The House of Petar Stanković
The House of Petar Stanković
The construction of Petar Stanković’s house (fig. 8) in Barban began in 1810, after the death of his father. The house is located between the houses of his grandfather Martin and his father Anton. It consists of a ground floor, two floors and an attic with a gable, and was built according to Stanković’s own designs. It was completed in 1813, and at that time Stanković had a stone relief of the municipal coat of arms engraved with the crown of the margraviate in the sense of Austrian rule.
Today it is privately owned, so it is not possible to visit it, but in honour and memory of Petar Stanković, the “Petar Stanković Memorial” is held every year.
Biography
Petar Stanković (Pietro Stancovich) was born in Barban on February 24, 1771. In Barban there is the classicist house of P. M. Stancovich from 1838. Stanković was a priest, but he dealt with various fields; archaeology, linguistics, he recorded folk customs, dealt with inventions, zoology, botany, etc. Two of his inventions for processing olives earned him international reputation as an inventor.
He published 23 books with about 3,000 pages, and some of his unpublished works have been lost. He left his library with several thousand works to Rovinj, and it is kept in the Rovinj Regional Museum under the name “Stancoviciana”. A number of his manuscripts are in Pula.
The Stancoviciana contains a number of manuscripts, translations, notes from philosophy lectures at the Udine seminary in 1792, a volume on physics with about forty different technical devices, and books he wrote himself on various topics.
There is also a series of books about Istria by various authors from which he drew his knowledge of Istria, but which he used to write his book “Biografia degli uomini distinti dell’ Istria” (“Biographies of Famous People from Istria”). Stancoviciana also contains several books in Croatian, a series of works by classical Roman and Christian writers, old maps, and printing rarities: aldines – books printed by Aldo Manuzio (1449-1515); plantines – books printed by Christoph Plantin (1520-1589); elzevieri (books printed by the Elzevier family in the Netherlands in the 17th century); books printed in Venice at the beginning of the 16th century in the printing house of the Giunta family; books printed in France in the second half of the 18th century in the printing house of the Didot family.
Pietro Stancovich claimed, among other things, that St. Jerome was from Istria, which is what a number of experts believe today. He corresponded with numerous intellectuals from the Italian and Croatian circles outside Istria.
He died in Barban in 1852.
The Petar Stanković Memorial
The Petar Stanković Memorial is held every year in Barban in memory of a priest who was much more than that. The memorial is actually a presentation of his versatility and personality through a diverse cultural and artistic program that presents well-known and lesser-known names, such as our Istrian historians, professors, artists, writers, and Barban poets.
The program aims to remind the people of Barban and introduce all other guests to the significance of Petar Stanković’s unique work for Barban and Barban history, which he left behind after his death, 160 years ago, and was buried in the Barban cemetery.
The most important goal is to emphasize the importance of new cultural content, and this event represents the introduction and preservation of our cultural and historical heritage.
