Crinoline of Love
The text of this marker appear in three languages: Croatian (left), German (center) and English (right). Only the English text has been transcribed. To view the text in another language, click on the marker image to enlarge and display them.
One of the most beautiful love stories from Croatian literature - The Love of Lieutenant Milić - is set in early 19th Century Varaždin and flowed from the nib of Ljubo Babić, better known by the pen name Ksaver Šandor Gjalski, who undertook his primary and secondary education in Varaždin.
The story begins at the moment when the Lieutenant saves the life of fourteen year-old Anastazija after she falls into the water to the Varaždin's "bašča' i.e. the nickname given by the inhabitants of Varažden to the embankment above the moat around the Old Erdödy Town where Anastazaija and her family lived. From that moment on the Lieutenant was welcomed everyday as a guest in their house, so when he was about to be sent to the front, Stazika (short for Anastazija) gave him an old family locket to protect him from mortal danger during the war.
On her birthday and the would-be wedding day, 29th September 1819, Stazika dies, and the distraught Lieutenant forgoes his military service and twice a day for the next 50 years visits her grave, walks around the bašča around
the castle looking at the window on which he always sees the silhouette of his predestined love. Certain about the day of his death, on 29th September Lieutenant Milić dies and is finally united with Anastazija.
By placing a padlock on Love Crinoline and by performing the symbolic vows of unbreakable love, you will become a co-creator of the sculpture. The uniqueness of Varaždin's universal language of love is the placing of a padlock on the crinoline to gradually build a sculpture with all the peculiarities derived from the color and shape of the padlocks used. To make the ceremony complete the keys for the locked padlock must be thrown down a well in the Old Town, near the window where Lieutenant Milić saw the spirit of his departed Anastazija, thus sealing the vow of unbreakable love.
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