SKULPTURA SVETOGA IVANA NEPOMUKA IZ ZELENDVORA U PERIVOJU STAROGA GRADA U VARAŽDINU
THE SCULPTURE OF SAINT JOHN OF NEPOMUK FROM ZELENDVOR IN THE PARK OF THE OLD TOWN CASTLE IN VARAŽDIN

Summary/Abstract: Croatian Ban and Field Marshal Franz Nádasdy and his wife Suzana née Malatinski erected a baroque Sculpture of Saint John of Nepomuk on their Zelendvor estate around 1767. The stone carved image of the Czech priest was placed in the castle's park after she had remarried following the death of her first husband Josip Kazimir Drašković. Today, the sculpture adornsthe south side of the park of the Old Town Castle in Varaždin. Four documents, handwritten in ink and machine typed from the end of August 1932 to November 1933, reveal it was placed there in August 1932 by the Varaždin Museum Society. Local lawyer Nikola Pečornik complained to the Varaždin City Council he would rather have the museum experts place it inside the castle, in the northeast corner of the larger courtyard, to the left of the buttress at the beginning of the smaller courtyard and to the right of the entrance to the room displaying cannons. The preserved appeal outlines the difficulties that arose when placing it outside the architectural monument. On August 24, 1932, Mayor Stjepan Novaković tried to resolve the dispute with the help of other experts and city representatives in the premises of the castle itself. There, architect Artur Kaderávek stated the museum experts had followed his advice regarding the location of the sculpture, while city engineer Viktor Rogina and Varaždin City Council member Mirko Hikec sided with Pečornik, who believed the sculpture in the park would give the impression that it was created in the context of the very castle. In a subsequent hearing, museum experts Krešimir Filić and Adolf Wissert stated they acted in accordance with the law and that the building materials and workers who were building the pedestal for the baroque sculpture had been paid. On August 25, the President of the Varaždin Museum Society Adolf Wissert and Mirko Hikec reached a compromise allowing the workers to finish constructing the pedestal and obliging the museum expertsto remove the sculpture if recommended so by an expert. In 1933, Mayor Stjepan Novaković decided to consult with the conservator Gjuro Szabo, secretary of the former National Commission for the Preservation of Artistic and Historical Monuments in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia. No documents have been discovered that would reveal what Gjuro Szabo, Filić's longtime friend and adviser on museum and monument protection issues, recommended. Unfortunately, the preserved complaint does not provide a reason for the museumization of the sculpture from the Zelendvor estate which was at the time governed by Josip, the son of Marko Bombelles Jr. Six perserved letters and a postcard, written mostly in 1932, reveal that the sculpture, the client and the exact identification of the saint it represents were discussed by the Zagreb canon and historian Ljudevit Ivančan and a certain Pavao Wittmann, both thinking that it was St. Donatus. On the other hand, don Frane Bulić, the former conservator for Dalmatia, believes that the statue is not suitable for placement in the castle grounds and asks the members of the Varaždin Museum Societa to explain to him the scientific reasons that led them to place it there. The preserved appeal and corespondence document the effort of the Varaždin Museum Society to preserve the baroque artwork for future generations who today enjoy another sculpture in their city.

• Details
• Contents