treasure 
revolves around the dichotomy of Us vs. the Other – familiar vs. strange, community vs. 
foreigner/alien, village vs. town, etc. This can also be seen in some common themes or 
motifs within the Slovenian (European) repertoire of treasure narratives. The first of these 
is that the treasure was left here by the Turks, the symbolic archetypal representatives of 
chaos and danger, with the intention of returning to collect it one day (see, for example, 
mlakar 2019: 60 and 69–72). The second is the motif of the hun warlord Attila, an arche-
typal historical figure of the invasive Other, who is said to have been buried (sometimes in 
a golden coffin) along with his treasure in various micro-locations across Europe, including 
Slovenia (see, for example, hrobat 2010: 57–59; Podbrežnik Vukomir and Kotnik 2009: 
156–157; Podpečan 2007: 133). Both migratory motifs presuppose borrowing facts and 
names from historical memory and adapting (contextualising) them through new variants 
to the particular communities and their places/spaces. This also creates and perpetuates 
an emphasis on the long continuity of a particular local identity. Although not related to 
the treasure under the castle itself, this kind of application of formative Turkish Otherness 
is also present in Šalek: “The linden tree that the Turks planted stood there. This Šalek 
linden tree. They came to Šalek and planted the linden tree there, promising to come and 
see how it grew. They haven’t been back yet though [laughs].”10
8 Animal and mythical treasure guardians are a powerful symbol of the world of chaos or the afterlife (see, 
for example, hrobat 2003: 131; hrobat 2010: 71).
9 in the context of Šalek and its treasure, this notion is further highlighted by older (written) narrative variants, 
which speak of people being punished or sanctioned for looking for treasure by either supernatural forces or 
the law. however, the contemporary accounts collected in my research do not tell of any kind of punishment 
or sanctions for this endeavour – supernatural or otherwise.
10 Female, 1927, recorded in 2006.
AmBROž KVARTiČ178 
Within the folk narrative and storytelling repertoires, a treasure is therefore both a 
desired object (a cultural fetish) and a signifier of the sacred – something that attracts and 
excites people on the one hand, and frightens and repels them on the other. It represents a 
boundary and it functions as a marker of the contact between the world of people and the 
world of the supernatural. it also expresses the local community’s desire to make this con-
tact within a space that this community recognises as its own. Once the importance of this 
duality is grasped, one can also begin to understand the undeniable emotional attachment 
of the storytellers to their narrative material and the real (ritualised) practices of actively 
entering into the world narratives, i.e. looking for the treasure that the stories put forth.
FOLKLORE AND NARRATiVE OSTENSiON
When collecting folklore material from people by performing fieldwork, a researcher often 
comes across cases in which informants supplement their narratives by “pinning” them to 
their own real experiences. Furthermore, they sometimes even use the narrative to justify 
their concrete behaviour and principled patterns of behaviour. These narrative details 
point to the important performance-contextual fact that a particular narrative can and does 
provoke an active creative response that shapes the world and way of life of its bearers.
The fact that concrete events create narratives is widely acknowledged (the narrative 
genre of the memorate, for instance), but “[…] it is equally as likely that the narratives 
also create events.” (Ellis 2001: 164) This relationship of mutual creation between sto-
ries and the real life of their bearers has already been articulated by several scholars of 
narrative folklore: “We have to accept that fact can become story and story can become 
fact.” (Dégh 1995: 261)
Folklorists describe this phenomenon with the concept of (narrative) ostension.11 The 
term was originally used to refer to any set of ways in which “[…] the untextual reality 
itself – a thing, a situation or an event – conveys messages.” (Dégh and Vászonyi 1983: 
6) however, in the subsequent debate, folklore scholars linked ostension more concretely 
to narratives themselves, defining it as the process by which people act out the motifs and 
events of narrative folklore (Fine 1992: 205). Ostension thus describes the occurrence(s) 
of everyday events and behaviours as narrative folklore directs them. The concept is also 
used to describe the way in which people enact the motifs and events of narrative folklore 
(Fine 1992: 205). Ostension thus represents: “[…] a dramatic extension [of folklore] into 
real life.” (Ellis 2001: 41). it describes a set of practices through which people enact their 
(narrative) folklore in one way or another (Fine 1992: 205). Ostensible practices are 
neither narrative nor organised “drama”, but are the conscious or unconscious recreation 
of the narrative scripts found in folklore (meder 2009: 259). This recreation, in turn, is 
a consequence of the “[…] people’s ability to shape their own behaviour on the basis of 
the story they have been presented with.” (Fine 1992: 207)
11 For a more detailed presentation of the concept of narrative ostension along with examples from Slovenia, 
see Kvartič 2017: 139-48.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 179 
Ostension does not occur in all (folk) narrative genres, but tends to occur in those 
genres that are both presented and accepted as plausible, that correspond to socially 
and culturally relevant themes, and that indicate an individual’s self-identification with 
the community (Fine 1992: 207). in other words, ostension and ostensible practices are 
primarily marked by legends.12
The visible (and thus recordable) manifestations of narrative ostension are many and 
varied. In order to study them, folklorists have grouped them together into three formal 
categories.13 The first one describes an internalisation of the narrative, or its transformation 
into a memorate (a story of personal experience). This happens for instance, when the 
narrator presents themselves as the central character of the narrative, even though they 
may have heard (received) it as if it had happened to someone else. The second category 
involves any kind of (mis)interpretation of real events based on a pre-existing narrative. 
