The precious bas-relief of the century-old educational and health institution is what caught my attention when I received the information from the Croatian postal service that took me to this beautiful capital, which once formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire and more recently the Republic of Yugoslavia.
The stamp (with a face value of 3.10 kunas, approximately half a euro per copy), is a sculptural work carried out by Robert Franges Mihanovic and to which he gave the title Medicine. The design was by Alenka Lalic and the photo was taken by Marko Ercegovic. It began to circulate on December 4, 2017 and was printed in sheets of sixteen copies.
The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zagreb has a really young history, especially when compared to other similar ones, barely a century old. Although, if we were to investigate the science that cares for health, we would find data from the Middle Ages when the practice of medicine and specialized teaching might be established in these parts.
The academic year would officially begin following the end of the Christmas and New Year holidays: it was January 12, 1918.
After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the nations that then began their journey as independent states had to manage and equip themselves with all kinds of institutions to shape the new political and social reality. In the case of medicine, it took shape in the parliamentary deliberations of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. It was on January 25, 1917 when Milan Rojc suggested to the government of the time the creation of the Faculty of Medicine in that same academic year and the ban (governor; the statue that one of these characters has in the historic center of Zagreb is impressive, where by the way, no one scourges it and shines with unusual cleanliness) approved the petition, began the journey the following autumn, exactly on November 12, and this task was assigned with the famous University Law in its article 82. The responsibility fell on Miroslav Cackovic, Dragutin Mases and Teodor Wickerhauser, a trio that was in charge of selecting the rector and proposing the corresponding faculty.
Classes began in December and the academic year would officially begin following the end of the Christmas and New Year holidays: it was January 12, 1918. In the first school year there were 63 students enrolled and the formal opening of the course gave I begin with the famous lecture by Drago Perovic on “Academic management in scientific work in the field of anatomy”.
The first rector took charge the following May and was one of the proponents of creating that faculty: Miroslav Cackovic, who would be impelled to undertake the adaptation of the buildings in Salata, at the same time that he tried to cover the basic needs of the entire staff involved in this challenge, including the selection of faculty to teach classes and train future Croatian doctors.
During its century of life, the institution demonstrated that the agreements initiated and doubts regarding its viability would be left behind, especially when new batches of brand-new doctors began to emerge who would end up enhancing Croatian medicine at the time and no longer had the need to go to the great universities of the once all-powerful Habsburg empire.
His texts published before 2015
170 • 172 • 174 • 182 • 184 • 186 • 188 • 190 • 199 • 204 • 207 • 209 • 211 • 213 • 215 • 237 • 253 • 255 • 257 • 267 • 273 • 281 • 291
