engleski

Politics, Photography and Architecture – The First Viennese University Trip (Erste Wiener Universitätsreise) and Dalmatian Monuments

At the very end of the “long 19th century”, between 22 March and 1 April 1910, the University of Vienna organized its first study trip to the eastern Adriatic coast, with Dalmatia as its main focal point. Although this trip has been partially discussed in previous studies, among the still unpublished material remains a large album of photographs taken during the trip, preserved in the Archives of the University of Vienna. The trip was organized at the incentive of the then rector of the Viennese University Heinrich Swoboda, and included a total of 300 participants. The fact that precisely the eastern coast of the Adriatic was chosen as the trip’s destination can, at least partially, be explained through political circumstances. In the growingly unstable political situation on the Balkans, the Austrian government viewed the trip (as well as many other events such as the Adria-Ausstellung held in Vienna in 1913) as a possibility to demonstrate their interest in coastal provinces. Photographs reveal that the trip’s destination was the entire Austrian coast, from Aquileia and Grado in the north, Poreč and Pula in Istria, all the way to Dubrovnik and Boka Kotorska in the south, as well as the inland town of Mostar. Most of the trip was dedicated to Dalmatia (Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Vis, Lokrum). It prompted the publication of an edited volume with essays by key art historians (such as Max Dvořak and Josef Strzygowski) and other scholars active at the University of Vienna in that period. Photographs in the album represent a precious testimony of the state of numerous Dalmatian monuments at the beginning of the 20th century, but also of the interventions and restorations then in progress. The aim of the paper is to focus on the political background of the organization of this trip, its participants, as well as the contents of the album itself.

Vienna; Dalmatia; Photography; Bruno Reiffenstein

nije evidentirano