Illyrian Heroes, Roman Emperors and Christian Martyrs. The Construction of a Croatian
Archaeology between Rome and Vienna, 1815-1918.
Daniel Baric
On one of the central squares of Zagreb, just in front of the former University Library,
now the Croatian Archives, hence at a very symbolic place, stands the statue of the
archaeologist Frane Bulić (1846-1934). Not far away from the Croatian Archaeological
Museum and from a range of other cultural institutions, he is supposed to represent a point of
reference and a model for Croatian archaeologists.
Frane Bulić was mainly active in Dalmatia, especially in Split, where he was for a
long time director of the Archaeological Museum, at a moment when Dalmatia was directly
connected with Vienna in political and administrative respect, whereas Zagreb and Slavonia
were linked to the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy. That administrative
discrepancy between Zagreb and Split meant that it was not self-evident that a research
undertaken in Split, mainly on late Roman themes, would gain the status of a paradigm in
Zagreb, where the Illyrian movement had established itself during the first half of the 19th
century on the assumption of a continuity between the Illyrians of antiquity and the Slavs.
During the 19th century, a tremendous change in the way of doing archaeology and in
general of dealing with antiquity took place in Croatia, which eventually allowed Frane BuliÊ
to be chosen as a representative of the emergence of a Croatian archaeology. Since he worked
in Dalmatia during his whole career, it seems relevant to focus on the developments of
archaeology in that region. But instead of following a linear chronology, it appears to be
instructive to reflect upon the main themes which were central in the preoccupations of
archaeologists and of those interested in antiquity, that is the role of Illyrians, Roman
emperors and Christian martyrs in the history of ancient times in Dalmatia.
I. Illyrian Heroes.
Since the Renaissance, the interest in the populations inhabiting the eastern shores of
the Adriatic before the Romans kept growing in intellectual circles in Dalmatia. The texts
written with a reference to the Illyrians tried to prove a perfect continuity between ancient
populations and new ones. They tended to be the expression of programmatic projections, for
instance of a certain South Slav Catholic milieu in the 17th century (Mauro Orbini). The
programmatic element in the use of that topic was so predominant that the actual historical
inquiry on the subject was not felt as necessary. It was enough to develop a glorious
1
genealogy including as prestigious names as Alexander the Great’s. When Napoleon
established the Illyrian Provinces, the use of the adjective «Illyrian» was supposed to meet
the satisfaction of the populations living in the encompassed region, that is, as far as South
Slavs are concerned, Slovenia and southern Croatia, which means all of actual Dalmatia1.
The Illyrian movement based in Zagreb, mostly active in the 1830s and 1840s,
embedded the Illyrian past into a political programme. In that case too, critical historical
approaches could not meet the needs of the use of the Illyrian background. But in literary
texts, heroic figures could find a very significant place. That is the case of the Illyrian queen
Teuta, who tried to resist against the Romans. She appeared in the play of Dimitrija Demeter
(1811-1872) in the first half of the 19th century, in accordance with the antique sources, as a
noble and fierce character. She was hence a suitable model for modern identifications, in this
case for the Zagreb based Illyrians against Hungarians patriots. But in the field of history, the
Illyrian theme was arousing growing unease, for it became clear at that moment for those
who were acquainted with historical researches that Croats could not pretend any longer to be
the mere descendants of a people living in a region where themselves made their apparition
some centuries after the departure of Illyrians of the scene. Queen Teuta had for that reason
no long career on the Croatian stages2.
