{"id":14555,"date":"2020-09-21T15:46:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T13:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.p-portal.net\/?p=14555"},"modified":"2021-07-15T10:47:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:47:26","slug":"hristofor-stankovic-the-man-who-gifted-zagreb-with-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/p-portal.net\/en\/hristofor-stankovic-the-man-who-gifted-zagreb-with-theatre","title":{"rendered":"Hristofor Stankovi\u0107 \u2013 the Man Who Gifted Zagreb with Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can we imagine Zagreb in the mid-nineteenth century? Probably only with difficulty. Our memories, especially those of the younger generation, hardly reach as far as the last years of the twentieth century. Besides, the notion of memory is no longer an important category \u2013 we live today. Our city from one hundred and seventy years ago must seem to us almost prehistoric, although buildings and many other details in apartments, streets and Zagreb public squares from that time can be seen around us every day. Do we even wonder who the people who lived in those houses were, how they dressed, where they went out, how they behaved, if they, for example, loved the theatre? If we dive for a moment into the mists of this past, we find that in 1837 Zagreb had 15,155 inhabitants, the first Zagreb reading room and a music school with a three-year programme were opened, and the first newspaper in the Kajkavian and Shtokavian dialect was published through the efforts of members of the Illyrian movement. A shooting range in Tu\u0161kanac and the park in Maksimir were opened, and the city’s mail coach began operating, delivering mail to Vienna, Pest, Dalmatia and Vojvodina. In Amadeo’s palace in Demetrova Street, in \u201cthe house with the dance hall\u201d, theatre plays took place. These plays did not enjoy a very high reputation because they were performed by travelling theatre companies of dubious quality and especially because the people of Zagreb wanted to see plays in their own language instead of in German. Thanks in part to merchants, craftsmen and the few members of the intelligentsia, but especially the famous Edict of Tolerance<\/em> issued by the Austrian emperor Joseph II at the end of the 18th century, Zagreb gradually became what we would call a multicultural, urban environment, where balls, concerts and fine art became the main form of entertainment. The famous Balkanologist Josef Matl<\/strong> wrote of these important changes: \u201cFor South Slavs, romanticism actually represents renaissance and a national and cultural rebirth within their cultural development as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patriot and Benefactor<\/h2>\n

This important imperial edict on tolerance meant that different groups of people, including the Orthodox, i.e. Serbian population, could settle in Zagreb and that these settlers could in good faith consider themselves equal citizens of the royal city of Zagreb. There were not many Serbian citizens of Zagreb in the mid-nineteenth century \u2013 maybe a few hundred families \u2013 but their community was valued, important and had a good reputation in the city. It is stated in the book Serbs in Zagreb<\/em> by Dejan Medakovi\u0107<\/strong> that the respect that the members of the Serbian community enjoyed among the citizens of Zagreb \u201cwas won through universally accepted civic virtues, reputation and esteem\u201d. One illustrious representative of the community was Zemun-born Hristofor Stankovi\u0107, merchant, president of the Zagreb Orthodox Parish and a notable person in Zagreb of that time.<\/p>\n

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Portrait of Hristofor Stankovi\u0107, Zagreb City Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1834 Stankovi\u0107 built the first real theatre and, according to Medakovi\u0107, truly \u201cconfirmed his reputation through his gift to the city\u201d. These thirty thousand Kronen necessary for the construction did not come from Stankovi\u0107\u2019s personal profits as merchant or broker since he was in everything the opposite of what we would today call a \u201ccontroversial entrepreneur\u201d or tycoon. As it happens, he had won the main prize in the Viennese lottery. This first national theatre in Zagreb \u2013 for Stankovi\u0107 was an ardent supporter of the Illyrian movement \u2013 was built in Upper Town, and today this building houses the Zagreb City Assembly.<\/p>\n