Quaderni, Vol. XXXVII No. 1, 2026.
Original scientific paper
VLADIMIR GORTAN’S MEMORIAL GRAVE: AN ABSTRACT MONUMENT AMIDSTS THE TRIESTE CRISIS
Emil Jurcan
; Institut za povijest umjetnosti - Zagreb
Abstract
In 1953, Rijeka based architects Zdenko Kolacio and Zdenko Sila designed a
memorial grave to honour Vladimir Gortan. Conceived as an abstract tectonic
composition, the memorial built at the foot of the village of Beram near Pazin was
inaugurated in June 1953 in the presence of Josip Broz Tito at one of the mass
rallies organised by Yugoslav authorities during the Trieste Crisis. It was one of the
first abstract monuments in Yugoslavia and beyond since abstract art faced heavy
scepticism from both the Eastern and the Western Bloc. The paper outlines the
genesis of Gortan’s memorial grave within the context of contemporary aesthetic
debates and links its design to the specific approach to monumental sculpture
developed in Ljubljana by architect Jože Plečnik. The paper argues that abstract art
that emerged from architectural tradition found material expression in this piece of
art in order to serve to the wider cultural and political agenda of appropriation of
central Istria, the then new state territory of Yugoslavia.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
353242
URI
Publication date:
12.11.2026.
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