The third and final category – which is also the best means of understanding and explaining 
the treasure hunting expeditions inspired by treasure narratives – involves the dramatised 
enactment of the atmosphere, setting, characters and other elements of the stories in 
real life (Ellis 2003: 162–163). in the latter case, also called “pseudo-ostension”, there 
is always a self-reflexive awareness in people that everything that happens is primarily 
about the story; for instance, all the people who went treasure hunting at Šalek Castle 
did so with pre-existing knowledge of the stories of buried riches.
Other examples of narrative (pseudo-)ostension include: visiting cemeteries to ex-
perience supernatural events, experimental verification of narrative material, various 
societal panics based on narratives, etc. People – mostly young people – can and do 
recreate (enact) the narrative scenarios in one way or another, taking into account the 
temporal and spatial details known to them, with the implicit or explicit intention of 
experiencing the narrative directly and at first hand. in this way, instances of concrete 
behavioural patterns are created. Folklore studies categorise this as legend-tripping, a 
sub-category of narrative ostension. In this concept the local(ised) folk story variants are 
of the utmost importance, as they often link the narrative with a tangible spatial element, 
triggering the idea of directly exploring the events in the place where they are said to 
have taken place. These legend-tripping practices are often ritualised, with pre-known 
rules and roles for the individual participants, and are often accompanied by informal 
rites of passage (initiations), where, for example, a display of courage is required. Due 
to the highly dramatised components (“expedition”, confrontation with the story, return), 
legend-tripping can also be understood and explored as a particular form of folk theatre 
(Ellis 2004: 165–185). The journey is marked by both exciting anticipation and the fear 
that something extraordinary will happen to the participants. All this is characteristic of 
the treasure narratives at Šalek Castle.
12 An example of a general definition of the genre of legend: “A story that […] takes place in the real world 
and the unusual event it describes is not impossible or unimaginable; it may even sound plausible. It fits the 
everyday life of ordinary people and the contemporary value system that surrounds it.” (Dégh 1994: 29)
13 These categories are in reality always in flux and overlap constantly.
AmBROž KVARTiČ180 
LOOKiNG FOR TREASURE AT ŠALEK CASTLE
As noted, the hidden/buried treasure motif is broadly present and relevant to the entire 
European narrative tradition (and beyond). however, in order to understand the local impact 
and the specific meaning of this “treasure folklore”, a narrow, local perspective tends to 
be far more useful. in what follows, i present a collection of narratives and testimonies 
about treasure and ostensive treasure-hunting (legend-tripping) practices localised at 
the castles Šalek and Ekenštajn. Both the motif of the treasure and the motif of actively 
looking for it are closely linked in the local narrative folklore. With each new telling, the 
narrators choose contextual details to bring the events closer to or further away from their 
own experiential reality. They often portray them as either true or untrue. i shall present a 
few narrative examples that i did not collect myself in the field, with comparison in mind:
The most powerful castle in the Šaleška valley was Šalek. This castle had 
underground connections with other castles. The largest underground tun-
nel led to the Fire Castle,14 the ruins of which are located a few hundred 
metres higher. Since the castle is cursed, the tunnel is also cursed. Brave 
youngsters have tried many times to dig and collect the treasure that is said 
to be hidden in the tunnel. however, whenever they dug down to the tunnel, 
they heard a rumbling sound, got scared and ran away (Orožen 1936: 120).
This record contains all three of the main contextual elements that characterise most 
of the narrative repertoire (including memorates) about the treasure at Šalek Castle: the 
treasure itself, the underground connection with other castles, and the act of searching 
(digging) for the treasure. For this reason, it became a kind of canonical source for many 
later writers (see, for example, Tajinstveno 1974).15 The example given, however, cor-
responds to the other examples of treasure narratives from the whole area. This can be 
deduced from the narrative collections and diary entries that can be reasonably dated to the 
period before 1936, when Orožen’s monograph was published. in the same work, however, 
we also find a similar narrative set in Ekenštejn (also called Fire Castle in this work):
People say that under the ruins there are either great treasures of gold or a 
great multitude of adders and horned vipers. When there are storms with 
lightning, it always strikes the ruins several times in a row. it is said that 
the lightning is drawn either by the gold or by the precious crown of the 
king of the snakes. About a hundred years ago, men gathered and prepared 
to dig through the ruins and reach the cellar where the treasure was said to 
be kept. But the cellar had three great stone doors. The men had already 
14 An alternative name for Ekenštajn Castle.
15 Orožen’s method of collecting narrative material, published in his monograph Castles and manor houses 
in the National Tradition, is admittedly controversial. In many of his examples it is not possible to determine 
whether the material is the invented contribution of his informants – pupils at the Celje grammar school – or 
actual (traditional) narrative material (for more on this, see hudales 2013).
