Monograph "The Kastav Painting School" presented

On Tuesday, the book "The Kastav Painting School" by author Željko Bistrović, who has been professionally dealing with the area and topics related to Kastav for many years, was presented at the House of Frescoes in Draguć, Istria. The research and production of the book were led by the Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria, one of the six partners in the INTERREG project Terra Gothica Incognita.

This is an extensive work that examines in detail the phenomenon of the local painting school active during the last third of the 15th century across the territories of Croatia and Slovenia. The Kastav Painting School, led by prominent workshop masters Vincent and John of Kastav (Vincent and Ivan iz Kastva), left behind a legacy of some of the most valuable and famous cycles of Late Gothic wall paintings on the Istrian peninsula and neighboring regions, such as the frescoes in the churches of St. Mary on the Rocks in Beram, St. George in Lovran, the Blessed Virgin Mary in Božje Polje, the Holy Trinity in Hrastovlje, St. Helena in Gradišče pri Divači, and others.

As a reminder, the main goals of the Terra Gothica Incognita project are to preserve the shared cultural heritage from oblivion and decay, its tourist valorization through the development of a cross-border cultural-tourism destination and cross-border products, the implementation of various methods of heritage interpretation and promotion to raise awareness among the local population about its importance and potential, and to revive a shared cultural identity. More about the project can be viewed here.

Source / photo: PPMI

The project is co-financed by the Office for Associations of the Government of the Republic of Croatia