But after half a century, she suddenly could be popular again. Unexpectedly enough,
it was on the side of the historians that she found her best advocates. In 1904, in the thirtyfifth report of the second state gymnasium of Graz in Styria, Hans Gutscher, a professor for
ancient history in various schools of Austria, specialized in the field of didactic approaches of
the ancient world, made such a contribution. He had published in 1896 in a similar report an
article entitled «Roman antiquities on our fatherland’s ground» ("Die römischen Altertümer
auf heimatlichem Boden") in which he wrote, «we take the pupil not alone into the capital of
the classical world, but we also let him feel at home in Sicily, even in Africa and Spain,
however it does not come to his mind that we, in our fatherland, stay on a classical soil. (…)
There is some truth in the mockery of the enemies of classical instruction that it makes our
1 Drago Roksandi ć , Vojna Hrvatska: La Croatie militaire . Krajiško druπtvo u Francuskom Carstvu (1809-1813)
[Military Croatia. The Society of the Borderland in the French Empire], Zagreb, Školska knjiga-Stvarnost, 1988,
vol. II, pp. 110-112.
2 For a recent synthetic approach to the Illyrian, see Anna Pia Maissen, Wie ein Blitz schlägt es aus meinem
Mund. Der Illyrismus: Die Hauptschriften der kroatischen Nationalbewegung, 1830-1844, Bern, Peter Lang,
1988. For a general presentation about the fate of the Illyrian theme in Croatia, see: Daniel Baric, "Der
Illyrismus: Geschichte und Funktion eines übernationalen Begriffes im Kroatien der ersten Hälfte des 19.
Jahrhunderts und sein nachklang", in: Jacques Le Rider/Moritz Csáky/Monika Sommer, ed., Transnationale
Gedächtnisorte in Zentraleuropa, Innsbruck-Vienna-Munich-Bozen, Studienverlag, 2002. Texts and studies
about D. Demeter are to be found in: Dimitrija Demeter, Mirko Bogovi ć , Zagreb, Zora-Matica Hrvatska, 196 8
(series Pet stoljeć a hrvatske knjiž evn osti).
youth feel everywhere at home, except on our fatherland’s ground and we should not loose
the opportunity in this respect to take the sting out of it by providing among our pupils if not
a complete acquaintance with the Roman lands of Austria-Hungary, then at least the lively
conscience, that here too Roman government and cultural life penetrated for centuries
everything and left innumerable monuments to bear witness»3.
In the article published in 19044, the context of a challenging development of an
education orientated towards more practical and scientific objects is clear. The context is
Austrian as well as German. This contribution had been presented at a common GermanAustrian meeting of teachers (Deutsch-österreichischer Mittelschultag) held in 1903. It is also
precisely in this environment that Teuta reappears. The author is indeed committed to the
appropriation of texts and more generally of events by the pupils, so in the case of the
«apparition of the Romans on the Adriatic». Here are important the educational value of the
events, their «meaning for the fatherland and the actuality» and the interest that can be raised
on the psychological level. Hans Gutscher states that «as far as the interest of the youth in
that matter is concerned», the war in Illyria is one of the most «attractive and romantic, which
ancient history can offer. In the Illyrian wars, we have the dominion of the Illyrian pirates…
the death of the king and the regency of passionate Teuta, the assassination of the Roman
envoy, …the flight of Teuta into the remotest part of the Bocche di Cattaro, which can be
very effectively presented to the pupil in their inaccessibility» 5. It probably did not need to be
said expressis verbis to the audience at this point of the explanation that the Bocche hosted
the Austrian navy. At any case, that element could certainly be welcomed by those who
wanted some more patriotic elements in the curriculum.
As a trained historian though, the Austrian professor on the other hand does feel the
need to add that «even if the sober critic has deleted many of the most romantic traits, we still
can present them as that what Romans and Greeks thought»6.
The completely new role assigned to the Illyrian queen reflects the transformation of
the intellectual landscape. A more accurate knowledge about the history of Illyrians was now
available, but the social constraints of the use of that knowledge had changed too. Antiquity
at the beginning of the 20th century had to be efficiently proposed to pupils, but also to
3 Jahresberichte des Landes-Obergymnasiums in Leoben, 1896. Also reproduced in: Hans Gutscher, "Istrien
und Dalmatien im klassischen Unterricht", in Fünfunddreißigster Jahresbericht des k. k. zweiten StaatsGymnasiums in Graz, Graz, Verlag des k. k. zweiten Staats-Gymnasiums, 1904, p. 5.
