Old postal routes - the old road Majstorska Cesta
Trusted and timely news have always been an important factor in the initiation and development of all the important processes in human society. The prerequisite for any organized transfer of news is existence of good, passable roads, which is why the history of old postal routes in Croatia corresponds largely with the history of old Croatian roads.
It was during the mighty Roman Empire, which was famous for its system of well-organized and well-maintained roads, that the territory of modern-day Croatia got its first good-quality roads. Roads that passed along the valleys surrounding the rivers Drava and Sava in the then-province of Pannonia, as well as those that stretched along the Adriatic coast in the province of Dalmatia, were traversed by a courier service called cursus publicus. Roman roads were carved deeply in the landscape of this region and they were used for centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, enabling the movement of goods, people and news.
Ever since the earliest times, the biggest challenge in terms of transport was how to connect Croatian continental and coastal regions, which implied passage over the mountain range of Velebit. Around the 16thcentury, transport connections in this part of Croatia were threatened by constant Ottoman raids and conquests. After the Ottomans were banished at the turn of the 18thcentury, the Monarchy entered into a period characterised by development of commerce and transport, which included the traffic connection between the Pannonian region and Northern Adriatic, partly by waterways, along rivers Sava and Kupa to Sisak and Karlovac, and from there in the form of caravan traffic towards Bakar, Rijeka and Senj.
Within only a single century, a series of important mountain roads were built on major mountain passes of Velebit. The Karolina Road, which connected Karlovac and Rijeka in 1728, enabled significant growth in the transportation of goods, but also a growth in postal services, which is the reason why this road is often referred to as the Postal Road. In 1779, the Josephina Road connected Karlovac and Senj, but one of the most cutting-edge mountain roads in Europe at the time was the Louisiana Road, which was completed in 1811 and stretched from Karlovac to Rijeka. These macadam (crushed stone) roads were designed so that two carriages or stagecoaches can pass by each other at any section of the road. There used to be milestones placed along the roads, spaced apart at the distance of one Austrian postal mile (7.5 km), and their remnants can still be seen today.
An example of excellent construction skills is the Majstorska Cesta road, going over Velebit and connecting Zadar and the region of Lika along the Obrovac – Podprag – Mali Alan – Sveti Rok route. It was built from 1825 to 1832 and it is considered the first modern road that connected continental Croatia and Dalmatia. It was designed by a famous road designer of the time, Military Frontier officer Josip Kajetan Knežić. Owing to the exceptional quality of design and construction execution, this road was dubbed “Majstorska Cesta”, which means “Master Roadbuilder's Road” in Croatian. By end of 1833, there were weekly stagecoaches going from Vienna to Zadar and back. Majstorska Cesta road was included in the List of Protected Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia in 2007 and it is one of only a few old Croatian roads that have kept their original form.
The colour lithograph shows a motif from the Majstorska Cesta road: St. Francis Chapel in the village of Podprag, and a stagecoach in front of the chapel with the postillion blowing a post horn. The lithograph is the work of an unknown artist. It was printed by the Antonelli Printworks and is kept nowadays in the State Archives in Zadar. The chapel was built in honour of the then Emperor Francis Joseph and it was dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. It was designed in the classicist style by Italian architect Valentino Presani. A commemorative plaque was installed inside the chapel in 2001 in memory of Croatian soldiers who lost their lives defending outposts across Velebit during the Croatian War of Independence.
Vesna Lipovac
HT Museum, Zagreb
