Mate Bencic Burisov (Matteo Benci) was born in the village Bencici near Zminj (Gimino) in 1919.

There are few other Bencici villages in Istria near Hum and Motovun. The area where he was born is also named Cere, while my grandmother, Milka Bencic Druzetic Kalandricova (Emilia Drosetti), was born in the village Batlug in 1922 nearby Gracisce (Gallignana).

Both villages are surrounded with beautiful countryside.

My mother parents were from the central Istria, while my fathers’ parents Ljubivoje and Krinka Bozovic (Filipovic) were from Sumadija (Serbia). My father was a pilot and for service he was transferred to Pula. In Pula he met my mother and they started to build our home where Smrikva Bowl is held today. 

It is worth noting that in central Istria almost every village is named after the families that live in it, so although the surnames of the families may be the same in the village often they are not direct relatives.

Over the centuries people used to name families with the same surname differently in order to distinguish themselves and recently I learned that my grandfather Mate Bencic was also named Burisov. In his village Bencici there were other popular surnames like: Lijakovi, Stipanovi, Kosici, Salestrovi, Zvanetovi, Bozetovi, Valentinovi, Muhinovi and Mackinovi.

A similar story happened in my grandmother’s village and their family’s popular surname was Kalandricova that derives from the name of the village where the grandmother of my grandmother was born. I learned this story recently from the brother of my grandmother and from Branko Bencic Lijakov that has his roots from the same village as my grandfather.

My grandfather Mate grew up without mother. He was a very little child when he lost his mother and in 1924 he was sent by his father to serve as shepherd in Stinjan, in Hrelja family.

Hrelja family owned all the land where the new Stinjan has developed over the last decades.

This was the first contact for Mate with Smrikve. At the time he did not think about buying Smrikve one day. He liked Stinjan but he never thought that he would settle down with his family there.

In 1936 Mate met Milka and fell in love with her. A few years later on August 15th 1940 they married. They built their first home in Batlug, in Milka’s parents’ house, and later on they built their second home in Bencici where Mate was born.

Between 1941 and 1951 they bore the gift of five children that came to represent the happiness of their lives. Mate worked as miner before and after the Second World War and he reached his pension in the mining industry.

Mate was not only the miner but with his wife Milka they were also agricultural entrepreneurs and always believed in a better future. This was the education they tried to transmit to their children.

In 1956 their older son started high school and he had to move to Pula from Bencici. During that year Mate and Milka realised that Mate’s salary was insufficient to cover high school costs for the older son and they knew that knowledge was important for the future of their children. This was the reason why, in 1957, they decided to move to Pula to be closer to the schools.

In 1957 Mate went for few weekends around Pula to search for a place where he could move his family. He decided to start the search from Stinjan were he served as a child. He liked Stinjan and he had friends there.

He found Smrikve on sale and decided to buy it. In October 1957 Mate and his family left a new home they had made in Bencici and moved into an old and poor place that Smrikve was at the time. There was only one poor and small building on the site.