4 See preceding footnote.
5 Ibid., pp. 31-32.
6 Ibid., p. 32.
3
authorities in charge of education. That knowledge of antiquity however, in this case about
Dalmatia, was the result of a state demand.
The increase of the knowledge about Illyrian and Roman antiquity in Dalmatia
undoubtedly grew because of the multiplication of researches that could be done in situ and
which were financed by the competent authorities in Vienna, if not by the highest authority,
the Emperor himself. Does that mean that the development of antiquarian erudition in the
Dalmatian case was the result of an imperial policy ?
II. Roman emperors in Dalmatia.
The emperors who ruled over Dalmatia in the 19th century certainly have played a
decisive role in the development of archaeology, but in different ways. Through examples of
real or indirect presence of emperors in Dalmatia, the evolution during the century might be
reconstructed.
During the French dominion on the Illyrian Provinces, Napoleon sent some
governors, who where eager to learn facts about Dalmatia. Among the reports that were
written with the purpose of informing the representatives of the emperor and possibly of
giving some insight about the current situation with respect to further military and diplomatic
developments, one text shows a particular in-depth knowledge of Dalmatia’s past and
present. It is the result of the efforts made by a Croatian officer of Split, Lujo Matutinović
(1765-1844). The whole text is directly written as an address to the emperor 7. Thus, at the end
of a presentation of the city of Split in military and economic respect, Lujo Matutinović
describes the Palace of Diocletian, that is the centre of the city, stresses its remarkable state of
preservation and suggests that such a building should be put under the direct protection of the
emperor, for by its dimensions it really is worth that honour8.
The proposition of Lujo Matutinović could not be taken into account by Napoleon,
but it is precisely along those lines that the next emperor who was in charge of Dalmatia
acted. After Dalmatia was attributed to the Empire of Austria at the Congress of Vienna in
1815, Francis I. undertook a journey through the southern part of his domain. He visited Split
in 1818 and the diary he wrote during this travel shows how impressed he was indeed by the
size of the monument. Since he had received an education in classics, he understood that a
serious work had to be done in order to make a scientific use of the inscriptions and works of
art scattered in the city9. He decided that an Archaeological museum had to be established in
7 The manuscript is now kept at the Archives of the French Army in Vincennes.
8 Essai historique sur les provinces illyriennes, p. 196.
9 Parts of the diary have been published (in a Croatian translation) and commented by Ivan Pederin: "Franjo I. i
Split, which eventually happened in 1820, that is some years before the Archaeological
Museum was founded in Athens. This was a decisive impulse given to the study of antiquity
in Split, for from then on, there was a person who was permanently in charge of the antique
monuments in the city.
It is therefore understandable that the visit of Francis Joseph in Dalmatia in 1875,
more than half a century after Francis Ist, included a visit to that institution. The report of that
travel, published the same year in Vienna as a book and partly in the newspaper Wiener
Zeitung, contains the official version of the emperor’s encounter with the region, with its past
and present situation. The report stresses the aspects which were meant to be remembered.
«His Majesty observed every detail of the magnificent old building, he paid due
attention to every interesting topic and listened very carefully to the explanations of the
guide. The beautiful classical architectural lines, the excellent execution of the whole… the
mausoleum, the atrium… the Egyptian sphinx… and the imposing southern facade of the
imperial palace on the shore, in one word everything, which could convey a clear concept of
the former greatness had been seen by his majesty, who followed with very tense interest the
explanations of the conservator and asked questions showing deep knowledge and when his
majesty went out of the room, again the hearty cheers of the dense waiting population could
be heard. Spalato wanted to give due recognition to the knowledge and erudition of its
monarch»10.
