Original scientific paper
The Neo-Baroque palace of Dr. Milan Maksimović in Osijek
Dragan Damjanović
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Abstract
The Neo-Baroque palace of Dr. Milan Maksimović is one of the most important representative residential buildings of Late Historicism in Osijek. Dr. Maksimović, administrator of the Dalj estate of the Serb Bishopric of Srijemski Karlovci, was a son-in-law of the Serb Patriarch Georgije Branković. Thepa lace was meant as one of patriarchal residences. It was designed by Vladimir Nikolić, a Vienna schooled architect from Srijemski Karlovci, between 1895 and 1897. The site supervisor was the Osijek contractor, Wilhelm Carl Hofbauer, and most of the work was carried out by local masters: furniture came from the factory of Povischil and Kaiser, gardening was done by Adolf Chwoika. The tall ground-floor building is located at the end of the block surrounded by Desatičina, Kolodvorska and Sunčana streets, and by Žitni square. Today, this is the very center of the city, but when the palace was built it was a rim zone, more precisely, the edge of the Upper Town, the western section of the city experiencing powerful growth. The facade represents probably the best High Historicism solution in the residential architecture of Osijek. The walls are highly articulated, there is a distinguished colonnaded Tuscan porch, a marble staircase, a richly decorated iron fence, and a playful silhouette with mansards and domes. The building does not stand out through its height (it is a high groundfloor structure) but through the size of the site which was expected to hold four building. The interior was as rich as the exterior. The most representative area was, according to the 19 century urban residence practice, a salon on Desatičina street side, richly adorned by NeoBaroque stuccos, preserved until today.
The construction of the building took relatively long, due to a court process initiated by Maksimović's first neighbor in Kolodvorska street, builder Franz Wybiral, who was not satisfied with the fact that only half of the front would be build toward that street leaving the firewall of his own building visible. Although such a design was against the law, and against the 1893 building code of Osijek, thanks to his connections among the ruling hierarchy in the County of Virovitica (Count Teodor Pejačević), and the state government itself (Ban Khuen-Hedervary), the palace was completed along the controversial design, In addition to the suit by his first neighbor, Maksimović faced another hurdle, the positioning of the southern facade, which, at first, was meant to follow the direction of the road from Desatičina street to the Fortress, resulting in an oblique positioning versus the other facades on the northern side of the street. The position of the facade was eventually straightened out. This controversy shows that within the Osijek city administration a generation of engineers was coming to fore who clearly understood that the growth of the city should follow certain urban design principles.
The building of the Maksimović Palace marks the beginning of an intensive building in the area of the western glacis of the Fortress, and also an introduction to fast development of one of the most representative of Osijek's streets, Kolodvorska (Railway) street. As elsewhere in Croatia and around the world in the period between the late 19 century and the First World War, the streets and squares leading up to the railway stations, so also the Osijek Kolodvorska was about to turn into one oft he most developed areas of the city.
Keywords
Osijek; residential architecture; palace of Milan Maksimović; historicism; architect Vladimir Nikolić
Hrčak ID:
148737
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2005.
Visits: 1.699 *