First president of Croatia will get a larger than life monument.
The contract on the design and construction of the statue of Franjo Tuđman was signed on Thursday by Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and the author of the monument Kuzma Kovačić. The contract was signed at the intersection of Vukovarska Street and the Croatian Fraternal Union Street in Zagreb, where the monument will be unveiled next year, reports Index.hr on April 20, 2017.
The author of the monument Kuzma Kovačić said that it would be made of bronze. It will represent a standing figure of Franjo Tuđman. He added that the height of the monument will be about three and a half metres, which is ideal for the location and large enough for the monument to also have a symbol value. Kovačić said that the monument would be placed on a pedestal, but it is still not certain what the height of the pedestal might be.
Kovačić hopes that his job will be completed within six months. “We have not yet determined when the monument will be unveiled, but I think it may happen next year, perhaps on the President’s birthday in May,” he said. “I hope that the monument will be as beautiful as the ones I have already done – those in Škabrnja and in Veliko Trgovišće, the President’s birthplace. Of course, this monument will be different, but it will express the same winning spirit, the spirit of love for the homeland,” the artist said.
Member of Parliament Miroslav Tuđman, the son of the first Croatian president, said that the sketch of the future monument was similar to the one erected to his father in Škabrnja, which he considered to be one of the best. “As far as the location is concerned, this location is far more appropriate than the one at the Franjo Tuđman Square,” he noted.
Mayor Milan Bandić said that in all his 17 years as the mayor he knew all the time that monument to Tuđman would be erected right there, on the meadows at the intersection of the two streets. “Thank you, God, that we have selected prominent Croatian sculptor Kuzma Kovačić to design the monument. It will be erected in the epicentre of the Croatian capital. We will have the most beautiful and the largest monument to the first Croatian president,” said Bandić.
“If he did nothing but three things, he deserves the largest and the most beautiful monument. These three things are: he was at the head of the movement which most clearly expressed the idea of an independent Croatia, he was at the forefront of Croatia when it was internationally recognized and he headed Croatia when it was reintegrated into its internationally recognized borders,” Bandić said.
