bg Osijek

Hugo Spitzer House

- Europska Avenija 14 -
The construction of the two-story building, which was built with a residential function, was finished in 1905. The construction was commissioned by the Jewish lawyer, Doctor Hugo Spitzer, who was born on December 19, 1858, in Osijek, in the family of Rabbi Samuel Spitzer and Amalia Spitzer. He started his studies at the high schools in Osijek and , and in 1881, he graduated in law in . As the president of the Holy Israeli Municipality of Osijek, he transformed a Jewish primary school with German as the language of instruction into a school with the Serbo-Croatian language. He was the leader of Croatian Zionists and was the first president of the Union of Jewish Municipalities of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Hugo Spitzer
From 1897, he became the president of the Holy Israeli Municipality of Osijek, the president of the Osijek Bar Association, the president of the National Committee of the Association of Zionists of the South Slavic Countries of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and a city representative of the Osijek Assembly. Hugo Spitzer was married to Albine, with whom he had two sons, Paul Josef, and Emil, and with his marriage with Martha Jacobi, daughter of the Chief Rabbi of , , he got one daughter named Slava, with his third marriage to Gita, he got one daughter named Cecilia Davico. Hugo Spitzer died in Zagreb on August 14, 1934, at the age of 75, and was buried in the Jewish part of the Mirogoj cemetery.
Martha Jacobi
The protruded part that towers above the main facade of the building, which is built in the Art Nouveau style, is in addition to floral ornamentation, adorned with a , decorative vases, and . The roof , which in some cases is interrupted by two volutes, is embellished with . The frieze, which in two cases got interrupted by a shield-shaped , is lavishly decorated with even more floral ornamentation. A straight is placed above some of the second floor windows, which are flanked by that are either topped with another mascaron, or a . Underneath the , which is placed above the circle-top window that's adorned with even more cartouches, you can admire an motif. The segmentally shaped bay window is topped with a , which is secured with a beautifully Art Nouveau ornamented wrought iron railing. This also counts for the fence and gate, which leads to the main entrance door that's covered with another awning.
The building is visible in an old postcard