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 181 
opened two of the doors, but when they came to the third, they abandoned 
their work and left (Orožen 1936: 123–124).
The story collected and written by Fran mlinšek about Ekenštajn (around the same 
time as Orožen) is significantly different, but it mentions both the treasure and the search 
for it (the act of digging):
At the castle of Upper Šalek, a priest was once digging. […] he made him-
self a hut out of branches and twigs and lay down in it. At the time of the 
consecration, the ground suddenly opened up in front of him. And he saw 
a large wooden bucket of money, and on each side three barrels of wine. 
A green man stood there and beckoned to him to take the money. But he 
threw his hat in, he didn’t want to take anything. Then the ground closed 
again and a voice was heard saying: “Oh, if only you had saved me! The 
pine tree has not yet sprung up from which the cradle for the man who will 
save me will be made.” (hudales and Stropnik 1991: 110)
Fran mlinšek also mentioned the treasure at Šalek Castle in his historical notes: “There 
are various tales about the castle, that there is a treasure buried there, etc.” (hudales and 
Stropnik 1991: 251–252)
Reading these records by “collectors of folk material”, one can look for strong par-
allels between the local stories and the diverse and widespread global folk repertoire, as 
well as their importance for understanding the local ethnographic reality of Šalek and 
its inhabitants. The fact is that these examples are interwoven with numerous versions 
of localised treasure narratives shared by local people to this day – narratives in which 
the narrators incorporate their own experiences and memories, recreating both time and 
space and their own role (participation or distance) in the events they describe:
Yeah, well, we actually went digging. Yeah, it just happened – sometimes 
we found a hole in the ground somewhere and started digging. We also 
struck the ground and if there was something hollow, like if we heard a 
hollow sound, then our imagination would go wild. Although there was 
probably nothing to it. But there was a lot of talk about it, yes. That there 
was some treasure hidden here, and that there was an underground tunnel 
leading down to Velenje Castle. But who knows what the truth is, we never 
got to the end of it.16
Researcher (R): So you were out looking for a hole in the ground?
Informant (I): For a hole and for something to find!
R: Like what?
16 Male, 1984, recorded in 2008.
AmBROž KVARTiČ182 
I: Yeah, maybe some gold or something. Because according to the stories, 
it was said that someone had buried all that gold. And that they had put 
it in that cave.17
I know there is a generation, ten years older than me, that they were 
looking for treasures. [Lists some names] they were digging there! But 
that’s all I know.18
I remember, and it’s true, my father told me, that once some German guy 
came after the war. And he had plans of this castle and everything. And 
he was looking for it somewhere, and he was looking for it, and that’s it. 
And he came to one of the rocks here at Šafer’s,19 and he wanted to find out 
something. And the old Šafer chased him away. And then he left.20
Although the content of European treasure narratives is often tied (at least implicitly) 
to real historical events or persons, this could hardly be said of the stories of the treasure 
at Šalek Castle. The only element in the narratives that can potentially be linked to a real 
historical context is the reference to lightning striking the castle buildings. Lightning 
eventually caused a fire at Šalek Castle in 1770, after which the building was completely 
abandoned (Stopar 1975: 24). it is not, however, possible to determine whether the pro-
cess of folklorisation has preserved the memory of this particular event within local folk 
narratives. it is clear, however, that the frequent lightning strikes have been interpreted 
as evidence that there is a large amount of gold (or other metals) under the castle, as this 
gold is supposed to attract the lightning:21
And then sometimes the elders said that the lightning strikes the castle up 
here. Up here in this particular part (points to a part of the castle). They 
said that there was probably a hiding place for some gold – that it is this 
gold that attracts the lightning.22
Looking at the very rare written accounts of actual treasure hunting at Šalek Castle, 
the earliest mention i could find was in the autobiographical short story entitled “how 
i Cultivated myself” (Kako sem se jaz likal), by the satirical writer and newspaperman 
of the latter half of the 19th century, Jakob Alešovec (1842–1901). The author describes 
with ironic humour his years of schooling in a Slovenian-German cultural environment. 
17 male, 1959, recorded in 2010.
18 male, 1965, recorded in 2017.
