Viktor Kovačić
Viktor Kovačić was born on 28 July 1874 in Ločen Dol near Rogaška Slatina. He was educated in Graz, where he lived with his uncle. After moving to Zagreb in 1891, Kovačić began working for the then renowned Zagreb builders and architects, Gjuro Carnelutti and Kuno Waidmann. On the basis of a recommendation letter by Kuno Waidmann, Kovačić got a job in Hermann Bollé‘s studio. Having worked with Bollé for five years, Kovačić decided to continue his education at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna, where he studied in the class of Otto Wagner, the most prominent architect of the Vienna Secession.
Upon his return to Zagreb, Viktor Kovačić wrote a programmatic text entitled “Modern Architecture”, published in the first issue of the periodical Život, the first theoretical text on modern architecture in Croatia. The stance taken by Kovačić in his text differed substantially from the practice in Croatian architecture at that time. In 1905, Kovačić was one of the founders of the Croatian Architects’ Club. The Club was active until 1914, and its members advocated the advancement of architecture and actively took part in organizing competitions. Kovačić was a lecturer at the Technical College in Zagreb as of 1920.
Kovačić often took part in competitions; however, many of his designs remained either unrealized or partially realized, in spite of receiving numerous awards. He built numerous villas and residential buildings. The first residential building Kovačić designed was the Oršić Divković House in Masarykova Street, where he, instead of receiving financial remuneration for his design and construction management, was given an apartment on the top floor. Today, the apartment is a memorial collection of the Museum of the City of Zagreb, providing excellent insight not only into the life and work of Viktor Kovačić, but also into the housing culture at the beginning of the 20th century.
Two major designs of Viktor Kovačić left a particularly strong mark on Zagreb’s architecture: the Church of St Blaise in Prilaz Gjure Deželića and the Zagreb Stock Exchange Palace. The Church of St Blaise is famous for its large reinforced concrete dome, the first of its kind in Croatia.
Viktor Kovačić died on 21 October 1924 in the middle of the construction of the Zagreb Stock and Commodity Exchange Palace, at the time when his second great dome was being constructed. A year after that, he was posthumously awarded the Grand Prix at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris.
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