Ok I give up – the images that I can find on the internet are copyright protected and I can’t add them to the text. Sorry – you can of course search the images yourself if you want to see what I am talking about…(grandparents, ask your grandkids how to do it).
I want to talk about erasers – I’ll say erasers, not rubbers, in case you get the wrong impression of what I am talking about – this is a family blog after all.
Croatian politicians have a passionate relationship with erasers. If something doesn’t suit, rub it out. Gone, justlikethat.
History no longer suits? Rub it out. Street names no longer appropriate? Rub them out and change them. I was joking with a friend in Zagreb (or maybe not joking) and suggested that all street names should be in pencil to make it easier to change them. Or maybe just blackboards and a piece of chalk.
Ban Jelacic Trg is the main square in Zagreb – it was the trading place for the various craft guilds when the two towns (Gradec and Kaptol) existed on either side of the creek. It also contained a spring for water supplies so it was an important place. It was named Harmica originally, and then in 1848 when Josip Jelacic became the first ‘ban’ or ruler it was renamed Ban Jelacic trg. A magnificent statue in his honour dominated the square – sword raised in Hungary’s direction! Take that Hungary! The creation of the position of ‘ban’ was the start of independence from Austria, so a fairly important part of history.
But then came Tito – Jelacic was then derided as an Austrian Collaborator – they rubbed him out, removed the statue and put it into storage (not under the bed, it’s quite large) and renamed the square Trg Republike!
Oh, but then came the independence of Croatia and they rubbed out the republic notion and out came the statue again! It dominates the trg again.
Now Tito is out of fashion – they have merrily rubbed out any references to him – I think that the last reference is to the beautiful theatre in Tito Square – and there are discussions (oh, there are always discussions!) about getting out the eraser again!
Near the large railway station there is another magnificent statue – Kraj Tomislav. He was the first King of the Kingdom of Croatia – in 925. He was acknowledged as such by Rome. But… the eraser is sliding out of the pockets again – there are discussions (there always are) that perhaps his mother was not Croatian (maybe Bosnian or Serbian – can’t remember which) and therefore not an appropriate hero for the now independent Croatia. The discussers are suggesting that perhaps he wasn’t actually ever really legitimately crowned, maybe the ceremony wasn’t conducted correctly, and so the crown may fall – and down will come the statue and the eraser will deal with the history books! I love it!
We were chuckling about the passports – When the country (under Tito) was Jugoslavia the passports were Red – Red for the glory of communism. When Croatia became an independent country, with great haste the passports were changed… They must be Blue Blue, not Red – divorce yourself from the connotations of the Red, Blue! And they no longer refer to Jugoslavia – you were not born in that country even though in fact, if you were born more than 20 years ago, that’s where you were born – the eraser has removed that country too.
The chuckle was because as Croatia inches towards EU membership, guess what colour the passports will be….RED!
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