The initiative for the construction of the Slomšek monument came in 1865 from the Maribor Reading Club, but the project, supported by all Slovenes, was realised only in 1878. Slovenians planned to erect his statue in a public square as a national monument to honour this well-deserving national visionary. However, due to the unfavourable attitude of the German-liberal municipality of Maribor, the monument had to find shelter inside the church. This article emphasises the national significance of the monument and discusses the question of its public erection, or better, its public function in the church interior. It upgrades the existing research on this monument with new information from archival sources and newspapers, and with reference to artworks, which have not yet been analysed in this context. The hitherto prevailing chronological approach is supplemented with an art-historical approach.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36477741
The article discusses the monuments of vice-admiral Wilhelm Tegettthoff, Emperor Joseph II and the Archduke John, which were erected in Maribor between 1882 and 1883 and embellished the public space of the town until the end of the First World War. The study focuses on the roles of Maribor mayor Matthäus Reiser and his cousin Othmar Reiser in the positioning and urban planning of the three monuments. The public monument is revealed as a means of political self-promotion and as a propaganda strategy by its commissioner. Not only does this involve the selection of a persona, to whom the memorial is dedicated – for example the cult of Emperor Joseph II within German national and liberal circles in the nationally inhomogeneous regions of the Habsburg Monarchy – but also the careful planning of the monument’s setting, which had been based on the promotion of the mayor’s achievements. In addition, the article deals with the question of the removal of the monuments from public space and the gradual demolition of their constituent parts.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36477997
In this introduction to the thematic volume of Acta historiae artis Slovenica (18/1), the authors analyse the relationship between the public space and the national. Maribor is as an important example, because in this town the public space and the processes of erecting and removing of the monuments were particularly influenced by national issues.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36477229