Vladimir Hancin

He was born on October 23, 1927 in the village of Riečnica, which was later abolished due to the construction of the Nová Bystrica reservoir. His father worked as a civil servant, so they moved several times in their youth. Although he liked history at school and liked to read books on this topic in his free time, he could not study for various reasons. Finally, he became a soldier
by profession and settled in Senica, where he married. He moved to Bratislava with his wife in 1952, left the army for health reasons and got a job as a security technician in the company Reštaurácie a Jedálne, from where he later moved to the company Drobný tovar. It was then that his old love for history was reawakened in him:
"It so happened that adverse events in the early 60s forced me to seek an escape from the realities of real life.. "

He became interested in the history and monuments of Bratislava, which eventually became his life's destiny. At first, he educated himself, went to libraries to study and there he became acquainted with the history of our city. At that time, his desire to deepen his knowledge was indirectly influenced by the elder of Bratislava guides, Vladimír Plicka, whom the BKIS inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021: "It started in the regional library (…) on yellowed pages I discovered Plicka's biased view of Bratislava and the surrounding area. The simplicity, clarity and at the same time the engaging nature of reading about historical events (…) Our acquaintance taught me to get to know my city and led me to a course for local guides in Bratislava."

In the course he completed in 1964, he found "a place and satisfaction. (…) I joined a group of passionate lovers of old Bratislava. I went on their walks, debated with them, and looked for opportunities to expand my knowledge."  The manner and form of his accompaniment was significantly influenced by V. Plicka, whom he eventually had the opportunity to meet in person: "What another guide avoided by stating that the bay window was from such and such a century, the professor was able to bring to light by highlighting the beauty of the details – stone frames, glass, paintings. He convinced me that there is beauty in the details too, you just have to know how to look and talk about it. (…) In my work as a guide, I tried to use his approach to the audience and in my own preparation to focus on learning about the past of our ancestors and connecting their lives with all the monuments of the city."

During the course, he established friendships with fellow students and agile guides Jozef Koči and Juraj Frida, with whom he tried to invent and develop new activities outside of the usual work of a guide and to bring the history of Bratislava closer to the widest possible public. They were elected to the Guides Committee, which in 1968 took over the leadership of the Circle of Friends of Bratislava (founded in 1966), a platform uniting both guides and lay lovers of Bratislava focused on lectures and walks around Bratislava. Vladimír Hančin became the Circle's secretary and participated in the development of its statute (while establishing contact with the Club for Old Prague) and a significant revival of its activities: "I remember the meetings of this committee (of guides) with great pleasure. (…) Debates were held here, proposals were made, and they were actively worked on. The first versions of the regulation on guide activities were created here, and the draft statute prepared by V. Hančin and J. Koči for the Circle of Friends of Bratislava was discussed here. Lawyers Dr. Lambert Čekal and Viliam Frank were also active, editing and smoothing out draft documents. Specific changes in the remuneration of guides were proposed."
Thanks to Vladimír Hančin, the Circle of Friends of Bratislava became a sought-after platform (at its peak, it had around 700 members per year) and over the course of more than 30 years of its activity, it organized several thousand lectures and walks and several hundred bus tours, which were attended by over 100,000 visitors. The initiative of the aforementioned group of guides also led to the creation of a monthly magazine known as the BIS Homeland Science Bulletin, distributed internally among guides and members of the Circle of Friends of Bratislava. Its essence was that erudite guides with deeper knowledge contributed to it, who passed it on to their colleagues in this form. The bulletin was published in the years 1970–2000 and the author of its first issue was none other than Vladimír Hančin, who processed the rumors about Bratislava's water spirits. In the early years, Vladimír Hančin contributed to it, for example: also on the topics of Bratislava and the Napoleonic Wars, Academia Istropolitana, Bratislava's White and Black Ladies, or Mátohy in Michael's Tower. It is no coincidence that the bulk of his contributions consisted of Bratislava legends, as he was a specialist in them: "I've loved fairy tales since I was a child, but the way Dr. M. Löbl interpreted the legends about Bratislava intrigued me. He is "to blame" for me becoming Uncle the storyteller.""

