History of the Brlić Family 01.07.2022.
Around 1725 a boy called Matija Brlić (1715-1784) came from the village of Dvor to Brod in order to learn the trade of abadžija.
This is the art of making gunjac, a coat worn by peasants, made of aba, a fabric woven from the hair of goats. At that time tailors who made such coats were called abadžije.
Matija married Mara Filajdić (1729-1788) and in 1757 they got a son, Andrija Antun (1757-1804). Andrija went to Osijek and there learned to become a merchant. After returning to Brod he accumulated a large wealth so that during the Napoleonic Wars Andrija provided food to the troops in Brod entirely by his own resources. Andrija Antun Brlić's son Ignjat Alojzije inherited the father's merchant business. Ignjat Alojzije also inherited from his father a love for books and started to sell books in the shop. Thus, we can say that Ignjat Alojzije founded the first bookshop in Brod. In addition, he was the author of „Grammatik der illyrischen Sprache“, at the time a well-known book published in three editions. Ignjat Alojzije passed on his affinity to literature to his son, Andrija Torkvat Brlić (1826-1868). The young Andrija showed versatile talents and the ability to achieve success in whatever he did. He was fluent in foreign languages, was secretary to Ban Jelačić and on friendly terms with Bishop Strossmayer. At the age of 22 he was appointed by Jelačić to a diplomatic mission in Paris. After that he returned to Brod and became a solicitor. In the period after the enactment of the Imposed Constitution in 1849, Andrija Tokvat Brlić continued to promote the ideas of Austro-Slavism and because of this was under constant police surveillance.
Andrija Brlić died at the early age of 42 leaving after him his widow Fanika Daubachy (1832-1882) and three children: two sons - Vatroslav (1862-1923) and Dobroslav (1863-1921) - and a daughter, Tugomila (1865-1877).
Fanika remarried Andrija's brother, Ignjat Brlić junior (1834-1892). When Vatroslav turned 20, his mother died and Vatroslav and Dobroslav continued to live with their elderly uncle Ignjat. Just a week after Ignjat's death in 1892, Ivana Mažuranić (1874-1938) arrived as a young bride to the house of Brlićs.
