Review article

https://doi.org/10.59323/k.16.1.10

Károly Khuen-Héderváry and Izidor Kršnjavi in Older and Recent Croatian Historiography

Antonio Tomić orcid.org/0009-0002-6884-6953 ; Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Károly Khuen-Héderváry was a Hungarian count raised on his family’s estate in the Croatian village of Nuštar, who served as the Croatian ban between 1883 and 1903. Izidor Kršnjavi was a painter, art historian, writer, translator and most importanly Khuen-Héderváry’s minister for religious affairs and education. Both of them influenced the Croatian life at the end of the 19th century. Khuen-Héderváry was responsible for the authoritative mode of government, press censorship, political violence, corruption and Hungarianization, but also for modernization, economic and cultural development. Kršnjavi modernized education, introduced physical and musical education, renovated schools, built numerous educational and cultural buildings (many of which today stand as symbols of Zagreb and the entire country) and encouraged cultural and scientific development. Older Croatian historiography (like Ferdo Šišić or Angelo Gjurski) portrayed Khuen-Héderváry only in negative ways, not even mentioning his minister Kršnjavi. That concept changed in the 1980s and modern Croatian historiography depicts both the positive and negative sides of his reign, although the positive things are more attributable to Kršnjavi.

Keywords

Károly Khuen-Héderváry; Izidor Kršnjavi; end of the 19th century; old and new Croatian historiography

Hrčak ID:

330136

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/330136

Publication date:

14.4.2025.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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