Original scientific paper
Stara Gradiška in the 18th century
Josip Kljajić
; Hrvatski institut za povijest; podružnica Slavonija, Srijem i Baranja
Abstract
This study deals with fortifications and urban development of the Slavonian Sava river settlement of Stara Gradiška in the 18 century. It includes an analysis of building plans and cartographic material, and interpretations of records and existing literature. At the end of the 17 and the beginning of the 18 century, this portion of the Sava river valley was the center stage of the confrontation between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires. As the Sava was a political border between the two superpowers, the Slavonian bank was well protected by individual towers ("čardaks") and fortresses.
The Treaty of Srijemski Karlovci (1699) allowed for repairing old existing fortresses, but it forbade building new ones. The fortress of Stara Gradiška — a square fort ("kaštel") and the triangular walls around the settlement were not up to date any more, but they kept being repaired and maintained, due to the lack of funds, for another quarter of a century. The building of a new fortress was initiated in 1725. The plan from that year provides for three urban development phases important for understanding how the old pre-Ottoman building grew into a Baroque fortress. The old urban core was only partially included into the newly designed fortress. A completely new, more spacious fortress was designed, resulting in a thorough urban reconstruction of Stara Gradiška.
The massive fortress ramparts were built on a new, larger scale and they cut into the urban texture of the town. This called for destruction of many homes and other buildings. The Baroque urban scheme completely replaced the earlier building heritage. Thanks to a thorough reconstruction in the 1760ties, Stara Gradiška acquired new urban elements: public buildings, the city magistrate office, new streets system, a new city square, new churches (Catholic and Orthodox), a Franciscan monastery, and a new fortification ring with five gates.
The military engineers had little understanding for the needs of the civil population, and they constantly tried to push the civilians out of the fortress. Thanks to the "Eastern Policy" of Joseph II, the military was given an opportunity to move out the entire civilian population, and to turn the fortress exclusively to soldiers.
Whereas in Europe and elsewhere in the World small cities and semi-urban agglomerations underwent their life crises due to the population structure changes caused by the Industrial Revolution, Stara Gradiška was emptied of its civilian population by a decision of the Habsburg military administration at the end of the 18 century. For the city it was a social and urban catastrophe, from which it never recovered. Stara Gradiška was both literally and symbolically turned from a civilian settlement into a "military fortress." By elimination of urban functions and by expulsion of the civilians, it was turned into barracks surrounded by walls, and, later, into a military prison.
The undemocratic regimes of the 20 century used the fortress of Stara Gradiška as a civilian prison — primarily for political dissidents, but also for other categories of inmates. In the course of the 19 and the 20 century (1920—1950, 1991—1995) the entire architectural heritage was cancelled out either by new construction or by systematic destruction of historic military, civilian, or religious buildings.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
166735
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2003.
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