In the center of Zagreb, in the street that today bears the name of Nikola Jurišić, a Croatian nobleman, military leader and diplomat from the 16th century, at number 24, there is an artistic treasure hidden from the public eye.
photo: Robert Choban...
We are talking about the stained glass windows that still decorate the windows around the staircase of this three-story building, and in 1924, exactly 100 years ago, they were painted by the famous Serbian artist Sava Šumanović.
In that year, namely, Aladar Baranji made an adaptation of this building, which was built in 1902 for the Jewish family Dajč Maceljski.
Jurišićeva Street in the urban landscape of the city of Zagreb began to take shape very late. Until 1878, it was called Puževa Street, and it stretched from Petrinjska Street to Vrtlarska Street (today Palmotićeva Street). During the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was just a winding path through which the Medveščak stream flowed in one part, feeding the surrounding fields and gardens. Namely, the entire area between today's Jurišićeva, Petrinjska and Draškovićeva streets was covered by cultivated agricultural land. According to historian Franja Buntak, residents of Vlaška Street and members of the guilds of furriers, harness makers, saddlers, tailors and shoemakers had gardens, fields and arable fields there.
Today, Jurišićeva is home to some of the most expensive real estate in Zagreb.
Through the massive wooden door we enter the lobby of the building at number 24 and right there, at the very beginning of the staircase, we are greeted by the first of Sava's six stained glass windows.
photo: Robert Choban...
Five of them remain intact, while one is missing the lower part, the body of a woman who spins wool. However, an identical motif is repeated on another stained glass window, so it is possible to reconstruct how it looked. Other pictures represent men and women, a peasant, a woodcutter, a mother with a baby, a woman with a basket containing bread...
By the way, the Dajč Maceljski family, which built this three-story building, was famous for its timber trade in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Thanks to the father of the family, Filip Dajč, Emperor Francis Joseph I granted them the Hungarian-Croatian nobility with the addition of Maceljska, towards the Maceljska forest in Zagorje, on the very border with Slovenia, at the end of 1910.
In 1860, Filip Dajč opened a modest trade in Zagreb, which quickly progressed thanks to the sudden development and growth of Zagreb into an industrial, commercial and cultural center. Due to the increase in demand for construction wood, the company began to deal with forest production and processing of coniferous wood, and from 1884, much more profitable oak, retaining the production and trade of firewood and technical wood, as well as boards.
Filip's company exploited many forest lands, among them the forest of the noble family of Sermage in Hrvatsko Zagorje, the forest of Česma near Bjelovar and the state forest of Žutica. Many family members perished during World War II and the Holocaust.
...CROATIA SHIRLI TEMPLE: Lea Dajč
Lea Daich (1927–1943), the youngest actress who ever appeared on the boards of the Croatian National Television (at the age of 5), also belonged to the Daich family, so she was called the "Croatian Shirley Temple".
On the night of May 2-3, 1943, the Gestapo and Ustaše arrested all the remaining Jews in Zagreb, 1.700 of them, including their mother, brother, and Leo. They were deported to Auschwitz in a cattle car in which there were 75 people. 25 of them died in the wagon, Lea was one of them. She was 16 years old. Witnesses say that Leah's heart broke with grief because she could not bear the pain and bitterness that befell her. Lea's mother and brother were killed in the gas chamber immediately upon arrival, while her father met the end of the war in the hospital where he was hiding. Stjepan Dajč died in 1959 in Zagreb, he was buried in the Jewish part of the Mirogoj cemetery, and Lea's picture is on the tombstone.
photo: Robert Choban...
Vanja Dajč Macieljski, Philip's great-granddaughter and daughter of Robert and Hilda Dajč Macieljski, also survived the Holocaust. Robert, who was killed in Auschwitz together with his wife, had one of the largest collections of art paintings in Zagreb, which included numerous works, from old masters to modern painters such as Milivoj Uzelc, who also immortalized his daughter Vanja on one canvas.
As Vanja had no heirs, her daughter Beth Bird Poker is now looking for the paintings that were taken from the Dajč family by the Ustashas and are in several Croatian museums.
When in 1924 Sava Šumanović painted the stained-glass windows near the staircase of the Dajč Maceljski house, neither he nor the people who commissioned this work of art could have imagined that in less than two decades they would all become victims of Nazi insanity.
