ON THE OCCASION OF THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF FATHER LUJO MARUN’S BIRTHDAY, THE FOUNDER OF CROATIAN NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY (1857 -2007)

Author of the exhibition: Mate Zekan, museum consultant

Stipe Marun was born 150 years ago, on December 10th 1857. At the age of 18, after finishing his studies at the state-owned Franciscan high school in Sinj, he joined the Franciscan order on Visovac and adopted the monastic name Aloysius. In preserved scripts, he is most commonly signed as Fra Lujo, the Croaticized version of his monastic name, under which he became famous in professional and scientific circles, as well as in public life.

At an early stage and based on the ideas of Romanticism and awakened national consciousness, and encouraged by his professors in Sinj, he began early in his career to explore Croatian monuments.

The event of crucial importance that determined the life path of Lujo Marun, as was later shown, was connected with the opposition of the monastery of St. Anthony in Knin to the laying of tracks for the Siverić- Knin railway across the monastery’s property on the Kapitul site in 1884, where the ruins of the old monastery of St. Bartholomew were located. With the intention to supervise the works and with the aim to save from destruction and to preserve national monuments from this site, the provincial sent Marun to serve in Knin in the beginning of 1895, where the latter took over the care of the site and the research of Croatian monuments in the Knin area.

Motivated by random and unexpected finds of monuments during the fencing of the graveyard and the cleaning of the chapel of St. Luke in nearby Biskupija at site Crkvina, he interrupted his spontaneous work and promptly organized the initially called Special Committee and later Committee for the promotion of excavating

Croatian monuments, which prepared the legal base for the foundation of the initially named Knin Antiquities Society and from 1893 renamed Croatian Antiquities Society.

In the organisation of the Society on 3 July 1887, aware that he had no education whatsoever, except his enthusiasm for Croatian monuments, the presidential honour was meant for Frane Bulić. However, Bulić gave it up at the last moment, so that Marun was forced to take over the leading position.

Finding himself unexpectedly heading an archaeological society, Father Lujo Marun, as time will show, tied himself to this patriotic organization, which later on founded the First Museum of Croatian Monuments. Due to their interests, he came into conflict not only with its order, but also those, who represented different, according to him, unacceptable and damaging opinions, political and religious opponents, ignorant and indoctrinated peasants, from whom he barely saved his own life on three occasions, protecting himself in these situations with a pair of revolvers.

“My passionate love for the progress of the Antiquities Society, which I loved with all my heart and soul, more than health, honour, and, I am ashamed to say: more than my soul”, this statement mirrors his commitment to his idea and cause, asceticism and obsession with his mission."

We cannot say less than that even today, after the thorough study of Marun’s legacy. On the contrary, we can conclude that the above statement is Marun’s confession, but also the best formulation, which in its fullness depicts the work and sacrifice of Father Lujo Marun.

To depict the life of such a man is a massive, complex and sensitive task. It is a story that is difficult to reconstruct, the material is enough for several biographic novels and films. On Marun, his life and his work, only a few analyses have been published, and one smaller, but worthy and meticulous monographic work. With his unbelievably persistent and decisive work on preserving the Croatian cultural heritage at the end of the 19th and during three decades in the 20th century, Marun certainly belongs to the most meritorious and respected Croats of his time.

With the purpose to prove Croatia’s identity and its mediaeval archaeological heritage, Marun visited every village in the area of Dalmatia and numerous archaeological sites in those villages, but also parts of Lika and south-west Bosnia. On a number of these sites he, alone or through his assistants, conducted preliminary excavations, gathered finds and brought them to the Knin Museum.

Over forty years of his work, the evolution of this pioneer of ours is clearly visible, from analphabetic beginner to an enviable literarily and terminologically professional and scientifically mature person, according to the time and the then state of the archaeological profession, when primarily aims and tasks were the collection of archaeological material as much as possible, which was the testimony of Croatian identity and its millenial ingraining into the mother country.

If we evaluate the success of a single life according to its legacy, then Marun’s work is capital.

In his desire to enrich the Museum’s collection, Marun developed an extraordinary field activity, which from our point of view today seems unbelievable. Alone or with the help of his assistants, he discovered about ten early Christian and over thirty mediaeval churches, most of which he partially and some of which he completely explored. In addition, he researched also some thirty sites and conducted minor excavations with the purpose to determine the remains of earlier churches.

To the collection numbering almost two and a half thousand stone monuments, which were brought mostly from these sites to the Museum, we need to add over three thousand small items, gathered during the exploration of mediaeval graveyards. This collection was also enriched by 600 items from the pre-Croatian era (prehistoric and ancient), which Marun collected through purchase, as well as around 1300 Roman stone monuments, which Marun partially purchased and partially collected in the course of the excavations of Roman sites.

He understood from the beginning that due to the seriousness of his project (his enterprise, as he would say), he had to present the results of the work of the Croatian Antiquities Society, and his own, to the Croatian people and and encourage its awareness of the need to research cultural heritage. He did this by publishing quarterly Reports and Notes on the archaeological finds in the area of Knin in the “Gazette of the Croatian Archaeological Society” in Zagreb in the section "Herald of the Antiquities Society in Knin”. But with the retirement of Šime Ljubić, the Gazette was temporarily suspended and Marun initiated Starohrvatska prosvjeta, the first professional publication dealing with the Middle Ages in Croatia and amongst the Southern Slavs, which was, under the editorship of F. Radić, published regularly in 22 volumes for ten years, except in 1899 and 1902, showing the public the archaeological finds, circumstances in which they were found and topographic data of the sites.

Marun’s particular care and concern with properly storing the monuments must also be pointed out. When the floors of the monastery became too small and insufficient for the storage of the accumulated material, Marun initiated the construction of the First Museum of Croatian Monuments. However, since its construction did not entirely solve the problem of space, Marun also bought the neighbouring house for this purpose. He appealed to the Croatian people to save the Knin fortress, and after its purchase, he placed the Roman monuments in one of its buildings.

Led by the thought of the independence of Croatian heritage and of the danger of mixing it with ancient artefacts, by which “our monuments would be exhibited only to be overshadowed by stronger monuments”, Marun, firm and decisive, persistent and assured as he was, did not give up the idea of building an individual Croatian archaeological museum. He therefore ordered on two occasions, before and after World War I, architectural designs.

This vision of his was realized later only by his successors thirty years ago, when the Croatian archaeology, whose founder he was, has reached an already enviable reputation and ensured itself a place as an independent archaeological discipline.

By the construction of the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments, a space worthy Marun’s dream, where the inscriptions of Croatian dignitaries and rulers, Trpimir, Branimir, Muntimir, Svetoslav, Držislav and Zvonimir, but also the world’s largest collection of mediaeval earrings and the most luxurious equestrian gear and swords from the Carolingian period in Europe permanently indicate to the high cultural and political development of the Croats in conflict with the European civilization during the Middle Ages. It is Marun’s credit, who secured them for us with his persistent and unwavering diligence. To such an extent, that he was until his death on 15 January 1939 inextricably connected with the field and search for monuments. Šime Ljubić’s prediction became true, who said to Marun at the beginning of his antiquities work, realizing Marun’s exceptional importance for archaeological science the following words:

“You have already beautifully begun Croatian national archaeology which up to now has not even existed; try to raise it to a firm foundation and with it you will raise yourself a monument that will be envied forever because it is your work”