At the Iran Night Mate Šimunović Festival in Vorgoras, Croatia, which was dedicated to Iran this year, the narrations of this famous Croatian tourist about his journey and observations during his trip to Iran were reconstructed and read by Ivan Jogi, the author of the book “Iran Now.”
According to ISNA Mate Šimunović Festival was held on Sunday night in the old castle of Vergoras as the birthplace of Mate, Ivan Jugic. By Looking at the pictures and texts that Mate Šimunović took and wrote while traveling to different parts of Iran in his leather notebook as “Journey to the Ancient Land,” the new pictures reminded Ivan Jugic of the same areas. Ivan Jugic narrated the historical features and lifestyles of the people of different regions of our country and answered the questions of the audience.
He said: “Unfortunately, the unique charms of Iranian land and culture have not yet been well reflected for Western audiences, and such programs show that throughout history, tourists like Mate Šimunović, who sought to discover the historical lands and culture of their nations, have paid special attention to Iran.”
Serving Iranian food and performing traditional music, along with reciting selected Iranian poems in Croatian, introduced the participants to the culture of our country.
Šimunović, a famous Croatian tourist, was born in 1900 in the city of Vergoras in southeastern Croatia and traveled to 70 countries by boat, bicycle, and on foot for 19 years and traveled 360,000 km, leaving notes of his observations. Mate visited different parts of Iran in 1937 and was on his way, and pictures of this trip are also available in his exclusive album in Vorgoras.
Ivan Jugic, the author of the recently published second edition of Iran Now, is a Croatian citizen living in Iran and working in the tourism sector. There has been news about this for so long.