Motif: Dubrovnik College Facade Already during the lifetime of St. Ignatius of Loyola, in 1552 f. Nicolaus Bobadilla was invited to Dubrovnik to preach. Later the Jesuits also used to come upon the invitation of the Dubrovnik archbishop of the Republic of Dubrovnik (Republic of Ragusa); they were invited first as missionaries and then as teachers. In Dubrovnik very soon the need was manifested for the Jesuits to establish a collegium – an institution for the education and upbringing of the youth. In 1634, when the Ragusan Jesuit, f. Marin Gundulić (1596 – 1647) left a rich bequest and assigned it for the founding of the Jesuit College in Dubrovnik (Collegium Ragusinum), what had to be done was to find a suitable location for its construction in the then heavily populated city at the time before the great earthquake. What must be emphasized is that f. Marin Gundulić was born in Ancona, and following his education in Italy he worked at various times in Dubrovnik. In the period from 1631 to 1634 he was the superior of the Dubrovnik Jesuit residence. Afterwards he returned to Italy where he performed the function of rector of various Jesuit colleges. Father Marin Gundulić was portrayed by the painter Domenico Peruzzini (1602 - after 1673), a native of Pesaro, who had a successful painter’s workshop in Ancona. The construction of the majestic St. Ignatius’ Church started in the year 1699. It was built according to the architectural-painting idea of the greatest and most eminent Jesuit master builder and illusionistic painter Andrea Pozzo. In 1653 f. Giovanni Canauli was appointed rector of the Jesuit community of Dubrovnik. He made a plan for the location of the college and church in the spirit of the Baroque urbanism according to which it was necessary to destroy the Chapel of the Holy Cross and some twenty dilapidated houses. After the Rector and the Great Council, as well as the ecclesiastical authorities consented to Canauli’s plan, in 1658 the new Jesuit rector, the Dubrovnik-born f. Orsat Ranjina started buying houses and building sites for the new college and church. The construction work started in 1662, based on the designs of the Jesuit father Serafin. Unfortunately, the construction undertaking was temporarily hindered by the devastating earthquake that occurred on the 6th of April of the year 1667. The raising of the church next to the college started rather late, on the 23rd of April 1699 by laying the foundation stone. The construction plan was completed by the well-known Jesuit architect and painter, Brother Andrea Pozzo (1642 – 1709) who was one of the most eminent architects of his time. As architect he has remained known by his unaccomplished project of giving a new Baroque appearance to the façade of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome and his constructions of St. Francis Xavier’s Church in Trento, the Jesuit College in Belluno and the Ljubljana Cathedral of St. Nicholas. The St. Ignatius’ Church in Dubrovnik is a typical representative of Roman Baroque architecture; however, Pozzo’s design had never been entirely realized because the construction of the church was extended in the course of a long time period. The apse of the main altar was painted by the Spanish painter Gaetano Garcia (from 1735 to 1738) according to Pozzo’s plans. In the upper part of the apse he painted frescoes depicting scenes of the heavenly glory of St. Ignatius; in the lower part there are three frescoes: the central one represents St. Ignatius, and the lateral ones represent St. Francis Borgia and St. Francis Xavier. The other paintings and decorations in the church were carried out in the period from 1894 to 1895 by the Jesuit Brother, assistant Antonio Moscheni who used to decorate Jesuit churches in India. The church keeps preserved one of the most valuable collections of Roman Baroque liturgical silver objects in Croatia. Leading to the church and college from the Gundulićeva Poljana square is the lovely Baroque staircase that was designed in 1738 by the Roman architect Pietro Passalacqua from Messina. The Venetian painter Bartolomeo Litterini (1669 – 1748) is the author of the three altar pieces or reredos in the Jesuit church: St. Augustine, Mary’s appearance at the Temple and St. Joseph’s death. To the right of the main entrance to the Jesuit Church there is the oldest Lourdes grotto in the Croatian southern regions; it was supplied in the year 1885. St. Ignatius’ Church is also the mausoleum of several Dubrovnik bishops: Msgr. Antonio Giurice (d.1842), Msgr. Tomasso Jederlinich (d.1855), Msgr. Matija Vodopić (d.1893.) and the Zadar archbishop, the Dubrovnik-born Msgr. Grgur Rajčević (d.1893). It was as early as the year 1555 that the Republic of Dubrovnik became interested in the new Jesuit religious order and asked St. Ignatius to send Jesuit Brothers to their city. The Jesuits had begun their continual stay in Dubrovnik since the year 1604. The echo of the effect of the Jesuit colleges in the neighbouring countries prompted the Dubrovnik authorities to concede the education of the Dubrovnik youth to the Jesuit order, so that in the year 1658 education was taken over by the Jesuit Fathers. The Jesuits in Dubrovnik, just like elsewhere, continued educating the young all through to the temporary abolition of this order in the year 1773. The Jesuit institutes were also important on account of the national unity – if our understanding of this term means that the concept of nation was linked to the same language; as a matter of fact, the Dubrovnik alumni from their college could also continue their education at the Illyrian College at Loreto or the Croatian College in Vienna. The Jesuit era of managing the Dubrovnik gymnasium is exceptionally important for a number of reasons. This was the era of general economic crisis that Dubrovnik met with as the result of the disastrous earthquake in 1667 and the difficult political circumstances that pursued this city in the following decades. The Republic of Dubrovnik was certainly aware of the need for education of their youth so that the authorities should get better managers and administrators. Among those who had been included in the Jesuit school system in Dubrovnik, where he received the elementary education, there was also Đuro Baglivi (April 8, 1668, Rome – June 17, 1707), the eminent physician of two Roman popes and professor of anatomy at the University La Sapienza in Rome. It is interesting that this famous Dubrovnik-born physician was portrayed by the Italian painter of Croatian origin, Carlo Maratta (Camerano, 1625 – Rome, 1713), who was his friend. His paintings are kept and preserved in the Jesuit Church of the convent in Dubrovnik. The most eminent pupil of the Dubrovnik Jesuit College was Ruđer Boškovoć (Dubrovnik, May 18, 1711 – Milan, February 13, 1787). His brothers, Petar, Ivan and Baro were also educated at the Dubrovnik College. Among the Jesuits in Dubrovnik there were also other active personages: the linguist Bartol Kašić (1570 – 1650), author of the Croatian grammar and author of the integral translation of the Bible and Roman Rite; the Italian linguist and lexicographer of Croatian origin Jakov Mikalja (1601 – 1654), author of the Croatian language manual Blago jazika slovinskog [Treasure of the Slavonic language]; finally, there was also the linguist Ardelio Della Bella (1655 – 1737). Among the pupils of the Jesuit College the following should also be mentioned: Benedikt Rogačić (1646 – 1719), who wrote an Italian grammar in Rome, at some time the most popular one in the Italian lands; Ivan Marija Matijašević (1714 – 1791), the author of the trilingual Italian-Croatian-Russian dictionary; Ignjat Đurđević, poet and prior of the Benedictine monastery on the island of Mljet. Owing to the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the College became the property of the Dubrovnik Diocese; they entrusted the native educated priests with the task of taking education. Later the education in the gymnasium was taken over by the Piarist Fathers (the Scolopi) who continued in this service all through to the year 1868. On account of the arrival of the French occupational forces (1806) to be followed by the Austrian forces (1814), the College building was turned into a military hospital. This situation remained unchanged all through to the year 1940 when the building was returned to the Dubrovnik Diocese and the seminary was moved into it. Nowadays the classical gymnasium “Ruđer Bošković” is housed on the premises of the College.
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