Original scientific paper
The Croatian Home in Split — Impact of an Architectural Style
Tomislav Bosnić
orcid.org/0000-0003-0877-8645
; Institut za povijest umjetnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Toward the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century, constituent nations of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy erected numerous cultural institutions universally referred to as National Houses. The purpose of these institutions was the strengthening of national identity, which was often a cause for conflict in multiethnic communities, or rather a call for resistance for the part of the community that espoused another national identity. A slew of examples on the territory of today’s Czechia and Slovenia covered in the paper testify that adherents of other national identities created a counterbalance to such efforts by erecting their own National Houses. The Croatian Home in Split is equivalent to this type of institution; its spaces were intended to bolster the Croatian national spirit through the activity of various associations, yet the Home was built only in 1908, which chronologically situates it after significant political tensions between the pro-Italian autonomists and the pro-Croatian nationalists that culminated in 1882. Architect Kamilo Tončić decided to build the Home in the style of the Vienna Secession. Such a decision, however, was interpreted by a part of the population as running counter to their fight for national sovereignty. The article explains the differences in political circumstances of the construction of the Croatian Home in Split and other National Houses in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and contextualises the Croatian Home in Split within the discourse that followed the choice of architectural style for other National Houses in Austria-Hungary. It proposes a thesis that defines Tončić’s choice of style as a strategic choice whose primary goal was the introduction of contemporary artistic tendencies into a local environment, and the elevation of national art and craft.
Keywords
Croatian Home, National House, National Home, Vereinshäuser, Split, Kamilo Tončić, Vienna Secession
Hrčak ID:
317873
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2023.
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