Croatian Architecture - 19th Century

19th Century

In Austrian countries on the beginning of 19th century (to which Croatia belonged than) building in Classicistic Manner prevailed. In Croatia most prominent architect was Bartol Felbinger who also build City Hall in Samobor (1826) and Januševac Castle near Zagreb.

Romantic movement in Croatia was sentimental, gentle and subtle – real image of bourgeoisie's humble and modest virtues. In architecture there were simple decorations made of shallow arch like niches around windows.

Historicism is marked with building three large churches: neo-Romanesque cathedral in Đakovo (K. Roesner and F. Schmidt, 1882), monumental parish church of St Peter and Paul in Osijek (1898) and neo-gothic rebuilding of Zagreb cathedral with glazed roof tiles and 105 m tall towers (Herman Bolle, 1880–1902). At the end of 19th century Herman Bolle undertook one of the largest projects of European historicism – half-kilometer long neo-renaissance arcade with twenty domes on Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj.

At the same time the cities in Croatia got important urban makeover: Karlovac transformed its renaissance bastions into a parkway that surrounds entire old town (just like "Vienna Ring" ), while coastal cities (Trogir, Zadar, Pula, Pag and Šibenik) take down their walls and opened to the sea. But whit size and importance the urban regulation of Downtown Zagreb (largely the work of Milan Lenuzzio, 1860–1880) is revolutionary. Between Zagreb's longest street – Ilica, and new railway the new geometrical city was built with large public and social buildings like neo-renaissance building of Croatian Academy of Science and Art (HAZU, F. Scmidt, 1884), neo-baroque Croatian National Theater (HNK, H. Helmer and F. Fellner, 1895), and to that date very modern Art Pavilion (1898) with montage construction of steel and glass – Croatian "Crystal Palace", and finally the masterpiece of Art Nouveau – The National Library (Lubinski, finished in 1912). This urban plan is bounded with series of parks and parkways decorated with numerous fountains, sculptures, avenues and gardens (known as "Green Horseshoe") making Zagreb one of first cities build according to new European art theory of "city as a work of art".

Pseudo building that emphasizes all three visual arts is former building of Ministry of Prayer and Education in Zagreb (H. Bolle, 1895). Alongside with rooms in Pompeii style and renaissance cabinet, the large neo-baroque "Golden Hall" was painted with historic compositions. "The Golden Hall" becomes unified monument of its age, one of few in Europe.