Thus it seems that it is precisely through the viewing and understanding of the Roman
monuments that the monarch meets the expectations and the enthusiasm of the inhabitants of
Split. The emperor visits also Salona, «place of birth of Diocletian», where he sees «a sort of
Christian necropolis of the fourth century, where stones in abundance, inscriptions, columns
with remarkably chiseled capitals… show clearly how much it could be taken out of the
classical soil of Salona, if a more important financial support were available for
excavations»11. This is precisely the moment when official supports started coming to Salona,
that is to the Christian necropolis in the first place.
But the emperor is also interested in the present state of the region. Hence after having
admired «the vast panorama of the ager Salonitense… he also observed the works that were
undertaken on the railway road… Old past and lively future were represented here, with on
počeci antičke arheologije u Hrvatskoj [Francis Ist and the beginnings of archaeology in Croatia], Vjesnik za
arheologiju i historiju dalmatinsku, 1985, vol. 78, pp. 123-150.
10 Allerhöchste Reise Seiner k. und k. Apostol. Maj. Franz Joseph I. durch Triest, Görz, nach Venedig, Istrien,
Dalmatien und Fiume…beschrieben und zusammengestellt von Dr. Franz Coglievina, k. k. UniversitätsProfessor, Vienna, Selbstverlag des Verfassers, 1875, pp. 215-216.
11 Ibid., pp. 216-218.
5
the one hand the ruins and the other hand the railway under construction»12. The antique past
of the city, which in the account is assumed to be a time of abundance for Dalmatia, should
be an inspiring model for the future. The visit ends with a conversation with the president of
the association of wine producers. The emperor «tried some examples of local wine
production»13. Under an arch of triumph near an obelisk adorned with technical instruments
at the place where the railway station should stand in a near future, the emperor «could leave
the city with the conviction that in this city all the conditions are really present in order to
make it one of the most considerable emporia of the Adriatic»14.
The fusion between a glorious Roman past and a flourishing future seems to be
complete at this point, on the side of the emperor as well as of the population.
But is it not the same population which is accused in the same report of having
devastated the antique monuments, before the imperial munificence of emperor Francis Ist
made possible a scientific work, to which contributed the imperial Academy of Sciences?
This financial and intellectual support, seconded by "German thoroughness" (with the help of
a native scholar) had made it possible «to save from vandalism and neglect» those
monuments which were now properly shown15. The local demand for the restoration of the
Roman past seems here at least ambivalent in the report of the emperor’s journey.
Was the development of a scientific archaeology just an imperial project from the
beginning, conveniently justifying the Austrian presence in Dalmatia, in the present and in
the future?
The direct support of the Habsburg monarchs is certainly the visible mark of an
interest in Dalmatia’s Roman past. The institutional support of the academy and the
university in Vienna can be seen as a consequence of it. Georg Vasold rightly pointed out 16,
that a whole range of texts originating from the art historians and underlining the oriental
elements in Dalmatia, written by Josef Strzygowski and others, are part of a cultural context
which was ready to accept such theories and concrete developments after the occupation of
12 Ibid., p. 219.
13 Ibid., p. 225.
14 Ibid., p. 226.
15 Ibid., p. 215: "Um nur mit kurzen Worten den Rundgang Sr. Majestät zu bezeichnen, sei erwähnt, dass
Allerhöchsdieselben das Antikenmuseum besuchten, in welchem die zahlreichen Alterthümer der Stadt und der
ganzen Umgebung, die von der munificenten Bewilligung des Kaisers Franz und vor den Beiträgen der
kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften den Verwüstungen der Bewohner überlassen waren, gesammelt, mit
deutscher Gründlichkeit wissenschaftlich geordnetund unter der besonderer Obhut des jungen Konservators der
Altenthümer, Prof. Glavinić (…) gestellt worden sind. Ihm wurde auch die ehrenvolle Aufgabe zu Theil, die
minder bekannten und erklärten Gebäude und Sammlungen archäologisch zu behandeln, die dem ehemaligen
Vandalismus und Vernachlässigung noch entrissen werden konnten."
