The cover art features a unique vase by the Samoborka crystal works commissioned in the 1960s during the period when our headquarters were opened; just a part of the fine interior furnishings created by the leading national artists of the time.
This year’s first issue of our monthly Matica magazine celebrates the seventy unbroken years of activity since the inception of the Croatian Heritage Foundation, an institution whose unequivocal dedication has seen it survive shifting fortunes and a turbulent history, as discussed in detail by Hrvoje Salopek. The cover art features a unique vase by the Samoborka crystal works commissioned in the 1960s during the period when our headquarters were opened; just a part of the fine interior furnishings created by the leading national artists of the time.
This issue also kicks off a new series that will look at various aspects of Croatia’s rivers in this year’s monthly editions. Through our sections on history (Marin Knezović), endemic species of flora (Darko Mihelj), the sociological puzzle (Nino Sorić), cues in communication (Sanja Vulić) and our newest column on botany (Nika Jakab), the year’s opening double issue details the Kupa, our longest river, which springs in the Gorski Kotar region and joins the Sava River near the city of Sisak. Sisak and nearby Petrinja were hit by an earthquake late last year.
In his continuing look at Croatian musicians Davor Schopf delves into the brilliant career of the late opera singer Biserka Cvejić (née Katušić), who spent much of her youth in Belgium.
Looking forward to the translations and publications of new books we look at literary activity among the Bačka region Croats, the late Ante Sekulić and Antun Vidić, a book by Svjetlana Lipanović on Croatian artists in neighbouring Italy, and Flora Croatica, a collection of books long-awaited in Croatian botany.
We look at a number of prominent people of Croatian background: Antonio Skármeta in Chile on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, artists Karen Oremuš of Canada and Michael Barbarić of the United States of America, and the young and enterprising Swiss born Croatian Tihana Jana Vukić.
In her column Click: Going Home Vesna Kukavica looks at 2021, a Year of Reading in Croatia. In the same vein we look at the twentieth anniversary of the creation of a replica of a fifteenth century Gutenberg-type printing press in the town of Roč in Istra County, a hub of Glagolitic writing and printing activity in the medieval period.
In our continuing look at Croatian language lectors abroad we present experienced lector Katja Peruško in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.
Željko Rupić continues to keep us abreast of current events, sports, and news from the State Office for Croats Abroad.
Our long-time columnist Šimun Šito Ćorić speaks in favour of on-the-job kindness, a sentiment our editor Ljerka Galic wholeheartedly echoes and offers as her overarching message in this year.
Find the double issue at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/km66wo9uc37g4a7/Matica%202021_1-2%20(za%20web).pdf?dl=0
Content
Columns
11 Global Croatia
18 Croatian Musicians
32 The Sociological Puzzle
35 Cues in Communication
38 The Botany of Our Rivers
42 Zoology
58 Click: Going Home
68 Movement/Aberration
4 In focus: news from the State Office for Croats Abroad
6 70 years of the Croatian Heritage Foundation
12 Zagreb’s homeland monument
16 50 years since the founding of a Matrix Croatica member’s club in Paris
20 Writer Antonio Skármeta’s 80th birthday
22 An online conference on joint projects with Croatian minority enclaves
24 Croatian audio guide to Kiev’s Holodomor genocide museum
25 The literature of the Bačka region Croats
29 Croatia’s rivers: the Kupa
36 Some thoughts on the history of the Kupa River
44 Petrinja: wounded by the recent earthquake
47 The St Lawrence church in Petrinja
48 The Templar church in Gora
50 Artist Michael Barbaric of Arizona
52 Canadian painter Karen Oremuš
54 An interview with Tihana Jana Vukić
56 A hospitality industry training programme for the handicapped in Australia
60 Twenty years of the Roč printing press replica
64 New books: Svjetlana Lipanović
65 New books: Flora Croatica
66 The Croatian lector in Lisbon
70 In memory of Snježana Hefti and Josip Seršić
71 Sports news
74 Crorama
By: Ljerka Galic
Lead
The cover art features a unique vase by the Samoborka crystal works commissioned in the 1960s during the period when our headquarters were opened; just a part of the fine interior furnishings created by the leading national artists of the time.