ZAGREB, April 10, 2018 – An exhibition called “Who Were Those Terrible Croats?”, presenting a collection of archival material regarding the participation of Croats in the Thirty-Year War (1618-1648), opened on Tuesday in the Croatian State Archives (HDA) in Zagreb.
The Thirty-Year War was one of the most significant conflicts in European history, the exhibition’s author Damir Stanić said. Even though it started as a conflict of the Catholics and Protestants within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and the religious issue was very important throughout the entire war, several European countries became involved in the war for their own particular, often secular interests, Stanić added.
Croatian soldiers had a prominent role in this pan-European conflict and due to their characteristic war methods, they incited both contempt and respect, he underscored.
The exhibition presents material concerning the participation of Croats in the war that are kept in the Croatian State Archives, the Zagreb Archdiocesan Metropolitan Library, the Austrian and Slovenian state archives and the Vienna Museum of Military History and the Army Museum in Stockholm.
The material presents some topics that have not yet been researched about the history of Croatian units in the Thirty-Year War, their participation in battles, the problem of violence, their appearance and equipment and even some personal biographies.
A conference will be held in the Croatian History Museum – “Sword, spear and a barrel of gunpowder,” which will attempt to present a visualisation of this pan-European war.
The curiously-titled exhibition will remain open until June 7.
