Dobrović in Dubrovnik: A Venture in Modern Architecture

Dobrović in Dubrovnik traces the past and the present of avant-garde modern architecture constructed in the nineteen- thirties, in the Mediterranean landscape of the south Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. Comprehensive historical, theoretical, and phenomenological readings of events and forms, in two essays by architects Krunoslav Ivanišin and Ljiljana Blagojević respectively, describe a specific yet, by its spirit, universal Venture in Modern Architecture. Spatially condensed to an area within ten square miles and temporally to less than ten years, these quintessentially modern villas, gardens, and hotels built seventy years ago by the architect Nikola Dobrović (1897–1967), are presented through previously unpublished original design drawings, black and white photographs from the period of their construction, and the contemporary color photographs by Wolfgang Thaler. The color plates depict precisely the beauty in decay of heroic works of international modern architecture and convey admirably their meaningful Mediterranean resilience.