Festivities to Mark Demolition of Foundation Hospital

At the beginning of 1931, a tender was announced for demolition of the Foundation Hospital. Four construction companies responded and requested millions of dinars. A construction entrepreneur Dragutin Peška from Soblinec near Sesvete caused a sensation by not only not asking for a large sum, but actually offering money to demolish the building. He reckoned he would make profit from selling building materials of the Foundation Hospital. Peška was humorously nicknamed the last surgeon of the ol’ hospital in the satirical magazine Koprive. After completing the task, he organised a festive celebration, a public festivity, which featured a whole ox on a spit. In addition to photographs, we bring you a news article from the Večer daily newspaper about this celebration:

The weather is stabilising and so the last of preparations are being made for the big “Purger” celebration on the Foundation site at Jelačić Square. Construction site is being tidied and levelled, the scene of countless battles that begin tomorrow. At the Rabus factory, an ox has fallen under the butcher’s knife this morning, so that it can be brought to Zagreb today in the afternoon to be roasted on a large spit, which will bear the weight of its 500 kilograms until tomorrow afternoon. Peška, Ivanko, Badl, the organisers of this festivity, are slowly bringing large and small offerings for bellies of the people of Zagreb. Invitations are sent out, but Peška asked us to publish his invitation to invite everyone, even those who did not receive an invitation, to ensure the best possible outcome for the city’s poor, for the benefit of whom the tickets are sold. The interest in the “Purger” celebration is growing more and more and the sky is being scrutinised with great trepidation, forecasts are made and the results are arrived at, that tomorrow the weather will be good after all. Who would otherwise come and tackle those numerous piglets, lambs, the roasted ox, those vast two-litre bottles and mugs and barrels from the cellar of Peška’s house. Just yesterday afternoon, there was a large crowd at the construction site of the Foundation Hospital watching the scene of tomorrow’s celebration. Today, all morning, people have been coming and showing interest in setting up tents, where the piglets and lambs will be roasted, and for the spot of the great martyr of the hospital, the 500-kilogram ox from Sesvete…”

(D. B.)

Izvori:

1. Bjažić Klarin, Tamara. 2010. Zakladni blok u Zagrebu: Urbanističke i arhitektonske odlike. Prostor. 2/40. 323-335.
2. Posljednja žrtva. 1931. Večer. p. 1.