19 Šafer is the name of a former farmstead, the closest residential building to Šalek Castle, the home of the 
former (historical) caretakers of the castle. The name comes up frequently when Šalek residents talk about the 
castle and its folklore.
20 Female, 1965, recorded in 2017.
21 Compare to Orožen’s account on Ekenštejn above.
22 Male, 1938, recorded in 2017.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 183 
One of the chapters is dedicated to a long trip he took after an unsuccessful year at the 
Aloysius School in Ljubljana. On this trip, he visited the Šaleška valley and climbed 
Šalek Castle, of which he wrote:
[…] i had a beer in Šoštanj, i only passed through Velenje, but in Škalce i 
entered the parsonage and was stopped there by the parish cook. i did not 
want to push past her, so i went on and soon saw the ruins of Šalek Castle, 
which i climbed up to and even climbed into the collapsed window open-
ings of the tower. The farmer i met somewhere under the castle mocked 
me, saying that if i was looking for ‘šac’23 there, i would get nothing, as 
others had already found it. he did not know that i had climbed the tower 
only to look back across the Šaleška valley and see how far i had come. 
(Alešovec 1884: 448–449)
Jakob Alešovec attended the Ljubljana (Aloysius) Gymnasium between 1856 and 
1863, when he graduated early (see Zajc 2013). This means that 1863 is the latest year 
in which he could have made the trip described in his book. Even if he had visited Šalek 
Castle a year earlier, the mention of the implied treasure hunt at Šalek Castle places it 
firmly in the early 1860s. 
One of the most comprehensive written accounts of treasure hunting at Šalek Castle 
is found in the memoirs and diary entries of Štefanija Prislan (1914–2002), a native of 
Šalek. These texts are full of interesting and eloquent information about the way of life in 
the “old” Šalek. They contain information about the material, spiritual and social culture 
of the Šalek people, genealogical and historical data, and an inventory of continuity and 
change in the village and the broader area. Although her writings are sometimes tinged 
with nostalgia and “local-patriotic” pathos, her ethnographic inclination makes the notes 
mostly very informative and accurate, and therefore a good source for the historiography 
and ethnography of the village of Šalek in the twentieth century. Among other things, her 
diaries contain a lengthy account of three separate treasure hunts in which the inhabitants 
of Šalek participated, together with the names of the participants:
i knew of three groups: it was all secret and clandestine, but people still 
heard about it.
The first group from Šalek included Ban milan, a merchant. Oštir Franc 
the farmer, mak (?) Pepek the locksmith and the sawmill foreman – we 
called him “Ajmek”.
how gloomy was the morning when someone reported to the gendarmerie 
that some villagers from Šalek were digging at the castle at night. They went 
from house to house to find out more about the matter. People said that they 
were being punished for disturbing the property (the property of the Counts 
23  ‘Šac’ is an old Slovene colloquialism, derived from German, in which Schatz means treasure, profit or 
(material) wealth (see, for example, Snoj 2014).
AmBROž KVARTiČ184 
of Thurn), but they had not dug up the treasure anyway. We neighbours 
would have noticed if anyone got rich – but we saw nothing. Only shards 
and pebbles from some of the portals were found on the hillside below the 
castle. Some of it was still worth something, and some of it was rubbish.
The second group, which also hoped to find the treasure, included Povh 
Tilek, Doblčak Cenek, Pavlov Karluh and Oštir-Vrtaški Anzek or Dolf. This 
group looked for it from Šalek Castle and as far as Preska. When they had 
dug quite a lot – about 100 metres from Pucl’s hut or under Gorica castle,24 
something moved underground. They were so frightened that they ran in 
all directions, for there was a terrible shadow behind them.
The third group consisted of hudovernik, who lived at the Paka station, 
Gričarjev Tone from Sele, Kovač Pepek (the one who told me all this) 
and Nedek, the railwayman, who lived in the Peplhaus. They went to dig 
several times in terrible fear, but of course without success. No one knows 
what they were more afraid of – being caught by the authorities or those 
horrible monsters they thought were guarding the castle treasure. (Prislan, 
no year given: 30–31)
This account reveals some interesting information. The first one is the approximate 
period in which these “searches” are supposed to have taken place. A comparative check 
of the names given in the notes – on the reasonable assumption that these people were 
still young at the time of the search – suggests that the events described took place at least 
from the early twentieth century, if not from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. 
The other two groups are slightly more recent and can be placed in the period around or 
immediately after World War i. in this account, Prislan jumps between periods and even 
mixes them up by mentioning some names from the period after World War ii, but the 
overall picture is telling enough. in addition to the timeline found in Prislan’s writings, 
my interviews with some of the oldest inhabitants of Šalek confirmed the practice around 
the same time; as one informant said, referring to his father:
R: What about the stories of your elders digging? Did your father also dig?
