Famous Croatian novelist August Šenoa to get memorial in Prague

August Šenoa (Photo credit: speedygonsales/under cc)

ZAGREB, Oct 13 (Hina) – A memorial plaque will be unveiled in Prague on October 17 to commemorate 180 years since the birth of Croatian novelist August Šenoa, the Croatian-Czech Society announced.

The bilingual plaque has been installed on the initiative of the Croatian-Czech Society from Zagreb and the Croatian Embassy to the Czech Republic. It was put up on a building in Karlovo Namesti square where Senoa lived for a while during his studies at the Charles University Faculty of Law from 1859 to 1865.

The memorial was designed by Croatian architect Vlado Milunic, who has lived in Prague since 1956 and who is a co-author of the world-famous Prague building known as the Dancing House. The design and installation of the plaque was financed by the City of Zagreb.

The memorial will be unveiled by Croatian Ambassador Ines Troha, member of the Croatian Parliament and representative of the Zagreb mayor Vladimir Bilek, head of the Croatian-Czech Society Marijan Lipovac, and heiress of the Šenoa family Jasmina Reis.

(Photo: HINA Spiritoso)

According to the Croatian-Czech Society, Šenoa had distant Czech origins on his father side. His original family name was Sejnoha, which was later Germanised as Schonoa. He had used this form of his last name until 1860 when he first used the Croatianised form, Šenoa, in official documents during his studies in Prague.

Šenoa never completed his law studies in Prague because he mostly engaged in journalism, writing for Croatian and Czech newspapers and translating.

He died in Zagreb in 1881 at the age of 43.

(Photo: HINA Spiritoso)

The memorial plaque to August Šenoa is the eighth monument erected in the Czech Republic in the last ten years on the initiative of the Croatian-Czech Society to honour great Croatians and the sixth in Prague.