But how?
The Maestral Bay of Zadar is full of old Italian villas of different architectural styles, most of them built in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the oldest is the Villa Attilia. Approaching her courtyard you can see the head of a sphinx watching you from a lush garden over the fence. This is a pretty unusual sight in Europe, so let's see how it ended up here!
In memoriam...
The story starts in the year 1901 when the artist Giovanni Smirich completed the construction of the Villa for his family. He named the Villa after his wife, Attilia. Giovanni was an Italian noble from Croatia, and studied art in multiple Italian art centers like most of Zadar’s Italian nobles. He was a painter, curator and conservator. He met his wife, Attilia Spineda de Cataneis in Italy. They had 5 children, and as you can see plenty of space for a big family. A couple of summers later after moving into the Villa his wife died. Giovanni mourned a lot for his wife, and being an artist he decided to build the Sphinx as a monument to his wife. He died a couple of years later as well. The entire property was later given to the city as a public space, presumably by his children who moved away from Zadar.
Romance with a hint of the occult
The entire complex was designed with a classical and romanticism way of thinking, and it was once probably the most exotic spot in the town. It’s said both Giovanni and his wife were into the occult, hence the unusual style on all architectural elements in the garden.
Treasure hunt
Many stories, gossips and legends arose about the sphinx, such as a treasure being buried under the sphinx, or an entire room with chairs and tables. Someone once even claimed Giovanni’s wife was so ugly, that he constructed the sphinx with her face, out of revenge. But that of course is a hoax, and there are plenty of photographs of his wife, clearly showing how beautiful lady Attilia was. Due to such legends certain parts of the sphinx were damaged by attempts of excavation by locals who thought they could get rich by excavating something that certainly didn’t belong to them…
Revival?
Today the sphinx is in need of a serious restoration, as well as other parts of the complex. But all that requires manpower and money to cover the costs. For years it has been a junkie meeting ground, until a couple years ago. But the place is still neglected and damage is spreading, from time to time the grass is cut by the towns utility companies and that was all. Recently in 2019, a rumor is circling, but this time a good one! Its said that the town wants to invest money into an official restoration and inclusion of the Attilia courtyards into the regular tourist routes, which is really awesome if it's true.
The forgotten artist
Interesting fact was also that Giovanni was Zadar’s first conservator, and curator of the Archeological Museum of Zadar, and despite all this never received any recognition after death, not even a street with his name.
But that's not all!
Tomorrow I will show you some more details and closeups of the Sphinx but also the Villa and other architectural elements in the garden. So come again if you enjoyed my STEEMIT MYSTERY so far :)
Have a good one my Steemian friends!
- Check out other related posts:
- STEEMIT MYSTERY part 1
- Part 3 coming soon
Thank you for reading! <3
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