Architect Josip Vancaš and the cathedral with the episcopal complex in Ðakovo

Članak govori o radu Josipa Vancaša, jednog od najznačajnijih arhitekata historicizma na području Bosne i Hercegovine i Hrvatske, na obnovi krova i lanterne katedrale te na restauraciji srednjovjekovnih zidova biskupskog sklopa u Ðakovu.Josip Vancaš (1859–1932) is one of the most significant architects of high historicism in the southern parts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He was schooled at the Polytechnic School (in the class of Heinrich Ferstel) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (in the class of Friedrich Schmidt). Even though Sarajevo was the center of his work and even though he had produced most of his opus within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he also worked a great deal in Croatia, presentday Slovenia, and also in Italy. This paper is concerned with his work on the cathedral and the episcopal complex in Ðakovo. The Ðakovo cathedral is the most important newly erected sacral building of historicism in Croatia. It was built 1866-1882 according to the designs of Viennese architects Karl Rösner and Friedrich Schmidt. The works on the cathedral continued even after the consecration. They were first supervised by Schmidt’s student Herman Bollé, who had been helping fit out the Ðakovo cathedral since 1876. In mid-1890s bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, the principal initiator of the cathedral’s construction, broke up his relations with this architect primarily owing to political reasons and his connection with Ban (Viceroy) Khuen Hedervary’s regime in Croatia. The remaining works that were needed on the cathedral and the episcopal complex in Ðakovo were turned over to the architect Josip Vancaš. It is possible that his arrival to Ðakovo was the result of a recommendation by Schmidt himself, who had also recommended him for the works on the cathedral in Sarajevo. Vancaš was going to perform the works on the cathedral and the episcopal complex in Ðakovo at the end of 1880s, first fixing the lantern and cathedral roof (1887–1888), and subsequently renovating the medieval walls (1888). In his renovation of the wall, Vancaš applied historicist views of monument restoration. In 1900, ten years after his first encounter with the Ðakovo cathedral, Vancaš was once again going to come into contact with this building, since he was hired to write a text about its architecture for the big monograph that the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts published in Prague. The works on the Ðakovo cathedral are going to strongly influence Vancaš, especially the solutions he was going to apply in fitting out the Sarajevo cathedral, the most important newly constructed sacral edifice in his opus. Almost all lateral altars in this church rely upon the lateral altars of the Ðakovo cathedral, built according to Friedrich Schmidt’s designs. His work on the Ðakovo cathedral opened up this architect’s path for further orders, in the diocese of Ðakovo (the renovation of the church in Dragotin), as well as in the remainder of Croatia (the building of Prva hrvatska štedionica [First Croatian Savings Bank] in Zagreb, etc.)