16 In his conference held at the Collegium Budapest, May 2005: "Der Blick in den tragischen Spiegel", The
Rediscovery Of Late Antiquity In Fin de siecle Vienna.
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Just to give one example of the progressive merging of Dalmatian
antiquity with oriental motives, it shall be appropriate to mention the work of Carl Patsch, a
German-speaking teacher in a gymnasium in Sarajevo, who eventually became one of the
curators of the Museum of Bosnia Herzegovina in the 1890s. In his archaeological and
epigraphic researches on the Roman province of Dalmatia, published in the journal of the
Museum17, a chapter is devoted to the Roman stone monuments in Knin, that is the Dalmatian
hinterland. Most of the stones he analyzed could be seen in a room of the museum created by
a local priest, Lujo Marun (1857-1939), but whose main interest was directed towards
medieval monuments. The collection is «properly presented and ordered», but still, with the
«friendly support» of Lujo Marun, Carl Patsch undertakes to draw up a catalogue, based also
on some new finds in the outskirts of Knin. One of the consequences of the collecting of
epigraphic documents is that it allows to reflect upon the extent of Dalmatia in the Roman
Empire. Some epigraphic evidences indeed, found in Bosnia, tended to prove that the borders
of the province of Dalmatia in the Roman Empire might have been slightly different than
usually assumed. Whatever the final result might be, it remained with certainty that at least
most of southern Bosnia and Hercegovina belonged to the province of Dalmatia18.
In the course of the presentation of the researches, questions about the Roman
colonization and of the Austrian military presence tend to overlap19. The hypothesis about the
presence of Roman cavalry in Bihać seems more probable when compared with the actual
situation, i. e. the presence of meadows and of good breeds of horses, which makes the region
«suitable for the establishment of cavalry». The spread of the Latin language, the
development of roads and techniques, for instance of the local ceramic products are
reconstructed according to the finds, recent or not, made in Bosnia. It appears that the local
population gained with the Roman colonization the possibility to come to a «higher level» of
technical achievement20.
It seems as if on the field of archaeology a kind of division of the work had been
undertaken, the purely Croatian aspect of archaeology being left to the «active men» who
founded a Croatian antiquarian association in Knin (Hrvatsko starinarsko društvo u Kninu)
with the purpose of «collecting and keeping in an own Museum what already had been found
and until then exposed to every kind of vandalism… the main purpose being to shed some
17 Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina, Archäologisch-epigraphische
Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der römischen Provinz Dalmatien, Vienna, 1896, IV. Band.
18 See the map, ibid., p. 53.
19 Ibid., pp. 20-21.
20 Ibid., p. 30.
7
light on the Slavic culture of those environs in the Middle ages, the antiquity standing just
behind» in its preoccupations21.
The investigation in the Roman past seems to have been financed and developed in a
precise political context where the reflection upon empires and colonization in the Roman
past tends to mirror a contemporary situation. At this point, it is relevant to examine the
activity of Frane Bulić and of the local learned elite. What was exactly their role in the
developments of archaeology in Dalmatia?
III. Christian martyrs in front of the peasant, the priest and the scholar.
As a starting point, in order to escape the bias of Austrian sources, a foreigner can
provide an interesting point of view about the respective role of locals and Austrians in the
construction of a scientific archaeology in Dalmatia. The Frenchman Charles Yriarte
published in 1878 Les Bords de l’Adriatique et le Montenegro, which contains an account of
the excavations of 1874 in Salona, hence those that Francis Joseph visited the following year.