I: Yes, yes, yes. They dug even more than we did! They dug even more. But 
they also had the same points of interest. Only they went and dug there in 
the middle of the castle, on the other side, and they dug so much there that 
you almost couldn’t go there anymore! That’s where they dug. And they 
said that it was on that side they assumed it would be. And then they gave 
up. And they didn’t dig anymore. My father, when he was a young man, 
they were already digging. But it was my – I should say – the generation 
just before me, well, those who were born there, after the year 1920, they 
were the ones who dug. And then we did too!25
24 Yet another name for Ekenštajn.
25 Male, 1938, recorded in 2017. My emphasis.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 185 
Prislan’s writings also reveal that looking for treasure was (allegedly) a clandestine 
activity in and around the 1920s. The reason given is the desecration of property. This 
information may suggest that the treasure stories were also known to the authorities 
of the time (though no specific form of punishment or sanction is mentioned). Some 
specific digging locations are also mentioned, as well as “monsters” guarding the castle 
treasure, which is in keeping with the folklore motif of mythical creatures guarding the 
riches underground.
The most important and interesting variable one can find when collecting folk nar-
ratives and memorates of treasure hunting practices at Šalek Castle are the individual 
micro-locations on the castle ridge, where either the treasure or the tunnel are located, 
or where the narrators placed themselves in the act of looking for treasure. The range of 
these micro-locations is varied, but they are all chosen for their symbolic or signifying 
potential and are therefore never used randomly during narration. The groups that looked 
for the treasure or the tunnel determined for themselves, through active entry into the 
narratives, which elements of the broader castle space were of greater (symbolic) value 
to them. however, these spatial elements were always the most prominent features of 
the physical space.
in her diary entries, Štefanija Prislan also describes her own experience of searching 
for the secret tunnel, pointing out another specific micro-location – the pigsties at Kolavter 
farm – which, together with the slope to the north-east and east of the castle (where water 
is said to have once flowed), also appears in the accounts of other informants:
i don’t know why, it was all interesting. i was also quite interested in 
Kolavter’s pigsties. We were walking on the heavy rocks behind the pig-
gery, and they said that there was a secret tunnel up to Šalek Castle. But 
nobody ever tried to open it or dig it up to see if there really was a tunnel 
to the castle. And we children were scared to look in there […] everything 
was bewitched. (Prislan, no year given: 16–17)
The treasure of Šaleška was there; i described it in a poem. We said it was 
in the direction of Kolavter’s pigsties – it was supposed to be there accord-
ing to an old rumour. But no one has explored it. (Verdinek 2002: 154)
One of the digging sites that the informants repeatedly identified was a location 
beneath the eastern wall of the triangular tower, where there is a (now restored) vertical 
shaft, the remnant of a former chimney (Stopar 1975: 14). As an architecturally prominent 
element, it received some very interesting folk narrative interpretations that accompanied 
the legend-tripping visits to the castle at various times:
Yeah, we dug ours first – there, first there, when they said they were just 
dropping people down. And they said that that’s where they were dropping 
them in and that’s where that cave was supposed to start. That they had 
to work half in there and dig those – […] that they were half digging, and 
AmBROž KVARTiČ186 
they were half out, weren’t they. Well, we already started digging there, 
that’s it.26
That was it. The other site [where we were digging] was one of those 
exit shafts. Or on the north side there’s one extension, it’s like a chimney, 
something protruding and round. And they said that those who were 
naughty – who deserved to be punished, they were thrown down that shaft. 
Actually, it’s quite steep from that part down to the Košanov graben, but 
it’s overgrown now.27
The area around Šafer’s farm was also repeatedly mentioned as a very important po-
tential point of interest, both by informants and in written sources. Some of the prominent 
rocks and Šafer’s outbuildings were pointed out:
People said that here, just above Šafer, a little further away there from the 
castle, just above the farm, where there are still some ruins to be found – 
that there was a stable inside and that there was a tunnel from inside out 
to Šafer here, you know. We dug there, digging everything up, and we dug 
deep – to see if there was anything there. We went all the way around, 
and we went out but we didn’t find anything. So we left it. […] Well, some 
said that there was supposed to be one of those entrances in the ground. 
And then the old Šafer, who was a mason, made one of those pigsties, or 
something like that, right there, right there. A pigsty. And from that time 
on, there was nothing there. We were no longer interested in it. So now I 
don’t really know whether there would still be something there or not, I 
don’t know.28
We girls were convinced that the treasure was here. There is a flat wall at the 
Šafer’s. And we found an entrance there, and that is where it was supposed 
to be. But when we started scratching the moss, they chased us away. […] 
That’s where the entrance to the tunnel leading to the upper castle should 
have been. That’s all for now. (Verdinek 2002: 154)29
The flat area at the extreme north-west of the ridge, where the two castles stand, is 
also mentioned as a digging site. Some (older) informants called this area the “castle 
gardens”, although this cannot be historically confirmed:
26 Male, 1938, recorded in 2017.
27 Male, 1960, recorded in 2016.
28 Male, 1938, recorded in 2017.
29 This account is interesting because it is the only one that explicitly states that the treasure was sought only 
by girls. Other informants spoke of either boys or mixed groups.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 187 
The side towards Kolavter. There were just these steps leading down. There 
is still one of those walls there now, I should say the old wall; there really 
were gardens there. It was flat. But, hey, we’re digging, we’re digging. 
