005 Giorgio or Juraj?

About Croatia: Where/What/Who is that? #005

Giorgio or Juraj?

He didn't have an identity crisis, but it seems that he led a double life.

I reckon that 96.4% of tourists to Croatia have seen this statue.

Jeste li to vidjeli?  U kojem gradu na more se nalazi ovaj kip?

Tko je čovjek? Za što je on poznat?

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Hint: He is between Split and Zadar. That has narrowed it down, huh?

Answer below ........
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What?

This is a statue of the famous Croatian sculptor and architect Juraj Dalmatinac (George the Dalmatian). He was otherwise known as Giorgio da Sebenico (George of Šibenik) – but we will come to that later. He lived from 1410 until 1473. [Reminder of the times: In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.]

The sculptor was the famous and extraordinarily productive Ivan Meštrović.
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Where?

The statue is situated in front of the wonderful Katedrala sveta Jakova (St James’ cathedral) in Šibenik, and whose construction took over 100 years after the laying of the foundation stone in 1431. Juraj Dalmatinac was the overseer of construction from 1441 until 1473.
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In case you are not sure of the location of Šibenik (pronounced Shibenik), look for the blue dot in the map below. It is a famous tourist destination on the coast in the north-west part of Dalmatia.
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Here is one view of the cathedral, showing where the statue stands in relation to it .....
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Juraj (or is it Giorgio?) looks directly at the portal of the UNESCO heritage-listed cathedral, the construction of which he was largely responsible for.

Image by Michel Huché from Pixabay

Who? Juraj or Giorgio? Both!

Was his name Juraj Dalmatinac or Giorgio da Sebenico? A closely related question is whether he was Croatian or Venetian. He was born in Zadar (then called Zara), just a little further up the coast from Šibenik. So his name locally was Juraj – the Croatian equivalent of George – and Croatians declare that he is Croatian. On the other hand, that part of the world was at that time a colony of the Republic of Venice, or the Venetian Empire. He emigrated to Venice while a youth, and there he would have been called Giorgio.

He is often described as a Venetian architect. We could argue for some time about whether it is more accurate to call him Venetian or Croatian.

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AHA! Learning Croatian with Bob
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