A Group Portrait with an Austrian Marshal, an Honorary Citizen of Ljubljana

Abstract

This article deals with two public monuments in Ljubljana dedicated to Field Marshal Radetzky, who lived in Ljubljana between 1852 and 1856 and was made an honorary citizen of the town. The first two public monuments erected in Ljubljana were dedicated to “Father Radetzky,” who was considered a “real national hero” by the Slovenians. However, when Yugoslavia was established as a South Slavic state in 1918, the two monuments dedicated to this victorious Austrian hero were no longer consistent with Slovenians’ changed self-identification. There was no room left in Ljubljana for this heroic marshal, who once fought the Italian rebels.

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Članek obravnava dva spomenika v Ljubljani, posvečena feldmaršalu Radeckemu, ki je v mestu živel med letoma 1852 in 1856 in je prejel naziv častnega meščana. Prva javna spomenika v Ljubljani sta bila posvečena »očetu Radeckemu«, ki je med Slovenci veljal za »pravega narodnega heroja«. Ko pa je bila leta 1918 ustanovljena nova južnoslovanska država, spomenika, posvečena zmagovitemu avstrijskemu junaku, nista več ustrezala spremenjeni identiteti Slovencev. V Ljubljani ni bilo več prostora za tega junaškega maršala, ki se je nekdaj bojeval z italijanskimi uporniki.