The Ham Nomads

20 Apr 2015. <HR> Osijek, & Kopacki, Slavonika —

Red trucks seem to travel in convoy!

Serbian surveillance?

Up into Osijek. This is a very interesting city. There is an old part of town called Tvrđa (pronounced [tvrʤa]), meaning 'Citadel'. This is an eighteenth century area of cobbled streets, developed from 1687 when the Hapsburg armies defeated the Ottomans here, moved the heart of the city westwards to where it is now at Gornji Grad, and redeveloped this area as a fortified settlement with barracks, staff headquarters, monasteries and churches. It is now a well preserved complex of open squares and Baroque buildings.

We parked just outside Tvrđa — one thing we can say about Osijek is that parking is easy — walked in to eat and explore, finding a very helpful tourist office in there as well. In Tvrđa are quite a few stately homes, now reassigned to other uses, like the Museum of Slavonia (Musej Slavonije), — closed on Mondays!) and there is also the Parish Church of St Michael (Župna crkva sv. Mihaela, a striking yellow church with twin towers topped by metallic onion-shaped domes (closed except for mass times).

We then then continued along the Drava riverfront. One of the major historical structures of Osijek is conspicuous by its absence -- the famed 'Bridge of Osijek', built by the Ottoman Turks in the 1566, and which linked the fortress of Osijek on the south bank of the Drava with the fortress of Darda, about 8km northwatds, using a pontoon bridge across the Drava and then a raised road on wooden pylons across the swamps of Baranja. It was burned in 1664 by the Croatian noble Nikola Subić Zrinski during the war against the Turks. But we did pass by the Bridge of Youth (Most Mladosti), a striking pedestrian suspension bridge across the Drava, built in 1979, and continuing on to the main centre of Gornji Grad.

In the main part of town, we checked out the shops, and then ventured into the Concathedral of St Peter and Paul (Konkatedrala sv. Petra i Pavla), a tall red brick edifice right by the main square. You enter this by a smaller door to the right of the main entrance, overlooked by a trio of ferocious-looking gargoyles. The entrance to the cathedral is very dark — you almost think the place is closed for the season — but then you come out into this treasure-trove of neo-Gothic decoration. Most of the stained glass (but for two magnificent rose windows in the transepts, and a couple of the other windows, are new or have been substantially repaired. (The replaced windows have dedications acknowledging those who sponsored the work — like the Cities of London and New York.) Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on 26 June 1991, and the cathedral — indeed the whole of Osijek — was the subject of a sustained barrage by Yugoslavian (read 'Serbian') troops from August 1991 to mid-1992, and periodically from then on until substantial Croatian victories in the field in August 1995 finally brought about the end of the Croat-Serb conflict. The cathedral also has magnificent frescoes created between 1938 and 1942 by the leading Croatian painter Mirko Rački — but these frescoes have also suffered during the conflict, and virtually all bear shrapnel wounds! We were shown round the place by a most enthusiastic local, who is passionate about his cathedral! He pointed out that there is a website where we can visit the cathedral again in our own time — www.svpetaripavao.hr — although the text is in Croatian — good luck!

Fresco of St Paul (with the book)

Fresco of St Peter (with the keys)

We then went out of the central area, moving back towards our parked van. On the way we passed the Monument to Defenders, in Trg Slobode, a tribute to the Croatian soldiers who fought in the 1991 war. Part of this memorial is a statue of a walking man, which has been taken as the model for the walking man image in pedestrian lights throughout the city — so, in effect, every pedestrian traffic light will now be a war memorial! It's such recent history that most people here lived through it, and they're unlikely to treat it lightly. In any case, many of the buildings around you still carry battle scars.

We then walked out Europska Avenija. This wide, tree-lined boulevarde has at its beginning a group of houses on its northern side, numbers 12-22, which are one of the best collections of Art Nouveau houses in the region. They are now rather tired, but they still show signs of their old glory.

Nearing where we had parked the van, near the front entrance of Tvrđa, we walked through the King Držislav Park (Park kraja Držislava), where there is a sculpture, the Dying Soldier by Robert Frangeš-Mihanović (1872-1940), originally intended as a World War I memorial, but now a memorial for all conflicts. 

Finally back in the van, we drove out to a campsite we had found through the Garmin, but also which had been recommended by the tourist office in Tvrđa. This was about 13km north, a small property nestled between two farms. The tourist season hasn't really started here yet, so they were surprised to see us, but they couldn't have been more welcoming. We settled in for a quiet night.

Distance driven — today, 45 miles ( 73 km ); to date, 18,527 miles ( 29,817 km )