And only when we had to hide for a while, we went, and we said, “Now 
we’re going to go and dig there’. Some of us brought bread, and some of us 
brought something else. Myself, I stole a sausage from the cellar at home, 
and I took it up, so we had a little bit of a snack as we dug. So, we’re sitting 
there, and this big snake comes over. We ran away and we didn’t dig there 
anymore. We were so scared.30
The informants also pointed out some other micro-locations that occur sporadically in 
the context of visits to the castle and are thus not subject to broader (narrative) repetition:
We were very interested in this particular hole in the ground at the top of 
the hill where Ekenštajn is located. There, in front of the two walls that are 
still standing. One little hill in front of that, there is this rather big round 
hole. And this hole – my imagination was running wild – is something that 
the witches must have made. And this hole was such a strong point that it 
pulled the earth right in.31
most of the accounts show that the searches for the treasure were generally haphaz-
ard – small excavations or simply probing the ground during an occasional visit to the 
castle. however, there is also information to suggest that searches were at least partially 
“organised”, especially when the interviewees described advance planning or the tools 
they carried with them up to the castle:
[Addressing me] Go on and ask Š. M. about that! You’ll find out first hand. 
Because they used to go up there with hammers and with picks, and they 
used to punch holes in the rocks. I don’t know what else. But they got really 
serious about it! 32
Buried treasure aside, the other goal of these searches was to find the underground 
connection between Šalek Castle and Ekenštejn, or even between Šalek Castle and Ve-
lenje Castle on the other side of the valley. This tunnel has no historical basis (Stopar 
1975: 52), but it is an important part of the treasure narratives, although not necessarily 
narratively linked to the treasure. A comparative reading of these accounts reveals a 
very interesting pattern: the older generations of informants speak of an underground 
connection between Šalek Castle and Ekenštejn, while the younger generations speak 
of a tunnel between Šalek Castle and Velenje Castle. Perhaps i can try to understand 
30 male, 1954, recorded in 2013.
31 Male, 1991, recorded in 2014.
32 Female, 1965, recorded in 2017.
AmBROž KVARTiČ188 
this difference from the historical perspective of the development of the area’s identity. 
When the village of Šalek became part of Velenje in 1979 (and even much earlier), the 
identity of this area began to shift towards Velenje, and with it the focus of the symbolic 
articulation of this identity. however, this is a speculation, at least until some more field 
research is carried out.33
I: Oh, and of course the treasure. The treasure of Šalek is somewhere 
between Šalek Castle and Ekenštajn. That is one story, but also that Šalek 
is supposed to be connected to Velenje Castle with a tunnel. That too.
R: With Velenje or with Ekenštajn?
I: With Velenje.
R: So this treasure has nothing to do with the tunnel, actually.
I: No, no this treasure is separate because it goes the other way, up towards 
Ekenštajn, somewhere up there. Or somewhere in between, closer to Šalek 
Castle. There used to be a well, a spring, and that is where the treasure was 
supposed to be hidden. However, the tunnel goes towards Velenje Castle, 
that is what was always said. A secret tunnel.34
The stories about the treasure and the secret tunnel at Šalek Castle have always spanned 
all generations, and the folk material has mostly been passed on along a vertical axis, 
from the older to the younger generation. however, judging by both the written sources 
and the interviews, the participants in the ostential treasure-hunting visits to the castle 
(legend-tripping) are almost exclusively young people (children and teenagers). The 
informants, regardless of their age, consistently referred to the time of their youth as the 
time of their active treasure hunting. This pattern is consistent with folklorists’ findings 
that narrative folklore plays a key role in the period of an individual’s adolescence. By 
narrating and actively entering into the events described in narrative folklore, young 
people test and push the boundaries of their world and shape themselves into adults. 
These processes therefore constitute a test of an individual’s maturity in communicating 
with peers and adults alike (Dégh 2001: 252). The repertoire of adolescents’ narrative 
folklore is generally dominated by themes that fascinate, attract and repel at the same 
time. Engaging fully with folklore helps create self-awareness and understand one’s 
own cultural reality. By actively entering into the events described in the story, young 
people participate in active, experimental learning about their surroundings and search 
for useful information related to the space where the narratives are set (Ellis 2003: 188).
33 interestingly, this pattern is at least partially confirmed by the material collected by Janko Orožen (1936) 
and Fran mlinšek (hudales and Stropnik, eds. 1991), where the connection between Šalek and Velenje castles 
is never mentioned.