«The excavations have started seventeen days ago, about forty workmen are occupied with
digging into the ground, like the fellahin of Egypt digging into the ground of Giza whilst the
women of the village of Salona transport earth in baskets which they bear on their heads. The
director being absent, the Catholic priest of the village is in charge of the work. We find him
on the spot. Soon a doctor who is riding a horse nearby, as he sees us stopping at the
exploration field, abandons his mount and joins us. The archaeologist is lucky; at a depth of
seven or eight meters underneath the ground… he found a necropolis intact with its circular
part forming a little temple where the bodies were prepared and washed… The bases of the
Doric columns are intact, the columns are broken at the height of a meter… We are in a
cemetery of the first period of Christendom, most of the sarcophagi bear the Greek cross and
the date of the fourth or fifth century AD, but we feel a deep disappointment, for all of them
are chipped on the corners, they have been visited by Barbarians and show traces of that
violation of the sepulcher.
An excavation undertaken by a man who knows well the terrain on which he operates
is a very picturesque sight and always full of emotions, he digs almost with certainty… a
fifteenth sarcophagus is brought to light, intact. It conserved its sealing with lead of the year
437… with a real emotion we see the workmen with a knee on the ground introduce the lever
between the top and the sarcophagus itself. All the peasants have left their work and look at
that operation, gathered on the mounds, in the most variegated poses and analogous to those
21 Ibid., introduction to the study.
fine figures of the antique bas-reliefs, the Salonitan women, with their basket on their heads
followed with their eyes the group in the middle… Soon we see a skeleton emerge and
fragments of pottery. No unexpected treasury is revealed to us, the doctor solemnly exposes
his conjectures about the sex, the age and the constitution of the skeleton, a professor of
anatomy of the gymnasium of Spalato who accompanies us claims that it should be a gift to
the cabinet of study. Professor Glavinich copies the inscription but finds it obscure and
asserts that only two men in the world are able to read those characters, Mommsen and Léon
Renier of the French Institute»22.
The accompanying picture in the volume captures an essential moment of the work,
and it may well be seen as a fundamental interpretation of the way archaeology developed in
Dalmatia. The picture reads from the right to the left. The peasant woman, the priest and the
scholar, the three of them seem to stand for a particular sequence in the history of a local
appropriation of antiquity. On the right, the peasant woman brings a stone, but does not look
at both men, and those in return do not pay any attention to her. She is young, dressed in a
somewhat ideally suggestive local costume. She stands for the rural inhabitants of Dalmatia,
who live among monuments, which they cannot interpret. The interpreters are on the right.
The priest, first. He can give an advice about the stone, he certainly can be a go-between,
being himself a native of Dalmatia, between the peasants and the second interpreter, the
seated scholar. He is the one who can eventually give to a find its proper place in a museum
and in publications. He can read and understand or ask someone he knows to decipher an
inscription: Theodor Mommsen as a matter of fact came to Dalmatia and had conversations
with local priests and scholars. Through the hands of the scholar come the various antique
remnants, and he can find out what are the best, the most beautiful objects, as the head which
can be seen near him.
The image is supposed to represent Michael Glavinić and Frane Bulić. Michael
Glavinić is the successor of a range of scholars who, educated mainly in Italy, sometimes in
Vienna, were appointed at the museum of Split: Carlo Lanza from 1820 to 1832, Francesco
Carrara from 1842 to 1853, Sebastiano Giovanizio from 1853 to 1858, Šime Ljubić from
1858 to 1863, Francesco Lanza, son of Carlo, from 1863 to 1872. Michael Glavinić
(1833-1898), born in Dalmatia (Makarska), studied at the schools of Dubrovnik and Split,
