September 20, 2020 - The city of Split has issued a call to restore the former monumental Bajamonti fountain in the city center near Sv. Frane Church.

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that the monument, which is better known to us as Bajamonti, was not called that in its time, and it got its name because of the diligent efforts of the then-mayor Antonio Bajamonti to erect the fountain. The main restoration project should be completed in 60 days, and the estimated value is around 100,000 kuna.

Before submitting an offer, the bidder should inspect the existing documentation, which is available on request at the Split City Museum by e-mailing Marijan Cipcic, the documentation states. For those who do not know, Cipcic is the president of the Cultural Heritage Friends Association and was appointed by Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara to lead the project.

"The main project needs to be prepared following the existing documentation. After signing the contract, the investor undertakes to submit to the developer the existing documentation according to which the main project is prepared," it is pointed out on the City's website where it is stated that the conservation study was made by Katja Marasovic, academician Nenad Cambj, and Ivana Prijatelj Pavicic, and the detailed design for the restoration of the monumental fountain was made in 1991 by Jerko Marasovic and Marija Marasovic. The one chosen by the City will receive "original photographs of the monumental fountain from the City Museum".

The deadline for submitting bids is short - only eight days, and the project must be completed within two months.

Split kroz Povijest

It is important to point out that Opara's government also gave up on the tender for the fountain design and the arrangement of Franjo Tudjman Square, which was supposed to be conducted in 2016. What will a replica of this monumental fountain look like in the middle of traffic chaos, surrounded by motorcycles, bicycles, taxis, a bus turnaround, and numerous traffic signs?

As Drazen Pejkovic, urban planning advisor to the then-mayor Baldasar said four years ago, the tender was to solve the sculpture of the fountain and the space, to be applicable for various purposes, including occasional events, such as concerts.

"Within all topics related to the urban-architectural tender, defining the fountain's shape is the backbone of the future solution. The author's proposals for the future fountain's typological solution should be connected and harmonized with the organizational, installation, functional, and traffic elements of the solution, which must be following the overall urban ambiance of the Riva" said Pejkovic.

The monumental fountain was of cultural importance because it marked the arrival of public drinking water in Split. It also had the then urban significance for the view of the coast and the visual connection of the Riva with Prokurative (but not a special artistic value). Bajamonti, which was an allegorical monument, was not without political symbolism.

The then-mayor Antonio Bajamonti, a staunch autonomist, who was already an irredentist at the time, ordered the Monumental Fountain in Milan in 1880, in the last year of his (city) term as mayor, when he lost the support of the majority Croatian people. In the same year, dissatisfied with Vienna's introduction of the Croatian language in Split schools, he sent his private militia, the "bersagliere," to the local people who were celebrating.

The sculpture at the top of the fountain, according to the entry about Bajamonti in the Italian encyclopedia "Treccani," represented Dalmatia, and with its left hand pointed to the Danube, reminiscent of the borders of the Roman Empire, with the importance of the former Salona to take Split.

Some of our experts claim that the hand was pointing towards Bosnia as a direction with which Split should be economically connected. However, it did not point to Zagreb because Bajamonti was against Dalmatia's unification with Croatia and Slavonia.

The fasces held in the hand by a young man on top of an allegorical sculpture was taken over from ancient Rome in the 1870s by Italian nationalists and irredentists, after Italy's unification, to emphasize the need to unite all countries they considered their own. There was a tendency to mitigate this symbolism in our country by interpreting it as a matter of unity of citizens.

In 2016, the tender failed because the conservators voted against the restoration of Bajamonti.

According to the document from 2016,  signed by the head Dr. Radoslav Buzancic, Dr. Sandi Bulimbasic, and Dr. Ambroz Tudor, the conservators decided to arrange the location on the site of the former fountain, in height and width but expressed concern that the restoration for which there is no precise documentation would be kitsch.

In this way, they challenged the conclusion previously made by the City Council to make a monument, "which will largely respect the appearance of the old fountain demolished in 1947".

After it was previously unequivocally established that the original fountain could not be restored, this formulation opens the possibility of all kinds of imitations, even the lowest quality, because even the worst imitation will be closer to the competition propositions than, for example, top work, observed in an authorial way, the conservators noted in their assessment, adding that the restoration is being avoided today because it is not an original monument.

Also, conservationists have called for establishing an expert commission to determine the propositions for the tender to avoid poor results. But, this tender, which was planned in Baldasar's time, was not even started, as soon as it was realized that the restoration would continue.

Mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara has thus connected with the Cultural Heritage Friends Association. Then, some claim, to avoid local experts, they sought the opinion of the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage for a conservation study.

"The conservation study has been completed and sent for expert opinion to the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage, an advisory body of the Ministry of Culture for performing professional and other tasks in the field of protection and preservation of cultural heritage. After that, my appointment followed," Marijan Cipcic said last year.

If the study, based on which the developer of the main project is requested, does not have the conservator's consent, the insiders claim that it is illegally skipping the Conservation Institute.

The investor can appeal to the second instance within the Ministry of Culture, a higher instance in the Cultural Heritage Administration, against the decision of the regional conservation institute, but cannot skip the entire conservation institution, so within the UNESCO zone work only based on the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage.

