April the 17th, 2022 - Could the Sibenik bridge become a cultural monument? Maybe. The bridge was the first in the whole world to be completely built with a revolutionary cantilever construction technique and stands out from the crowd of similar structures for several reasons.

As Morski/Ivo Glavas writes, when the Sibenik bridge was inaugurated on July the 27th, 1966, spanning 246 metres, it was one of the five longest arch concrete bridges in the whole world. However, only one such bridge in northern Sweden was built before the end of World War II in 1943, and the remaining three bridges only a year to two before the Sibenik bridge came to be. Unlike the Swedish one, which saw the tragic deaths of 18 workers and was being built for almost six years, the Sibenik bridge was built without any human casualties in less than three years, writes local portal SibenikIN.

The Sibenik bridge was the first in the world to be completely built with a revolutionary cantilever construction technique

Although not the longest, Sibenik bridge is the most famous of all arch concrete bridges in the world, having been built with the so-called cantilever procedure, then a completely new technique of building arch bridges. Since way back during Roman times, arch bridges have traditionally been built by placing wooden scaffolding under the bridges themselves. With the increasing spans of bridge arches, the scaffolding beneath them became increasingly complex, so their design was a serious engineering task.

Such complex scaffolding had to be well supported on the ground under the bridge. The problem occurred when you had to construct a bridge somewhere and you couldn’t lean on the ground below it. In addition, wooden arch scaffolding was very dangerous and often collapsed, with catastrophic consequences and the terrible loss of multiple human lives. 

A terrible storm at the end of May 1962 destroyed the scaffolding of the Pjenavac bridge in the Moraca valley in neighbouring Montenegro, which caused the tragic deaths of as many as 25 workers. Out of a sense of deep guilt, the chief engineer took his own life shortly after.

When the great French engineer and bridge builder Eugene Freyssinet set out back in 1951 to build three arched concrete bridges on the Caracas-La Guaira motorway in Venezuela, he was aware of all the problems that came with scaffolding. He solved them with a revolutionary cantilever construction process, meaning he only needed a classic wooden scaffolding for the central part of the bridge. Until he applied the cantilever method, Freyssinet also had serious problems building bridges. After a storm in 1922, the wooden scaffolding of the bridge over the Seine near Saint-Pierre du Vauvray in France collapsed. Following Freyssinet's idea, but improving his work, the builders of the Sibenik bridge constructed it in its entirity it in a cantilever manner without needing any support on the ground.

Eugene Freyssinet is an engineer celebrated in France and around the world, he built bridges in France, across the rest of Europe, but also in the Americas. He was a pioneer in the use of prestressed concrete to solve the problems of large-scale concrete structures, such as bridges. In addition to bridges, he was also known for building large concrete halls to accommodate aircraft at several French airports. Freyssinet was not, of course, the inventor of these new, revolutionary construction techniques but was best known for applying new technologies.

The builders of the Sibenik bridge, Ilija Stojadinovic and Stanko Sram, have sadly been almost forgotten

French builder Eugene Freyssinet is a common name when it comes to bridge construction around the world. This is usually the case when you are a member of a great European and global nation. The architects and builders of the Sibenik bridge on the other hand, are almost unknown because they came from the then socialist Yugoslavia, a country completely closed off to the West at the time.

The Sibenik bridge was designed by a Serb, an engineer from Belgrade, Ilija Stojadinovic, and the construction was led by a Croatian engineer, Stanko Sram. The Stojadinovic-Sram team designed and built the most important Croatian arch concrete bridges, including the Pag bridge. Shortly after the construction of the Krk bridge, in 1982, Stanko Sram became a full professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Zagreb. During that same year, Ilija Stojadinovic died, and he has no street, square or bridge in Serbia named after him. Probably because he ''bridged'' Croatia, and not his homeland. That is why Stanko Sram dedicated a major book on building bridges to his colleague and friend Ilija, published back in 2002 in Zagreb.

Professor Stanko Sram built a large number of bridges in the then socialist Yugoslavia. In addition to those already mentioned, it is enough to list just a few more: the Freedom Bridge (Most slobode) and the Jankomir Bridge in Zagreb, the old Maslenica Bridge and the pedestrian bridge in Zadar. After a severe tragedy on the construction site of the Pjenavac bridge in Montenegro, Stanko Sram took over the construction. Instead of using dangerous scaffolding, he built the bridge using safer steel scaffolding. Sram then worked for a Yugoslav company called Mostogradnja, which specialised in building bridges.

Could the Sibenik bridge become a Croatian cultural monument?

Sibenik boasts a lot of truly unique items, already having two cultural monuments on the deeply desired UNESCO list. Sibenik's historic core with all of its ancient fortresses could have been on that list, but that’s a different (and a very long) story. As we've seen, the Sibenik bridge is also unique, but is that a sufficient criterion for a building to become a cultural monument in Croatia?

