Croatian architecture

Dječji vrtić Sisak Stari, CROATIA

Sisak, October 2019.

Architecture through time

• Croatia is a wonderful country with a turbulent history that can be explored through the variety of its architecture.

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• Ancient heritage
• Early Middle Ages
• Romanesque
• Gothic
• Renaissance
• Baroque and Rococo
• 19th century
• 20th century - today

Ancient heritage

• Copper Age finds are from Vučedol culture (named after Vučedol near Vukovar). In Vučedol, people lived on hilltops with palisade walls. Houses were half buried, mostly square or circular (they were also combined in mushroom shape), with floors of burned clay and circular fireplaces.

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• The Bronze culture of the Illyrians, an ethnic group with distinct culture and art, started to organize itself in what is now Croatia. Numerous monumental sculptures are preserved, as well as walls of the citadel Nezakcij near Pula, one of numerous Istrian cities from the Iron Age.

• Greek sailors and merchants arrived on the shores of today's Croatia; there they have founded city-states. Trade cities such as Tragurion (today Trogir), Salona (Solin near Split), Epetion (today Poreč), Issa (Vis), were geometrically shaped and had villas, harbors, public buildings, temples and theatres.
• On the continent the Illyrians were organizing their centers. Their art was greatly influenced by Greek art.

• Romans subdued the Greek colonial cities in the 3rd century BC. Furthermore, the Romans subdued the Illyrians in the first century BC and transformed the citadels into urban cities. Numerous rustic villas, and new urban settlements (Verige in Brijuni, Pula and Trogir - formerly Tragurion) demonstrate the high level of Roman urbanization. There were at least thirty urban cities in Istria, Liburnia and Dalmatia with Roman citizenship (civitas).

• The best-preserved networks of Roman streets (decumanus/cardo) are those in Epetion (Poreč) and Jader (Zadar).

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• The most perfectly preserved Roman monuments are in Pola (Pula); founded in the first century dedicated to Julius Caesar. It is full of classical Roman art such as: stone walls, two city gates, two temples on the Forum, and remains of two theaters, as well as the Arch from the year 30 AD, and the temple of Augustus built in the years 2 to 14 AD, and finally the Fluvian Amphitheater (so called – Arena) from the 2nd century.

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• In the 3rd century AD, the city of Salona became the largest and most important city of Dalmatia. Near the city emperor Diocletian built Diocletian's Palace around year the 300 AD, which is the largest and most important monument of late antique architecture in the world. On its pathways, cellars, domes, mausoleums, arcades and courtyards we can trace numerous different art influences from the entire Empire.

• One of few preserved basilicas in western Europe from the time of early Byzantium is Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč from the 6th century.

Early Middle Ages�

• In the 7th century, the Croats, with other Slavs and Avars, came from Northern Europe to the region where they live today. They were open to Roman art and culture, and first of all to Christianity.
• First churches were built as royal sanctuaries, and the influence of Roman art was strongest in Dalmatia where the urbanization was thickest and there were the largest number of monuments. Gradually certain simplification, alteration of inherited forms, and even creation of original buildings appeared. Large churches are longitudinal with one or three naves like the St. Saviour at the source of the river Cetina, built in the 9th century.

• The largest and most complicated central based church from the 9th century is the church of St. Donat in Zadar. Around its circular centre – with dome above – is a nave in the shape of a ring with three apses directed to the east; that shape is followed on the second floor forming a gallery.

• The altar fences and church windows were highly decorated with string-like ornament called pleter (meaning to weave) because the strings were threaded and rethreaded through itself. Motifs were taken from Roman art (waves, three-string interlace, pentagrams, net of rhomboids etc.), but while in Roman art they only made the frame of a sculpture, in the Dark Ages it fills the entire surface.

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• Croatians used to have their own alphabet, early Croatian script – Glagolitic. Soon, the Glagolitic writings were replaced with Latin on altar fences and architraves of old-Croatian churches, but it was used until 19th century.

Romanesque

• In the 11th century, monumental cities were built along the entire Dalmatian coast. Houses were built out of stone. The most important buildings were churches. They were commonly stone built basilicas with three naves, three apses, columns, arches, arcades and wooden roofs; usually near monasteries of the Benedictine monks. St. Peter in Supetarska Draga on the island of Rab (11th century) and the Cathedral of Rab (12th century) that has a high-Romanesque bell tower, the largest in Dalmatia. It is specific with its openings, which multiply as we go higher floor by floor.

• The good examples of Romanesque sculpture are the Cathedral of St. Anastasia in Zadar (13th century) that is marked outside by a string of blind arch-niches, it also has two Rose windows with radial columns and three portals. Inside, it has three naves, slim columns that support a gallery, and flat figurative reliefs.
• Another examples are the doors on Split Cathedral and the stone portal of the Trogir Cathedral done by Radovan (c. 1240). Both are full of details from Bible and everyday life.

Gothic

• The Gothic art in the 14th century was supported by the culture of city councils, preaching orders (like the Franciscans), and knightly culture. It was also a time of paving the streets with stone, sewage canals, and communalities.
• Period of Gothic fortifications with the castles and high towers in the shape of a square prism

• Examples of Gothic in Croatian architecture:
• The Franciscan church in Pula (1285)
• Split Cathedral, Zagreb Cathedral (14th century)
• Rector’s Palace and Palace Sponza, Dubrovnik

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• The Church of St. Mark - Late Gothic with some Romanesque features

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Renaissance

• In the 15th century, Croatia was divided between three states – northern Croatia was a part of Austrian Empire, Dalmatia was under the rule of Venetian Republic (with exception of Dubrovnik), and Slavonia was under Ottoman Empire.
• The Cathedral of St.James in Šibenik, 1441. It was original in its unity of stone building and montage construction (big stone blocks, pilasters and ribs were bounded with joints and slots on them - without concrete).

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• In northwestern Croatia, divided from Austrian and Ottoman Empire, they were less focused on Renaissance, more on fortification.
• Karlovac, Veliki Tabor (pentagonal tower) and Zagreb

Baroque and Rococo

• In the 17th and 18th century, Croatia was reunited. In northern Croatia and Slavonia numerous and worthy works of Baroque art sprung out, from urban plans and large forts to churches, palaces, public buildings, and monuments.

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19th Century

20th Century - today

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COME AND SEE…

CROATIA FULL OF LIFE

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!