[SLO] 2. Poglavje: Hotel Paar, gostilne, trgovine …
As the number of visitors to Jesenice increased with the construction of the railway, several restaurants, inns and hotels opened near the station. Among them was the Paar Hotel, named after the businessman Franz Paar. It was located opposite the railway station. It was destroyed on 1 March 1945 during the Allied bombing of Jesenice.
The Paar Hotel was deemed a very prestigious one. It was known for its soda water. Not far away was the butcher’s. In autumn, walnuts were bought at the hotel, and in winter there was an ice rink nearby. A local resident, Florijan Višnar, remembers his path to school that took him from Murova past the Paar Hotel:
“If I had the money, I bought a large bread roll for one crown in the bakery near Poženel (later the Korotan Hotel) on my way to school. Otherwise, I had my lunch, a piece of bread and an apple, in a small “sack”. When I had a whole dinar, which wasn’t often, I bought a bread roll with cooked ham at the butcher’s in Paar. That was a really special occasion for me.”
Franz Paar was born in 1887 in Šmihel near Velikovec in Carinthia. He was very ambitious, dealing in transportation and supplying soda water to Jesenice inns. Before the beginning of World War 2, he moved to Bled where he produced spices and flavourings. He was also the mayor of Bled. During the war, he helped rescue prisoners of war, which led to his imprisonment in 1946. However, his entrepreneurial knowledge and experience helped him to an early release and took him to Portorož, where he left a great mark in establishing the Droga Portorož company. He died in 1969. He is buried in cemetery in Piran.