34 Male 1984, recorded in 2008.
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 189 
CONCLUSiON
Narrative ostension – with the prominent sub-category of legend-tripping – is a less 
visible but very important part of narrative events because it helps us understand the 
embeddedness of narrative folklore in the concrete (micro)environments of its bearers. 
Furthermore, it helps us to understand the texts themselves and, consequently, to extract 
their meaning. In this respect, the tales of the underground tunnels and the treasure at 
Šalek and Ekenštejn castles are very compelling, as they have encouraged generations 
of young Šalek residents – indefinably far into the past – to climb up to the castle ruins, 
pound the ground and dig, wishing and expecting that the stories had a grain of truth in 
them. A comparative analysis of the local repertoire of treasure narratives has shown that 
these stories establish a connection with the fantastic, mythical and transcendental, and 
that the act of entering into their content implies a desire to make this connection. hidden 
or buried treasure therefore has an important impact on local identity and its development, 
as it points to the inherent connection the local population has to the place where they live.
Since the narratives of the Šalek treasure are closely linked to the identity of Šalek and 
its inhabitants, one can also observe the transformation of this identity through them. During 
the conversations with the youngest interviewees (born after 1991), it became evident that 
the practice of active treasure hunting (legend-tripping) is disappearing. Young people still 
know the stories and their variants, but they do not go to the castle to look for the treasure 
themselves. This brings about an interesting break in the perception of narrative folklore, 
place and identity, and represents a different attitude from the one i observed among the 
older interviewees. On reflection, several circumstances could have influenced this change: 
1) in order to enhance security, Šalek Castle was enclosed by a fence two decades ago and 
the entrance is locked most of the time. The limited access to the castle makes it difficult 
for visitors to experience the space directly (on a daily basis) and consequently inhibits the 
symbolic shaping of the castle space (spatialisation) through storytelling. 2) If narratives 
about the castle have always been a means of (almost) “intimate” inward self-identification 
among the residents of Šalek in the past, this has changed radically with their application 
in tourism and other contexts, which also arrived roughly two decades ago. As a result, 
narratives have become a means of presenting Šalek outwards in supra-local contexts that 
reach as far as possible. In these contexts, identities are rapidly and repeatedly constructed, 
dismantled and reconstructed. The existing (traditional) narrative folklore has thus been 
relativised, resulting in different meanings and functions than previously attributed to it. 
3) The narratives themselves are also changing. Decades ago, the organised educational 
process (schools and associations) participated actively in storytelling events, presenting 
young people with traditional motifs and some new, original stories (see, for example, Stro-
pnik 2001). These are slowly taking over the role of the main narrative representations of 
Šalek and the Šaleška region, creating a wide array of invented traditions35 along the way.
35 The concept of invented tradition was developed by the British historian Eric hobsbawm (hobsbawm and 
Ranger 1983), who argues that much of the phenomena we now understand as part of tradition were in fact 
invented, or at least constructed, in some (collectively undefined) historical and social context. For an interesting 
example in the Šaleška region, see: (Ažber 2020).
AmBROž KVARTiČ190 
in both my research and this subsequent article, i have admittedly only looked back 
in time and only to a relatively small area of significance where i could have reasonably 
assumed that i would find something. A comprehensive account would require a thorough 
survey of the contemporary situation. This would entail a detailed investigation into the 
realities of contemporary elementary and high school students who are either directly 
or indirectly engaged with the castle and its associated folklore. in addition, the wider 
spatial context must be taken into consideration. The Šaleška valley, which is home to 
many old castles and castle ruins, is replete with narrative folklore pertaining to tunnels 
and buried treasure. Therefore my “treasure hunt” continues.
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AmBROž KVARTiČ192 
V iSKANJU ŠALEŠKEGA ZAKLADA: OBLiKOVANJE LOKALNE 
iDENTiTETE S PRiPOVEDNO OSTENZiJO
Ambrož KvArtič
Konkretni resnični dogodki iz naših življenj se s procesom folklorizacije pre-
tvarjajo v zgodbe, vendar drži tudi obratna pot – tudi pripovedna folklora (lahko) 
vzbudi ustvarjalni, tvornostni odziv ter pomembno zaznamuje in sooblikuje naše 
ukrepanje, pogled na svet in način življenja. 