philosophy in Padua, then learnt philosophy and archeology in Berlin and Vienna
22 Cited in Salona III, Recherches archéologiques franco-croates à Salone, dirigées par N. Duval, E. Marin,
C. Metzgel, Rome-Split, Ecole française de Rome-Musée archéologique de Split, 2000, p. 18.
9
(1871-1872). From 1873 on, he was in charge of the museum in Split. He was the founder of
the Bulletino di Archeologia e Storia Dalmata in 187823. As a scholar educated in Dalmatia,
Italy, Germany and Austria, he symbolizes the rise of a generation of local scholars able to
cope with the past of Dalmatia in accordance to Viennese standards. The fact that he guided
the emperor Francis Joseph during his visit in 1875 amply demonstrates that. He published in
Viennese journals, for instance in the Archäologisch-epigraphische Mittheilungen aus
Oesterreich24, where he gave an account of a travel in Dalmatia. The distance he might have
felt to the peasants and maybe to a certain extent to the priests, can be felt in his description
of lost objects in Zaostrog, between Split and Dubrovnik, where a statue of Athena in bronze
was sold und brought to Italy, a statue in marble of Pan and a relief probably of an Amazon
were destroyed upon the request of a bishop, «because the uncouth inhabitants of the village
revered in the first saint John the Baptizer and in the second the martyrdom of saint
Barbara»25. The devastation made by the local population is constantly deplored by
archaeologists working in Dalmatia26.
Nevertheless Michael Glavinić is not regarded as the real promoter of archaeology in
Croatia, but it is Frane Bulić, the spiritual descendant of a range of churchmen who devoted
time and energy to the study of antiquity in Dalmatia.
The first inquiries about Salona in the 18th century had been made under the auspices
of archbishop of Split Pacifico Bizza, in 1746-1756, with the help of Geronimo Bernardi and
Matija Bogetić. The latter gave to Daniele Farlati and Francesco Antonio Zaccaria
informations that eventually were published in Illyricum Sacrum (1751-1761). Those
attempts however were not systematically carried out. In other places, priests managed to
save stones and epigraphic evidences of destruction, but sometimes a tendency to complete
unreadable texts was observed, and this can be interpreted as a lack of professional
scholarship, beyond the interest in the material source itself27.
Frane Bulić did train as a professional, since he attended the lectures of the Viennese
archaeologist Alexander Conze at the University in Vienna. He could easily be in contact
with the Viennese milieu, as he could with the villagers. He developed as a scholar a twofold
activity. On the one hand, he participated in the advancement of the knowledge of antiquity
23 Ibid., p. 10.
24 Editors. Otto Benndorf, Otto Hirschfeld, Jahrgang II, Vienna, 1879, in Mittheilungen der k. k. CentralCommission, N.F. IV.
25 Ibid., report of Michael Glavinić.
26 See for instance Allerhöchste Reise…, op. cit., p. 215.
27 Salona III, op. cit., p. 4; Arsen Duplančić, in: Emilio Marin, Corpus inscriptionum naronitanarum, I,
Macerata-Split, 1999, pp. 21-42.
and especially of late antiquity. He supervised excavations in Salona, but also delivered
interpretative papers on the objects found there. He also organized the first congress of
Christian archaeology in Split and Salona, in August 1894. He published a bilingual guide at
that occasion28.
On the other hand, he supported the developments of an archaeology focused on the
Croatian, i. e. medieval past, through the creation of an association with the purpose of
dealing with that issue (Association Bihać,1894).
What is characteristic for Frane Bulić is certainly the mixture of professionalism and
the ability to address the problems of a nascent field of research in the Dalmatian context. His
personal correspondence with Viennese archaeologists is certainly representative of an
intellectual and social situation as well. It is striking to find in the letters he sent to the
archaeologist Otto Benndorf in Vienna how often he refers to a theme which apparently is not
immediately linked with archaeological issues. His letters regularly start with a comment on
oenological issues. As a matter of fact, Otto Benndorf is used to ordering wine in Dalmatia,
and in that matter too, Frane Bulić is an intermediary.
On 20 December 1886, he writes that he hopes Otto Benndorf «will be more satisfied
this year than it was the case last year, when due to the hail [they] did not have in the
outskirts of Split particularly good wine sorts»29.