He collected legends not only from available literature, but also through interviews with monuments. Thanks to this, he accumulated a number of unpublished, orally transmitted legends and fantastic stories from old Bratislava. He was a wellspring of them and knew how to fascinate the audience with them. Mária Ďuríčková, among others, also relied on his advice and help in conceiving the legendary collections of Bratislava legends The Danube Queen and The Prešpor Bell: "More than once, I leafed through a dozen books for a single reality, for a single title, or I ran to a museum, or to consult those who knew."
and they remembered. It was his specialization in legends and frequent work with children that prompted V. Hančin to start thinking about how to bring the history of Bratislava closer to the widest possible children's audience. Together with J. Koči, they finally came up with a competition Know your city. At first, the idea seemed difficult to implement due to the large scale of the competition, but the enthusiasts inspired others with their enthusiasm, involved other institutions, and gained important knowledge during V. Hančin's visit to the Municipal Administration for Monument Preservation in Prague, where a similar competition was already underway:
"I fondly remember the founding of the Circle of Friends of Bratislava. How in 1970 I used my acquaintances to invite me to discuss the "Balance of Motor Vehicles for 1971" and I actually went to the MSMS in Prague to share my experiences from their youth game about Prague."
V. Hančin thus had great merit in the fact that the first year of the competition could be held in 1971. Know your city, where mainly the middle generation of Bratislava residents grew up.
V. Hančin became the driving force, the engine, of this extremely popular competition, especially in the beginning, which aroused love for their city in many children and cultivated their relationship with monuments. The answer of a certain elementary school student involved in the competition to the question "How do you want to contribute to the protection of monuments? ": "I will not dig in monuments, pee on them, and peel them for souvenirs."

In addition to his tireless organizational work, V. Hančin was also known for his exceptionally rich and systematic knowledge of Bratislava. In 1986, he published a guide for guides on how to handle information, how to improve their knowledge and prepare for guiding. An article with a characteristic title Striving to improve is proof of the immense precision and meticulous work of V. Hančin: "First of all, it is necessary to realize that one guide cannot cover everything related to our city. He cannot collect and process all available information for his own needs. I have focused my interest on several thematic areas and on this basis I am engaged in obtaining information and processing it. These are topography of monuments
and events, revolutionary traditions, Napoleonic wars, rumors and stories. (…) It is no longer so easy to choose the right and appropriate form of processing and storing the obtained data and sources.
To satisfy my interests, I have the following system in place: Topography: Data is collected in the form of a statement of basic data on registration cards; exact address, name of the object, obtained data, exact source from which they were drawn. The card index is arranged alphabetically according to individual streets and locations. Data on larger objects such as Bratislava and Devín Castles, Slavín, Dóm, or locations such as old suburbs, suburban villages and the like, I store in quick binders. (…) I have this documentation for wider use. Clippings and excerpts from the press and literature.
I store clippings from newspapers, magazines or excerpts from literature in filing cards or quick binders, always citing the source by century, significant objects, buildings, various topics. (…) Photographs, postcards, images from the press. Stored by type, with text on the back stating what they represent and the period in which they were made.”

In the 80s, V. Hančin began to engage in more in-depth scientific research. He focused his studies on period sources from the interwar period and comprehensively mapped the events year after year.
in the city. The output of this activity is (to this day) very valuable articles, even studies with a lot of detailed information published in the aforementioned local history bulletins under the title
From the life of the city in 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939. The remaining years apparently remained in manuscript.

The last major chapter that V. Hančin opened was the mapping of personalities buried in Bratislava cemeteries. At a time when current technological advances did not yet exist, he, together with several other guides (e.g. Alexander Čunderlík), was one of the pioneers who honestly walked through individual cemeteries grave by grave and then compared the recorded names at home with available literature (encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, etc.). Although he mapped all the more significant cemeteries, he only managed to publish the trilogy Personalities Buried in the Cemetery in Slávičý údolí in local history bulletins in the years 1992–96. A few years ago I had the honor of looking into his manuscript about Martinské Cemetery. In addition to generally known personalities, he also marked (unfortunately, only by keyword) many of those who are not mentioned in today's encyclopedias. These were probably local personalities of old Bratislava, and he obtained information about them in a similar way to rumors – through oral tradition. He also published his extensive knowledge as a co-author of the travel guide Bratislava. Guide (1989). Vladimír Hančin continued to have many ideas and plans. Unfortunately, his advancing age and declining health meant that he was forced to limit them more and more. He died on May 7, 2012 in Bratislava without much public interest. Buried
is in the Slávič Valley. Unfortunately, for various reasons, his rich legacy was not preserved, thus losing Bratislava a valuable source of information.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death, the Bratislava Cultural and Information Centre inducted V. Hančina into the Hall of Fame of the course "Tourist Guide". We respectfully remember the personality who
In the second half of the 20th century, it shaped the development of guide activities and contributed to a significant increase in the interest of entire generations in the history of Bratislava.

Jan Vyhnánek

Sources:
* HANČIN, P. (son of V. Hančin): Oral information.
* HANČIN, V.: Effort to improve. In: Information bulletin of the local guides of Bratislava, 1986, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 27-33.
* HANČIN, V.: How I met Professor Vladimír Plicka. In: Vlastivedný bulletin BIS, 1995, vol. 26, no. 1, p. 14.
* HANČIN, V.: Memories. In: Vlastivedný bulletin BIS, 1995, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 16-17.
* The Circle of Friends of Bratislava. In: Vlastivedný bulletin BIS, 1995, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 4-7.