Original scientific paper
Summary: The island of Krk and its cultural heritage in the travel journal of Sir Thomas Graham Jackson from the end of the 19th century (Part I)
Juraj Lokmer
Abstract
British architect, historian, art scholar and writer Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1835-1924), while travelling in the years 1882, 1884 and 1885 along the eastern shores of the Adriatic from Grado and Aquileia down to Boka Kotorska and Cetinje, described with documentary precision in words and pictures the people and places seen, recorded architectural monuments, historic events and natural phenomena. In 1885 he was staying on the island and in the town of Krk. He published the visit’s impressions in his now standard work: Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria with Cetigne in Montenegro and the Island of Grado, printed in Oxford in 1887 in three parts (books). In the present paper the autor gives a translation of Jackson’s description of the town and island with relevant commentaries, explanations and pictorial materials intended to elucidate the whole context of the travel journal. Jackson arrives at Krk from the island of Cres with a small sailing vessel into the bay of St. Fosca. From there he is transported on board of a wagon to the town of Krk. Jackson was thrilled and captivated by the town. The description of the island and town of Krk given by Jackson is splendid, filled with historical data, judgments on events of the past, chronological determination and artistic value of the architecture and historic objects, with lyrical, sometimes even grotesquely biting descriptions of people and landscapes, with oppinions and judgments unmistakably shaped and coloured by the political background and world view of his social class and his homeland. Jackson’s descriptions and depictions reflect not only his excitement about the churches, monasteries, the town’s citadel, walls and works of art, but also his enthusiasm for the history of Krk as a whole, especially for the townspeople of Krk with their Romance, Latin culture making them thus dominant in comparison with the rural population outside the city walls. Indeed, he does not fail to detect the island’s peculiarity: the Old Church Slawonic language and Glagolitic script in the worship. He recognizes that liturgical coexistence of Slawic and Latin culture. He is interested also in the political conditions in the past as well as in the time of his stay on Krk and for that purpose he draws primarily on the Venetian sources. A rather broad description of the Frangipani family and its rule over the island is added too. He uses well-known sources and while nothing new is said or shown, still he manages to refresh and re-utilize the sources from which he takes his data (Antonio Vinciguerra). He makes a trip to Košljun, describes the Franciscan church and the monastery. There is a mention of Baška too and on Stara Baška judgments are made based on his reliable sources (Cubich, Vassilich etc.). In Vrbnik he waits for a ship to Rijeka. He is thrilled about the pastoral scenery of an autumnal grape harvest and the loading of the grapes into ships, but als surprised at Vrbnik’s layout and appearance. At the end, let down by the official ship connection, he leaves the island on board of a rented rowing boat arriving at the nearby Selce. Having spent the night there, the next day he catches a ship to Rijeka. His descriptions, the historical-political additions dismissed, contain valuable data and first-hand accounts about the island, the people and the living conditions of the fin de siecle Krk as seen and interpreted through the eyes of others, i. e. foreigners. They represent documents, which, by the authority of Jackson’s remarkable personality, came to shape the public oppinion of the English-speaking world. Today they may seem curious, but those views and sentiments had influenced considerably the political decisions of the Anglo-Saxon countries, primarily Great Britain at the end of the 19th and during the 20th century, that caused a lot of suffering and distress for the inhabitants of this island, especially after the WWI and during the WWII. The present paper offers an insight into the epoch and the Zeitgeist of Jackson’s account making thus possible for us to better understand both the specific moment and the historical perspective of Jackson’s work and his living and non-living protagonists. Likewise, one gets a broader horizon of understanding and valuating the island’s cultural heritage, which leads to a better outlook over the future of this Croatian island and town of Krk – "Splendidissima civitas Curictarum".
Keywords
travel journal; island of Krk; Frangipani; Thomas Graham Jackson
Hrčak ID:
284650
URI
Publication date:
7.7.2013.
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