This Croatian island has produced the most academics in the world
The island of Hvar represents a unique sociological-anthropological phenomenon because there are as many as 24 academics from there, which is what the ten-year multidisciplinary project “Decade of Academics of the Island of Hvar” deals with, says deputy project manager Tarita Radonić.
It is the island with the largest number of academics in the world, claims Radonić and explains that, based on the consensus of their team, Hvar academics are considered to be all regular members of the academies of sciences and arts born on Hvar, as well as those originally from the island, i.e. whose first and other family ancestors from Hvar.
“According to our current analyses, Stari Grad can boast of six academics, while Brusje has five. Šime Ljubić, Tomislav Raukar, Nikša Stančić and Jorjo Tadić were born in Stari Grad, while Tonko Maroević was born in Stari Grad to his mother and father, and Antun Šoljan to his father. Mate Hraste was born in Brusje, and Kažimir Hraste, Marin Hraste, botanist and virologist Davor Miličić and cardiologist Davor Miličić also came from there,” says Radonić.
“Decade of academics of the island of Hvar (2025-2035)” is a long-term project whose goal is to celebrate academics from Hvar through interdisciplinary research, documentation, contextualization, presentation and public communication on a discursive and visual level.
Hvar, Croatia (Unsplash)
The goals include collecting, analyzing and presenting the biographical and bibliographic material of Hvar academics, preserving their tangible and intangible heritage and legacy, analyzing and contributing to the understanding of the phenomenon of Hvar as an island of academics, and establishing this phenomenon as an important segment of the development and promotion of cultural and scientific tourism on Hvar.
Prominent cardiologist Davor Miličić told Hina that the “Pharos” Institute recently signed an agreement on cooperation with HAZU on various projects, with an emphasis on the promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of Hvar, about which expert and scientific meetings will be organized.
Miličić is proud of Hvar, where he spends every summer, he has a grandfather and is attached to the island, but he regrets that in recent years it has become a tourist place for entertainment, which often forgets and neglects its extremely valuable cultural and historical heritage.
He reminds that 99% of people who visit Hvar most likely do not know that the oldest city theater in Europe is right there, nor do they know about Ivan Vučetić, the inventor of dactyloscopy, who had a dramatic impact on world criminology.
The cult of education has never been so pronounced
“In the past, people on Hvar considered the education of their children the greatest achievement. For example, in Brusje, in the 19th and 20th centuries, people used to “split their mouths” in order to send children to gymnasiums and universities. “Probably nowhere in Croatia was the cult of education as pronounced as on Hvar, especially in Brusje,” says Miličić.
On Hvar, there are not only academics, but also university and high school professors, teachers, doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, engineers, journalists, painters, sculptors, musicians and other highly educated people. There are plenty of them originally from Hvar, proportionately more than anywhere else, he pointed out.
Hvar, Croatia (Unsplash)
Director of the International Institute for Science, Art and Culture “Pharos” Pero Lučin reminds that the institute was founded by a group of university professors, scientists and artists from Croatia, Austria, Australia and the USA, who are connected to Hvar by family or love.
“It is a kind of platform for thinking about and solving social, cultural, health, economic, ecological and other challenges related to Hvar, as well as the wider Dalmatian and Mediterranean region,” adds Lučin.
“Pharos” – International Institute for Science, Art and Culture aims to develop and lead scientific-research, educational, artistic and interdisciplinary processes in the direction of building an active and sustainable community.
Who are Hvar academics?
Among the academics are lawyer Jakša Barbić, internist and toxicologist Tihomil Beritić, poet, literary historian and critic Marin Franičević, writer Marin Franičević Pločar, pathophysiologist Stjepan Gamulin, academic sculptor and graphic artist Kažimir Hraste, chemical technology engineer Marin Hraste, philologist and dialectologist Mate Hraste, writer Živko Jeličić, literary historian and lexicographer Nikica Kolumbić, academic sculptor Kuzma Kovačić, historian and archaeologist Šime Ljubić, literary theorist, essayist, poet and translator Mladen Maciedo.
Also, art historian, writer and translator Tonko Maroević, botanist and virologist Davor Miličić, cardiologist Davor Miličić, architect Velimir Neidhart, historian and archaeologist Grga Novak, historian Tomislav Raukar, anthropologist Pavao Rudan, lawyer and politician Davorin Rudolf, historian Nikša Stančić, writer Antun Šoljan and historian Jorjo Tadić.
Source: BIZLife/HINA
Photo: Unsplash
Source: bizlife.rs