Slobodna Dalmacija asked Cipcic whether they have the consent of the Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage and the conservators.

"The Croatian Council for Cultural Heritage did not discuss the conservation study for the restoration of the Monumental Fountain. When the preparation of the main project for the renovation of the Monument, for which a call for bids was published on the City's website on September 15, is completed, the entire document will be submitted to the competent authorities for further action," said Cipcic.

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August 30, 2019 - Mayor of Split, Andro Krstulović Opara, has appointed Marijan Čipčić, an employee of the City Museum, and professor of history and archeologist, as the coordinator for the restoration of the Monumental Fountain (Bajamonti Fountain) on the Riva. This is the first step in the long-standing debate over the reconstruction of the fountain, which was one of the most important city symbols in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

Recall, the Monumental Fountain was conceived by the then-mayor Antonio Bajamonti as the crown of the great event - the restoration of the water supply system from the Jadro, which still gives Split drinking water a thousand and a half years later.

It was commissioned in Milan in 1880, and water flowed from it ten years later, three months before Bajamonti's death. It has also been considered a symbol of the community of citizens, since it was funded by residents of all classes, from bishops to the poor. 

Its pools and allegorical figures symbolized the river Jadro and the Adriatic Sea, as well as mythological sea creatures, and the figure of a young man at the top of the fountain with his hand extended to the east referred to the economic orientation of Split towards the hinterland and Bosnia. Soon the fountain became an indispensable protagonist of city postcards, family photographs and monographs of Split.

It was demolished by an unknown decision of the Communist authorities on May 30, 1947, crushed with dynamite and used as a mound in road embankments, and several fragments were rescued by the Solin painter Vjekoslav Parać.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of Split’s older generation, a replica of the fountain was erected to film the Miljenko Smoje series 'Velo Misto', and whole families came to take pictures in front of the never forgotten stone beauty of Split. Unfortunately, more than thirty other public fountains and smaller fountains were erected on city streets and squares when restoring Diocletian's aqueduct in the 19th century. However, only a few smaller ones survived, and two larger ones in Đardin and Pazar.

Since the 1980s, several initiatives have been made to restore the fountain, which the new Split named 'Bajamontuša'. The first in 1990 was prompted by the restoration of the monument to Ban Jelačić in Zagreb's main square.

At the beginning of the 2000s, new initiatives were created, more than 12,000 signatures were collected, and after months of deliberation by the Monuments and Streets Commission - since no original documentation was available to allow the fountain to be reconstructed - a compromise solution was made to build a fountain that would maximally respect the appearance of the original, which was accepted by the City Council.

The initiative for the restoration of the Monumental Fountain on the Riva in Split, formed in 2016, was the most vigorous in proving that the fountain could be replicated, several models were made, and documentation was collected, but no concrete steps were taken.

In March this year, Mayor Krstulović Opara did not announce how conditions were met for the fountain to be restored. In the Split budget for 2019, HRK 250 thousand is planned for the Monumental Fountain, while HRK 2.5 million is set aside for 2020, and HRK 5 million for 2021, which amounts to HRK 7.75 million or about one million euros over three years. 

The named coordinator Čipčić said that his tasks were defined: proposing procedures for the implementation of the Monumental Fountain, monitoring the implementation of activities, proposing the dynamics of drafting technical documentation, preparing and monitoring information and educational activities, and reporting to the mayor on the dynamics of the project.

“The fact that the mayor has appointed a coordinator for the reconstruction project demonstrates that there is a strong will to finally and in the near future resolve the issue, to the delight of the many Split citizens whose ancestors co-financed its construction. Initiatives for its renovation date back to the late 1970s when a model was temporarily installed to film the series 'Velo Misto'.

After the Commission for its Restoration was established at the Friends of Cultural Heritage Society in 2005, the restoration initiatives were intensified. I recall on this occasion the decisions of the City Council of 2006 and 2016, which decided that the Monumental Fountain would be restored, and Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara, following these qualities, included the funds for its reconstruction in the budget for this and next year,” says Čipčić, and reveals:

“The Conservation study is completed, which was sent for expert opinion to the Croatian Council for Cultural Property, the Ministry of Culture, and an advisory body for performing professional and other tasks in the field of protection and preservation of cultural property. My appointment followed this,” he adds, and points out that it is difficult to talk about deadlines the same day he was appointed to the position of coordinator.

“Everyone has their own opinion and that is quite legitimate. The vast majority of our fellow citizens are in favor of rebuilding the Monumental Fountain, as evidenced by various initiatives and signed petitions. But what is certainly important to emphasize here is that the decisions to renovate the Monumental Fountain were made legitimately within the institutions. Here again, I am reminded of the 2006 and 2016 City Council decisions.

That's the merit of things. The renovation of the fountain on the waterfront in Split will re-enrich this space, as it ideally agrees with the close architectural forms of that part of Riva. The act of its restoration will correct one major historical injustice,” concludes Coordinator Čipčić.

You can read more about the fountain here.

Translated from Slobodna Dalmacija.

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A look at Bajamonti fountain in history with the help of Facebook group Split kroz povijest.