On the 2 March 1890, he writes: «I repeat, this year, the wines are not particularly
good in Dalmatia.» On the 17 November 1890, «we have agreed that a wine of an island
would be sent to you, and I have talked with a friend of mine of Lissa. I hope I will be soon
able to send a good sample». On the 29 December 1891, «since the wine of Lissa is not to
your liking, I will let my brother send you a wine of Salona».
But after those introductory remarks, reflexions on the state of archaeology in
Dalmatia are regularly provided by Frane Bulić: «I hear with pleasure that two students from
Dalmatia attend your lectures. We need younger people here for archaeological studies» (20
December 1886). «Thank you for all that you did for our antiquities (unsere Alterthümer) and
for the support that my nephew Dr Jelić has become for the completion of his studies at he
University of Vienna… I hope you will be satisfied with him in every respect» (18 November
1892). Frane Bulić appears as a scholar preoccupied by the further development of
archaeological studies in Dalmatia. It happens that one of the most gifted young scholars is
his nephew, who eventually did a career as an archaeologist.
28 Guida di Spalato e Salona, Vodja po Spljetu, Zadar, 1894.
29 National Library of Austria, Manuscript section, unpublished documents in Otto Benndorf’s files.
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Otto Benndorf, a renowned man in his field, and who plays a certain role in the
administration of archaeology, is ready to support financially and institutionally the efforts of
Frane Bulić to establish himself and other Dalmatians as professional scholars. It is thus
understandable that Frane Bulić expresses his gratefulness as he is in Athens on a travel with
scholars. «I just come from the first visit to the Acropolis and my thoughts are directed to
you, Professor. I would like to express a thousand thanks, for it is thanks to your support that
I received the opportunity to spend beautiful and instructive moments until now and I hope
there will be some others on this classical soil. Yesterday just after my arrival, we have
undertaken an excursion to Eleusis and tomorrow we will start the tour of the Peloponnese.»
(Athens, 23 May 1893). In a subsequent letter, he explains that he needs to stay for another
month and if he cannot obtain the authorization, he will not be able to join the group, which
plans an excursion to Troy. Here again, Otto Benndorf is the person whose support is
irreplaceable.
What could Frane Bulić possibly offer else in exchange of the benevolence and active
support of someone like Otto Benndorf than a wine he just hoped it would be better the
following year? Out of that unequal trade, Frane Bulić tried to secure the best he could, that is
the continuity of his own work through the multiplication of committed Dalmatian
archaeologists. In the general context of persistent high illiteracy percentage among the
population and poor educational facilities in Dalmatia, that part of Bulić’s activities was
certainly not the least important.
His statue in Zagreb is a sign of gratefulness for an organizer in the field of
archaeology in Croatia, as well as for a renowned scholar who participated in the emergence
of Christian archaeology.
At the eve of World War I, Frane Bulić certainly had succeeded in building a network
of local archaeologists able to communicate with Viennese scholars. Undoubtedly,
archaeology in Dalmatia had also become part of a cultural and to a certain extent
geopolitical question in Vienna which benefited from the occupation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and hence from the situation and prospects of the Empire as it was perceived
from Vienna. In 1914, a new Museum of Archaeology was under construction in Split, with
the architects in charge of the building in Carnuntum near Vienna.
Frane Bulić participated in the excavations of Salona, which became part of the usual
peregrinatio of tourists. The multiplication of images, first engravings, then photographs, of
the site of Salona made it available for personal appropriations beyond a small circle of
antiquarians. Salona had become a stop on the road to the south of the Monarchy. It was
possible for a growing number of people of the Monarchy and from other countries in the
first decade of the 20th century to observe the ruins of Salona and to walk among them. It had
become possible to keep a photograph of the landscape with Salonitan ruins as a souvenir, or
to send it as a postcard. Unless another theme was preferred : a view of Split, Trogir, or a
romantic sunset. But what kind of appropriation of the results of archaeological excavations,
if there was any, was made by the tourist, could only be read on the other side of the
postcards.
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