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Furnishing the Temple of Croatian History and Science. Art Nouveau Interiors of the Croatian National and University Library and the State Archives Building

After decades of preparation, between 1911 and 1913, the building of the Croatian National and University Library and the State Archives was built in the centre of the Croatian capital Zagreb. The local architect, educated in Karlsruhe, Rudolf Lubynski, designed it. It is considered the most important example of Art Nouveau in Croatian public architecture. The interiors of the building remained almost completely preserved and have been partly restored recently. The building was erected by the funds of the Croatian government, so its iconographic program, which will be the topic of this presentation, reflects the political views of the ruling circles, especially of the then Croatian Ban (a sort of prime minister) Nikola Tomašić and the first Croatian Art Historian Isidor Kršnjavi. Sculptures and paintings in the interior and on the façades emphasize on the one hand the role of the building as a temple of Croatian history, and on the other, its role as the universal temple of knowledge. Above the doors that lead to the main rooms of the building, paintings that show crucial topoi of Croatian cultural and political history (Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Jajce, Senj and Đakovo) were inserted. They represent a kind of political message about the boundaries of the space considered Croatian. The main reading room contains topics that emphasize the universality of knowledge (representations of philosophers and of antique, medieval, and contemporary science), and the particularities of Croatian cultural history (Vlaho Bukovac’s painting Development of Croatian Culture). Finally, small reading room, intended for university professors, contains compositions featuring the Artes Liberales and Scientiae Naturales – Scientiae Scholasticae, that emphasize that the building serves to the arts, humanities and (natural) sciences. The leitmotif that permeates the iconographic program of the entire building is an owl, a symbol of the Greek goddess of Athena, and as such a symbol of knowledge and wisdom, which has been skilfully incorporated into many architectural elements of the building.

Zagreb, National and University Library and State Archives Building, Art Nouveau

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