Скачать или смотреть Blacksmith makes cannons as a lasting legacy of dying craft

(22 May 2017) LEADIN:
One of the last remaining blacksmiths in Bosnia is crafting traditional cannons for distribution over the country in an attempt to leave a legacy of his craft behind him.
The cannons will sound each day during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to notify worshippers that it is time to break their daily fast.
STORYLINE:
Day after day Dursum Halilovic heads down to his shop in Bosanska Otoka to forge axes, knives and wheels to make traditional horse-drawn carriages.
The carriages are still in use in some parts of Bosnia for the amusement of tourists and children.
The hammer and anvil have been Halilovic's livelihood ever since he was a little boy.
He was raised in a family of blacksmiths and apprenticed under his father until he was good enough to inherit the workshop that had been started by his forefathers over two centuries ago.
Blacksmith and wheel-making shops like his used to be part and parcel of life in Bosnia. They started closing down a few decades ago as the local population abandoned agricultural lifestyles and no longer needed someone to repair ploughs or make horse shoes and farming implements by hand.
Halilovic stubbornly kept his shop open becoming the last blacksmith in the northwestern corner of the country.
"I learned the trade from my father while I was still a child, he provided me with a job for life, but (once I am gone) there will be no one to carry on. Over two hundred years of our blacksmithing tradition (will end)," he says.
The tenacious 63-year-old decided to leave behind something that will remind future generations of his family workshop and his dying trade.
He chose to go with a bang - reviving the forgotten art of making wooden cannons.
He makes the cannon parts by hand. Hammering the metal barrel, enclosing it with wood and attaching it to wheels is a painstaking job that takes over a month per cannon.
"These cannons are what will remain (after I am gone). They are of a high quality and will last for a long time in every corner (of Bosnia). I've sent some of them to places 500 kilometres away from here."
So far, Halilovic has made 7 cannons, sending them to historic sites around the country to be used as decoration, but also to fire out a round each day during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to notify worshippers that it is time to break their daily fast.

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