15/06/2023
For eight years she worked as an ethnologist at the Goriška Museum, after which she spent several years at Hit d.d. as the head of the corporate communications department, where she also developed programmes in the area of culture and tourism. Many of us know her as Katja from the Association of Rose Lovers of Goriška, who greets us every spring at the Rosarium in Kostanjevica and knows how to tell us interesting stories about roses, their origin, names and beneficial effects. Despite the bad and unpredictable weather this year, the Rosarium recorded a high attendance of 10,000 people. Visitors come from all over the world to see the plants and, above all, to smell the delicate fragrance of Bourbon roses. The Rosarium houses about 70 species and is one of the largest Bourbon rosariums in Europe, second only to the Paris Rosarium. "We want Nova Gorica to become a true city of roses, and we want this to be seen at first sight," says the Association, referring to the city entrances and the many other green spaces that could be decorated with roses, or to the rose garden of Villa Bartolomei in Solkan, which would become even more noble with the addition of roses. For this very park they have designed a planting of Bourbon roses, which would feature their older predecessors and modern roses. The European Capital of Culture 2025 can already be celebrated with a new Rosarium in Solkan. In addition, other ideas are maturing in Katja Kogej's head that have to do with roses and now also with the European Capital of Culture, which she sees as a great opportunity. For this occasion, she proposes to nominate the Rose of the two cities of Nova Gorica and Gorizia. She is already designing a rose path that would wind from the castle in Ozeljan to the monastery in Rožac, and soon afterwards be extended to Budanj and Aiello, where there are two large rose nurseries. Horticulture adds a culinary and spa dimension, of which rose ice cream, rose menus or massages with aromatic rose oil have already been realised by Hit. "The aromatherapeutic properties of roses are extraordinary," says Katja Kogej, who defended her thesis on the subject at the School of Evolutionary Naturopathy in Brussels. She tells us that the scent of roses not only helps with menopausal symptoms, but also affects hormonal balance in general, sleep dynamics, and concentration and memory. And much more. When picking recently in Vedrijan, the first damask plantation in Goriška, all the pickers were particularly taken with the beneficial scent and the rose cake. They called this day "a day among the Damask roses". Because so many things can be made from roses. Hydrolate, syrup, jam, liqueur, in Vedrijan the first rose brandy was distilled, and in Dornberk a rose-flavoured wine is produced, which is unique and cries out for further synergy with rose wine. All these can also be excellent products or souvenirs that visitors to our city, towns and villages will be happy to take home, says Katja Kogej, who has long been weaving and linking stories between culture, art, tourism and, to a lesser extent, entrepreneurship in this area.