Te primere folkloristika obravnava s krovnim konceptom pripovedne ostenzije, 
ki označuje vsakršne oblike (tvornega) udejanjanja pripovednega gradiva v res-
ničnem življenju. Primerov pripovedne ostenzije (sploh v primeru žanra povedk) 
je veliko: nočni obiski pokopališč z namenom izkusiti nadnaravnih dogodkov, 
panika, ki jo na primer sprožijo sodobne povedke o satanizmu, izvajanje poskusov, 
ki bi potrdili ali ovrgli trditve zgodb in tako naprej. za razumevanje tega, kakšno 
vlogo ima pripovedna folklora za svoje nosilce, kako se širi in kako pridobiva 
pomene, pa je njihovo raziskovanje prav tako pomembno kot raziskovanje same-
ga pripovednega gradiva. Gre torej za manj izpostavljen vendar zelo pomemben 
kontekstualno razsežnost pojavnosti pripovednega gradiva med ljudmi, ki pa 
lahko raziskovalcem zalo koristi pri razumevanju vpetost folklore v konkretna 
(mikro)okolja in posledično pri razumevanju njenih spreminjajočih se pomenov. 
V Sloveniji in po vsej Evropi je pripovedno gradivo o skritem zakladu med 
najvidnejšimi primeri, ki sprožajo takšen tvornostni odziv. Te pripovedi se obli-
kujejo okoli zanimivega vsebinskega nasprotja – v njih je zaklad predstavljen kot 
nedostopen (skrit, zakopan, celo zaščiten z magijo), v isti sapi pa je umeščen v 
povsem realna prostor in čas, blizu izkustveni resničnosti nosilcev zgodb. Zato 
se ljudje, ki z zgodbami o zakladih živijo skozi generacije, tu in tam odpravijo 
skrito bogastvo iz pripovedi aktivno iskat, pri čemer vstopajo v s simbolnim 
potencialom zaznamovane elemente svojega resničnega izkustvenega prostora – 
na primer na gradove. Spoznavanje tega pomembnega dela kontekstualne ravni 
pripovednega gradiva o zakladih raziskovalcem v folkloristiki pove veliko o tem, 
kako te zgodbe učinkujejo oziroma kakšno vlogo imajo za njihove nosilce. Pri njih 
namreč ne gre zgolj za simbolno artikulacijo zemeljskih in nezemeljskih dobrin 
(bogastva), pač pa z njimi lokalne skupnosti izražajo tudi željo vzpostavljanja 
stika s presežnim, bajeslovnim svetom. Skozi pripoved in vanjo vpeti prostor 
bajeslovni svet postaja del resničnega domačega okolja, zaklad pa je pri tem 
najmočnejši označevalec tistih točk konkretnega lokalnega prostora, kjer se meje 
med resničnim in bajeslovnim premoščajo. S prostorom, ki ga ljudje spoznavajo, 
razumevajo, osmišljajo in ustvarjajo (tudi) s pripovedmi o zakladu, je tako tesno 
povezana tudi (lokalna) identiteta.
Tradicijski pripovedni repertoar v Sloveniji vključuje zgodbe o zakladu, ki 
so ga v tukajšnjih krajih pustili Turki, ki nosi prekletstvo hudobnih graščakov, 
ki ga pred ‘nevrednimi’ varujejo magija in bajeslovna bitja, ki privlači strelo, ki 
se nahaja v podzemnih sobanah in tako naprej. Ti in drugi pripovedni motivi se s 
iN SEARCh OF TREASURE iN ŠALEK 193 
procesi prenosa lokalizirajo v vsakdanji svet svojih nosilcev tako, da ti v zgodbe 
vkomponirajo konkretne prostorske elemente, ki lahko zaradi svoje dominantne 
vloge v nekem konkretnem življenjskem okolju pomenijo simbolno manifestacijo 
drugega sveta oziroma prehoda vanj. Ti elementi so zato (v pripovednem gradi-
vu) predstavljeni kot magični ter v simbolnem smislu nevarni – gre na primer za 
križišča, sakralne objekte, stara drevesa, skalne osamelce in, seveda, gradove.
Pripovedi o zakladu močno zaznamujejo tudi prostor in identiteto naselja Šalek 
– nekdanje vasi, danes pa ene od mestnih četrti Velenje –, katerega prebivalci že 
stoletja živijo z zgodbami o bogastvu, zakopanem pod ruševinami gradu Šalek, 
ki se dviga nad starim vaškim jedrom. iz tamkajšnjih lokalnih folklornih in spo-
minskih pripovedi, dnevniški zapiskov in časopisnih poročil pa je razvidno, da 
so te zgodbe spodbudile že številne generacije prebivalcev Šaleka, da so vzeli v 
roke lopate in drugo orodje, se odpravili na grad in začeli s kopanjem. V članku 
je predstavljenih veliko primerov tako lokalnih folklornih pripovedi o lovu na 
zaklad kot tudi poročil o dejanskem prizadevanju Šalečanov, da bi pod »svojim« 
gradom našli skrito bogastvo.
Ambrož Kvartič, PhD, Teaching Assistant, University of Ljubljana, Faculty 
of Arts, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Zavetiška 
5, Si–1000 Ljubljana, ambroz.kvartic@ff.uni-lj.si
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1483-0998