HOUSE OF BRLIC
This beautiful neoclassical one-story house, built in 1882 on the main town square, the popular Korzo, as the family home of the Brlić family, is today a cultural monument under protection. In the authentic historical ambience of the Brlić family home, they created and found inspiration for their many interests of personalities who significantly contributed to the public, cultural and political life of Brod and Croatia, among which the most important is certainly Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, a world-famous children's writer.
The monument composed during the laying of the foundation stone for the new house is dated August 23, 1883. The house was built by the builder Adolf Godt, who, together with Ignjat Brlić Jr., signed the monument. The project for the house was made by the architect Mathias Železny, which is also inscribed in the stone slab at the main entrance to the house. The contract was signed on July 7, 1883 by Ignjat Brlić Jr. and the builder Adolf Godt, and it states that the building will be fully completed by the end of 1884.
The study further states that the house was certainly completed by September 5, 1884, and an apartment for a coachman and a brick stable were built in its yard.
Ignjat Brlić Jr. died in 1892, and in the same year Vatroslav Brlić married Ivana Mažuranić and the young couple moved into a family house on the main ship's square. Since the couple had seven children, the house quickly became too small, which is why they bought part of the northern land and in 1894 upgraded the house for an additional three window axes. During the upgrade of the house, a memorial was reassembled stating that the construction work was led by Adolf Godt, the same builder who built the house.
The house of the Brlić family had two bars on its ground floor, just like the original wooden house. Although the family stopped trading after the fire, the newly built house also had shops on the ground floor that it rented to other merchants and craftsmen. Over the years, these areas have housed furniture, clothing and grocery stores, bookstores, printing presses, savings banks and cafes.
House of Brlic
The town was heavily bombed during the Second World War, but the Brlić family house was not affected, although three neighboring houses were destroyed in the 1941 attacks. In the period between the Second World War and the Homeland War, the house was very well preserved, its library and archives were open to the public, and the interior was decorated as in the time of Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, with original furniture and decoration, thanks to her youngest daughter Neda Brlić
House of Brlic
During the Homeland War, the archives and libraries were moved first to Varaždin and then to Čakovec; today it is located in the Croatian Institute of History - Branches for the History of Slavonia, Srijem and Baranja in Slavonski Brod. After the war, the house was closed. On the ground floor of the Brlić family house, there are showrooms of the Slavonski Brod Art Gallery. By a decision of the Ministry of Culture, the house was protected as a cultural monument on 23 September 2003 and entered in the Register of Immovable Cultural Monuments of the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Osijek.
(text by Mia Gašparević, Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, 2016)
