As part of the restoration work on several buildings in Split's Pjaca, the reconstruction and adaptation of the historic Hotel Central is still the cause of most attention. And no, not only because this complex of some 3,000 square meters has been included on the list of immovable cultural goods, but also because of the long and painstaking procedures required to get the job done at all, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on January 26, 2019. 

The hotel, according to the estimation of architect Vlasta Marčić, should be open by spring 2021, and that is precisely when investor Anka Kerum should also welcome the first guests. Until then, a team of some twenty people, not counting the immediate workers on the site, have an incredible job ahead of them in renovating the oldest hotel in Split, and perhaps even wider.

“Your given this job once in a lifetime,” answers Vlasta Marčić about how the Central hotel is the most challenging job she’s had as an architect.

“But this is Central! This is just the heart of Split; the building boasts antique, medieval, Renaissance, and Secession layers. This building has not only historical and tourist value, but great cultural and sociological significance and is part of the collective memory of this city. This is a building that cannot be reached by truck, that is suffering from infrastructure problems as is most of the city center. This building has a specific static, on which excellent work is done by Dalibor Bartulović, probably one of the best experts in his field. In addition to all that, this is a building that has undergone a lot of painstaking property and legal clearance over the last decade, which changed the owners, and at that time changed the legal regulations as well as the position of Split on the tourist market,” says Marčić.

Apart from the renovation story, Hotel Central also has a prime cultural and social theme, written by today's already late scientists as well as contemporary, living writers.

“After all, in 1927, the hotel Central was awarded the gold medal at the grand international exhibition in Liège 'for the devices, equipment and the overall modern comfort of the hotel'," recalls Tatjana Zahra, who, together with her husband, Franz Zahra, is responsible for the architectural design of the interior. 

“It's a great honor to do such a job, and I believe that a real sense of satisfaction will arise when the work enters the final stage.”

“For now, as interior architects, we are dealing with the functional side of the job,” adds Franz. "It will take some time to devote ourselves to what you are most interested in, and that is the interior of that final, design sense. That part, that final work is the most attractive but costs the most. For now, we are dealing with the simplicity of organizing the space, because this is a hotel. The hotel has to work perfectly; it must have access to the service department, the food, the guests. It will have an elevator, which was very troubling for us, and we designed it in the space of the former skylight, and we put the kitchen in the space of the former casino. The staircase and the iron fence will be completely preserved, as well as the façade, that is understood, and we will try to use the parts of woodwork as much as possible, wherever it is justified,” says Zahra and announces that it won’t be a replica, but an interpretation of the spirit of the former interior.

The architects didn’t want to talk about the budget of the works. However, it is unofficially known that Anka Kerum received a loan for 37 million kuna which the EU stimulates as investment in tourism, out of which 13 million kuna was awarded free of interest. The whole amount needed to restore the Central is not known. 

“The hotel will have 30 rooms, almost twice as less than before,” says Vlasta Marčić.

“Everything has changed since the hotel was last renovated, which was some fifty years ago in 1961. Standards have changed, expectations have changed, and today it is clear that a four-star hotel, as the Central will be, everything must be first-class, from the size of rooms and bathrooms to the elevators and comfort in every detail. And, in any case, the impression of the Central was not only of comfort but also of urban, gentleman’s elegance and the European elite,” says Marčić.

Excerpts translated from Slobodna Dalmacija 

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The numerous conservation and restoration works in the Split Pjaca, as well as the initiatives of private owners on objects in the area, testifies to the fact that the famous square will shine again, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on January 22, 2019. 

While we know that Pjaca is still one of the central squares in the city today, it has transformed into one big construction site. Fortunately, its presence today hopefully guarantees a better future.

Most of the work is carried out under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, i.e., the Conservation Department in Split. Works are taking place on the old town hall, the hotel "Central" is seeing a renovation, and it is expected that the City and the private owner of the "Morpurgo" bookstore will reach an agreement so that the cultural good will open its doors again. 

Furthermore, the Nakić house, whose ground floor has long been a bookstore, is to be renovated, and one shop inside the Pjaca has already returned its exterior to its appearance at the beginning of the last century. 

From the 13th century, the Pjaca was the center of the city; the pulse of life in the city. The houses of the nobility and the communal palace gave the square a representative look, and before the Venetian restoration of the square in the 15th century, which demolished the church of Sv. Lovre, the square was enlarged to the north.

The buildings of the Papalić palace, the homes of Marulić and Karepić and the other residences of old Split families, gave a vibrant new look to the early Renaissance square, although it was half the size of the area today.

In the southeastern part, there was a block of houses that, several centuries later, were redeemed and cleaned by members of the noble Capogrosso family. On the ground floor of these houses were shops, some of which were renovated in the 19th century to cafe “Seleban”,  after "Troccoli".

Between the two wars, the “Central" hotel was built in the Pjaca - and after many years of neglect, its renovation began last autumn, which was preceded by extensive research and technical documentation. After the completion of the works, expected in the summer of 2021, the hotel will be restored to its old, but completely refurbished appearance.

In the middle of the 19th century, the northwest part of the Pjaca was demolished, where there was a monumental section of the Venetian Rector's Palace with a theater. The square was extended to the west from the Pavlovć Palace, today the Hotel Judita, to the Nakić house, which was erected at the end of 1900 according to the project of archaeologist Špiro Nakić.

“Only the town hall remains from the Rector's Palace complex, which was restored in a detached building according to historicist designs from the end of the 19th century,” explains Dr. Radoslav Bužančić, Head of the Conservation Department of the Ministry of Culture.

“Its modern renovation is under preparation, technical documentation has been completed and a thorough remodel of the city's exhibition palace is about to begin. The City Hall gallery will receive better working conditions, lifts for disabled people, and completely restored spaces without columns and interior enclosures that have excessively burdened the exhibition space. 

The rotation of the business premises of the former famous bookstore Morpurgo, which became a symbol of Split's people, is also under preparation. After the reconstruction is completed, this area will continue being a bookshop, the same as in the western part of the square, in the Nakić house, which will also be completely renovated. On the ground floor, where there was the 'Miroslav Krleža' bookshop, apart from shopping facilities, one bookstore will continue to operate,” says Bužančić.

Vlasta Marčić, an architect who is working with a large team of experts on renovating the Central hotel, admits that the Pjaca area, as well as the hotels owned by Anka Kerum, is extraordinarily complicated and demanding because the historical layers cannot be avoided. 

Namely, the hotel itself has evident architectural and stylistic traces that lead to the late antiquity in the far past, through the Renaissance until the transition to the 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore, after many years of battles with papers, permits, utility problems, and conservation requirements, they’ll also need some luck.

Translated from Slobodna Dalmacija. 

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