When we think of cultural monuments, we usually think of objects or things that are more than a hundred years old, with the period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as the typical general border. However, many buildings built after the First and Second World Wars also have great architectural values. Not only architectural but also urban because without these buildings, Sibenik as it is today is unthinkable. Whether or not the Sibenik bridge could join this ancient Dalmatian city's long list of such treasures is certainly something worthy of a debate.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

July the 19th, 2019 - A look at yet another valuable piece of UNESCO heritage – the Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik. The cathedral was constructed between 1431 to 1535, works that lasted for almost 105 years, and it represents one of the greatest examples of monumental arts in Northern Italy, Dalmatia, and Tuscany from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The cathedral was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list back in 2000, and the criteria for its inscription were the structural characteristics of the cathedral which make it unique.

The cathedral of St. James is considered one of the most valuable architectural work for the aforementioned period in Croatia, and it represents the most significant monument in Šibenik.

UNESCO/YouTube

The cathedral is a unique example of European sacral architecture based on its beauty, construction technique, and style characteristics. The three architects responsible for its construction were Francesco di Giacomo, Georgius Mathei Dalmaticus, locally known as Juraj Dalmatinac, and Niccolo di Giovanni Fiorention, locally known as Nikola Firentinac.

The cathedral has successfully blended both Gothic and Renaissance forms.

It is the only cathedral in Europe made entirely of stone, as no wooden architectural elements were used for its construction. It is also the first building in Europe where its construction was based on the unique system of inter grooved stone plates. A structure like this didn't exist before the 19th century, in addition to all of that, it is the only structure with an outside volume which corresponds entirely with the shape of its interior.

St. James' Cathedral is well known for its iconographic innovation, and what is uniquely recognisable are its outdoor decorations, with 74 head sculptures from the then contemporaries of Juraj Dalmatinac. This is the biggest and the best quality gallery of portraits displayed in the form of a public monument on a sacral object in Europe.

The dome, formed in a semi-circular shape, was built entirely from stone by the montage way of building. The front of the cathedral has Renaissance and Gothic elements made both by Juraj Dalmatinac and Bonino da Milano.  

The cathedral is built on the south side of the central city square in the old town centre on the location of then Romanesque church of St. James. The idea of creating a large cathedral first began in the 13th century, when Šibenik got its bishop's residence and earned its city status. Construction then began in 1431, lasting for 105 years until 1536.

REDERLights/YouTube

The construction began in Venetian Gothic style and finished in Tuscan Renaissance style. This Šibenik cathedral boasts a three-nave basilica and is 38 metres long and 14 metres wide. Its highest point is the top of the dome.

The architects in charge of construction during the first decades of the 15th century were Venetians Francesco Giacomo, Antonio Busato and Lorenzo Pincino. They worked on the cathedral together with Šibenik stonemasons Andrija Budčić and Grubiša Statčić. In 1441. Juraj Dalmatinac was appointed as proto-master and worked on the construction of the cathedral until his death in 1475. As the master of the late Gothic flower style and a pioneer of Gothic-Renaissance style in Dalmatia, Juraj Dalmatinac changed the initial plan for the church and gave it monumental importance.

After the death of Juraj Dalmatinac, Nikola Firentinac continued the construction in Renaissance style. Due to the fact that the cathedral wasn't finished, Venetian architects Bartol and Jakov from Mestre and Mestičević from Zadar took over the construction.

The central part of the cathedral is the baptistery, which represents the creative synthesis of two different art styles of the first half of the 15th century – the Late Gothic and the Early Renaissance periods. The cathedral represents the first finished work of architecture in Renaissance style, constructed only twenty years after the real beginning of the Renaissance in Tuscany.

The baptistery has many decorations, mostly of human images. Juraj Dalmatinac made four sculptures, of which just two have remained preserved. The baptistery has reliefs with angels, cherubs' heads, the image of Father God and the dove that represents the Holy Spirit. The centre of the baptistery has sculptures of three naked boys in movement. 

From the 16th century onwards, after the end of the cathedral's construction, there have been continuous reconstruction and renovation works, mostly for leaking issues. In the second half of the 19th century, there was more significant reconstruction, and then after the Second World War came to a close, another reconstruction began.

During the Homeland War during the 1990's, the dome was damaged and reconstructed in 1997, but there is a constant need for restoration even today.

St. James' Cathedral is a masterpiece made during times when the art was flourishing in Europe, and it has remained until this very day as a piece of priceless heritage for the world to come and admire.

Cities in 4K/YouTube

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SOURCE(S): UNESCO, TZ Šibenik-Knin County, TZ Šibenik, Šibenska biskupija