Negotino, a museum that spans generations

Conceived by Dionis Pashlakov, the project of a museum of vintage cars in Negotino is carried on by his sons and wife. An idea that, for the Pashlakov family, combines passion for the past and a vision of the future

In the town of Negotino, North Macedonia, a family runs the only private museum of vintage cars in the country. The project, conceived about twenty years ago by Dionis Pashlakov (1948-2020), is carried on by his sons and wife.

Over the course of two decades, Dionis has purchased over a hundred old cars and placed them on his property on the outskirts of Negotino. Over the years, some of these cars have been restored and placed in the building temporarily used as museum, which also houses about fifty motorcycles, a small airplane-glider and other vintage items.

In December 2024, four years after the death of Dionis, his sons Dimitar and Kiril, together with their mother Grozdanka, decided to make Dionis’ dream come true and started to build a new building with the idea of establishing a larger museum that could satisfy all the necessary requirements.

The first step was to creat and register their own vintage car club: the idea is that when new museum opens, they will enable visits with entrance fees for visitors, offer various types of souvenirs, as well as sweets. The artisanal production of sweets is the main activity od Grozdanka. In this way, they will try to make the museum self-sustaining.

"Some cars are inside the building, others are outside, some are uncovered, and some are being restored piece by piece to be representative examples for the museum. We work as much as we can with the cars, because we also run a family business producing cakes and pastries. That is how we finance the museum", explain the members of the Pashlakov family.

Dionis Pashlakov was a high school biology teacher, but he was also passionate about technology and very interested in all motor vehicles - from motorcycles, cars and tanks to airplanes.

The documentary Avec l'amour, the directorial debut of one of his former students, Ilija Cvetkovski, based on a screenplay by the famous Macedonian documentary filmmaker Atanas Georgiev, is dedicated to the life of Dionis and his passion for collecting historic cars.

The family recalls that filming began in 2010-2011 and that there were cameras occasionally in their lives for the next five to six years. The film premiered in 2017.

It all started in 2000, when the family was returning from a vacation in the town of Ohrid. While passing through the village of Carev Dvor, Dionis saw 7-8 old cars in one place: he liked them and bought them all. So he started collecting and restoring classic vehicles in order to achieve his life goal: a museum of vintage cars.

His sons say that the cars they own are a cultural and historical heritage of the country.

"These vehicles represent the history of Macedonia, almost all of them have traveled its roads. Such cars are no longer on the roads, and can only be seen in our museum. We have a vehicle in which the former communist politician Lazar Kolishevski drove, a vehicle that was once used as an ambulance in the city of Resen and many other gems”, says Dimitar.

He recalls that the former ambassador of the United Kingdom in Skopje, Rachel Galloway, also donated a vehicle to them. When Dionis retired in 2012, he received a Volkswagen Beetle as a gift from his students. “My father cried on the day he got this car”, says Dimitar.

In the documentary “Avec l’amour” there are several scenes in which his wife Grozdanka reproaches Dionis for spending a lot of money on the cars, but in the end she decides to support him in buying a new car.

In a television report titled “The Dream of Dionis Pashlakov” from 2018, the collector explained what these cars meant to him.

“It’s nice to sit inside. I went back to the time when they were made. Today’s cars are beautiful, practical, but they have no soul, no charm. This car seems to ‘speak’ to me, it thanks me for saving it, I feel connected to it as if we were one soul”, said Dionis sitting in one of the restored cars.

His sons Kiril and Dimitar are determined not to interrupt their father’s life and generational project and to continue to work to make the Museum of Oldtimers a recognizable landmark in their small town of just over ten thousand of inhabitants.

"Cars have a huge meaning for us, for someone from the outside, it is not like that. We were often advised to sell them and buy a plane. Everyone looks at these things differently. We do not plan to get rich; we want to keep a family mark in this materialistic time. My father also received several offers to sell his cars. But what would he do without them? He found peace in that. When he retired in 2012, he dedicated himself full time to this work," says Kiril.

Dionis sought help from state and local institutions in various ways, but he never received any support. Most of the vehicles are his favorite brands such as Opel, Peugeot, Zastava 750, Citroen, Volkswagen.

According to the Pashlakov family, in 2003 the first exhibition of vintage cars in the country was held in Negotino, organised by Dionis