People tend to collect various items and objects during their lives, becoming sentimentally attached to them later on. At some point, all of us have collected napkins, posters, or other items depending on our interests. However, our fellow citizen from the village of Bođani, Franja Tot, also known as Cica, can boast of a very rare hobby and a valuable treasury of iron objects, primarily axes. He owns more than 2,000 axes, over 1,000 hammers - the smallest of all weighs about 100 grams and the heaviest up to 15 kilograms, as well as more than 70 mills and irons.
This charming local patriot began collecting these objects about fifteen years ago and has now created a unique museum on his own property.
Franja says he most often finds these exhibits at fairs and local waste disposal sites, but he also frequently receives unique items as gifts from fellow citizens, who know he is a passionate collector.
“Some people love fishing, others cycling, and I love “hunting” for old axes and other objects. I counted them up to a thousand; when I passed that number, I stopped counting. I began collecting fifteen years ago. Everyone knows what I do, and they brought me items not only from Vojvodina but from all over Serbia. Many items were brought to me by Roma people because they know I appreciate these unique exhibits, which rarely interest anyone else,” Cica says proudly.
Franja admits that when he finds an exhibit he still does not have in his collection, he is willing to pay a higher price just to enrich his impressive shelves and displays even more.
“I recently acquired an electric forging hammer, an unusual German grain grinder, and the oldest axe I own dates back to 1902, making it 122 years old. Had it not come to my museum, it would most likely have ended up in a melting facility, where it would have been destroyed. I also have broad axes (called “bradvine”), used by villagers to shape beams when building houses. They have a slightly curved angle so the worker wouldn’t injure their hands. Today, very few blacksmiths would know how to make a good axe. In fifteen years of collecting, I managed to find ten right-handed ones and only one left-handed axe,” Tot explained.
Our fellow citizen is proud that his museum has become known not only in nearby places in Vojvodina, but throughout Serbia and even abroad, because tourist groups from Slovenia, Croatia, and most often from all over the former Yugoslavia visit him. He plans to keep collecting unique items for as long as his health allows, and when the time comes, he hopes to pass this extraordinary and beautiful hobby on to younger generations.