The Ivan Goran Kovačić Memorial Museum in Lukovdol

Croatian History Museum
permanent exhibition

Author of exhibition and catalogue:
Lucija Benyovsky, M.A.
Exhibition design:
Nikolina Jelavić-Mitrović
Graphic design for catalogue:
Digitaldizajn, Rajko Marković, M.A.

The Museum in Lukovdol is open:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 10:00 – 17:00 hrs.
Thursday and Sunday: 10:00 – 14:00 hrs.
Closed on Mondays.

The Museum is closed from 6th September to 12th September 2010.

Ivan Goran Kovačić
Croatian man of letters, poet, writer, journalist and freedom fighter
(Born in Lukovdol, 21 March 1913, died in the vicinity of Foča, 12 July 1943)

Following his childhood and education in his hometown of Lukovdol, Goran enrolled at the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy for Slavic Studies but soon dropped out and devoted himself to writing and journalism. He worked as a journalist and editor for the Croatian Daily and the News and, following the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, in the Croatian Publishing Bibliographic Institute. At the end of 1942, together with Vladimir Nazor, he joined the Partisan movement. Under never clarified circumstances he was killed by Chetniks on 12 July 1943 near the village of Vrbnica in the vicinity of Foča, thus realizing the prophecy from his poem My Grave.

The new display was opened on 11 July 2003 and it was designed on three levels, according to the most modern museum principles. Numerous photographs, documents, books, personal, artistic and ethnographic objects are on exhibit. The permanent exhibition (on the first floor) deals with Goran’s life and literary work in the context of socio-political events on the eve and during World War II, his relationship towards his native soil and his significance and contribution after his death.

GORAN AND HIS HOME
Lukovdol is a town along the Zagreb-Rijeka road, in a valley about 5 km from Severin na Kupi. Given that it has been continually inhabited since the Middle Ages, today Lukovdol is the center of a municipality made up of a dozen villages and hamlets with about 250 inhabitants.
The Ivan Goran Kovačić Memorial Museum was opened in Lukovdol on 8 June 1975. The Museum operated within the Museum of the Revolution of the People of Croatia up until 1991, when it came under the management of the Croatian History Museum. The Museum was opened in the house where Croatian poet, writer, journalist and freedom fighter Ivan Goran Kovačić (1913 – 1943) was born. The house at number eight was built by Goran’s grandfather Ivan Kovačić in 1905 on the main street, after the old wooden house was destroyed in a fire in 1903. It is a stone town house next to the elementary school (built in 1874) and across the road from the parish church of the Divine Virgin Mary in Heaven (built in 1604) and a small graveyard. Goran’s brother, Oton Kovačić, renovated the house in 1932, preserving the original facade of the old house and adding an extensive and well-lit veranda. There was a general store on the ground floor (today it is used for temporary exhibitions, for the guard and the library).
The permanent exhibition is made up of several thematic units:

1. GORAN AND LUKOVDOL
The largest room presents a reconstruction of “Goran’s room”: wardrobe, chest, bed (with photographs of Goran’s parents Ivan and Ruža, née Klein, hanging above it). We have exhibited the Kovačić family tree and, in a glass cabinet, objects dealing with Goran’s schooldays in Lukovdol. Goran was educated in Lukovdol, Karlovac and Zagreb, where he enrolled for Slavic Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy (he dropped out after six semesters). Numerous photographs (with family members and townspeople) are testimony of his life in Lukovdol, where he often resided. Goran was delighted with the policies of the Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) and its leader Stjepan Radić. Goran held a speech in Lukovdol on 8 August 1935 commemorating the seventh anniversary of the death of Radić.

2. GORAN, MAN OF LETTERS
The central room reconstructs Goran’s work area and presents Goran the journalist and writer. After 1936 Ivan Goran Kovačić worked for the Croatian Daily, first as reviser, associate and then as editor of the cultural and entertainment section. In mid-July 1940 he worked on the editorial board of the News. Goran’s book Days of Anger from 1936 (the only work published during the poet’s lifetime) is prominently exhibited. This room also displays Goran’s typewriter, radio, personal items and a glass cabinet with Goran’s “library” from his apartment in Zagreb. There is background music in this room. Goran liked to write while listening to music.

3. GORAN JOINS THE PARTISANS
The smaller room (formerly kitchen) displays Goran’s life in the Partisan movement and his most famous work The Pit (all war-time editions are exhibited). In deteriorating health because of tuberculosis (he was treated in Brestovac in 1938 and 1939) and together with friend Vladimir Nazor he joined the Partisans at the end of 1942 (photograph taken by Mladen Iveković). Under never clarified circumstances he was killed by Chetniks on 12 July 1943 near the village of Vrbnica in the vicinity of Foča. His prophecy from the poem My Grave (1937) was realized. In this room there is background music and Arsen Dedić recites My Grave.

4. GORAN AND HIS NATIVE SOIL
The special room, the so-called veranda, is dedicated to the history and culture of the region of Gorski Kotar, especially Lukovdol. Lukovdol was Goran’s “permanent love” and literary inspiration (kajkavian dialect lyrics, the cycle Fires and Roses, which Goran wrote in the dialect of his region, Kekavština).
Lukovdol is one of the oldest towns in Gorski Kotar (it is first mentioned in the Urbar Modruški in 1481). We have displayed panoramic photographs of Lukovdol from its beginnings to the 1930’s, the Zrinski-Frankopan Castle in Severin na Kupi (built in the 15th Century), where Goran’s grandfather was steward, the 17th Century church of St. Francis Xavier (near the hamlet of Rtić in the vicinity of Lukovdol), hiže (old houses) in Lukovdol and the vicinity of the Kupa river. On exhibit are (ethnographic) objects used in Lukovdol homes.

5. GORAN’S SPRING
This theme is presented in the hallway. Picture walls hold photographs and documents from the poets’ manifestation Goranovo Proljeće (Goran’s Spring) that takes place every year since 1964 on Goran’s birthday, 21 March, in Lukovdol. At the end of the hallway is a bookshelf with a selection of books, editions of Goran’s works from 1945 – 2003, a sculpture in bronze of Ivan Goran Kovačić made by sculptor Velibor Mačukatin.