Dušan Samuel Jurkovič (August 23, 1868, Turá Lúka – December 21, 1947, Bratislava) was a founding figure of Slovak and Czechoslovak modern architecture. He also worked as an ethnographer, constructer, and entrepreneur. Following the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic, he served as government commissioner for the protection of monuments in Slovakia, and laid the foundations for the preservation of the country’s monuments. In 1946, he became the first architect to be awarded the title of National Artist. Shortly afterwards, however, his name fell into obscurity (paradoxically, Jurkovič's brickworks in Trnava were nationalised immediately after the war), and members of his family were forced to move out of Bratislava during the 1950s as part of so-called Action B. It was not until the early 1960s that Dušan Jurkovič was symbolically restored to the ranks of the most important figures in our culture. The M. R. Štefánik cairn at Bradlo, built in 1928 according to his design, was declared a national cultural monument in 1968. Since 1964, the best new architectural works in Slovakia have been accorded the Dušan Jurkovič Award, an honour established by the Union of Slovak Architects (ZSA) and currently awarded by the Slovak Chamber of Architects.
The Dušan Jurkovič Monument in Bratislava is part of the pantheon of Slovak personalities from the fields of science, technology, and culture. The pantheon, an initiative of the city, began to take shape on the on the banks of the Danube during the second half of the 1960s, and followed modification of the banks and the construction of a travertine wall by the architects Ivan Szalay and Ivan Matušík.
In 1973, the monument was symbolically erected near the then headquarters of the Chief Architect's Office. However, the building was demolished in the 1990s, and in its place stands part of the Riverpark development complex. This altered the proportions of the embankment, and also the historical context of Jurkovič's monument.
The monument features a modestly conceived, larger-than-life figure standing upon a three-tier granite pedestal. The pedestal, embedded in a more recent square platform of polished stone tiles, has a finely textured surface. Its main section comprises a slightly bevelled block deeply carved with the inscription ARCHITECT/DUŠAN JURKOVIČ/1868–1947. The architect, depicted in a thoughtful pose, is wearing a suit and work coat, has his hands at his sides, and holds a pencil in his right hand. In contrast to the austerely represented figure, the sculptor focused attention on detailing the architect's face. The portrait has realistic features and depicts Dušan Jurkovič in mature, even old, age. In addition to archival photographs, his sources may have included watercolour portraits by the painter František Hlavica from Vsetín in Wallachia. Jurkovič formed a close friendship with him and often visited him and his family, including in 1947, just two months before his death. One of Hlavica's most striking portraits of Dušan Jurkovič, painted in the 1940s, can be found in Bratislava in the administrative offices of the former ZSA, now the Slovak Architects' Association.
The modest, even minimalist, design of the monument makes no reference to the architect's work from the first half of the 20th century, to his most famous works, or to his other activities. Perhaps it is due to this that the monument survived the iconoclastic period of normalization in the mid-1970s, when Jurkovič's name once again fell from favour and disappeared from the professional press. In 1975, the Dušan Jurkovič Award was renamed to the neutral ZSA Award. The monument has remained all this time in its original location on the riverbank, surrounded by ornamental shrubs and trees.
In 2010, during redevelopment work on the riverbank, the monument was moved a few metres closer to the Riverpark complex and placed at the intersection of pavements and cycle paths. This proved problematic, as the monument was designed to be viewed from the front, not from all sides, and had been slightly recessed to avoid interfering with movement on the promenade. Other monuments were similarly placed along the promenade.
ZD
Research status as of 30. 07. 2023.
