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Franjo Klein House

- Ulica Gundulićeva 29 -
The two-story building was built between 1872 and 1874 for the residential needs of the Croatian builder and architect of Austrian origin Franjo Klein according to his own project. He was born into an evangelical family on October 17, 1828, in , where he received training in building and stone carving trades and where he also studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1846 until 1848. He moved to Croatia in 1851, successfully applied for a job as a bricklayer foreman in and , and spent the next eight years working for the in , until he moved to Zagreb in 1859. From 1868, together with , he designed numerous public and residential buildings in their construction company called Grahor and Klein.
Franjo Klein
Their company, in which Klein designed and Grahor ran the business, left its mark on Zagreb's architecture in the 1870s. Towards the end of the decade, the situation changed and Grahor and Klein are no longer the only or the most successful construction company. In 1886, Klein left the company and continued designing independently. Klein was commissioned to build the , as well as the Zagreb Synagogue, of which the construction began in 1866 and was completed the following year. Franjo Klein died on August 26, 1889, in Zagreb and he was buried in Arkade at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.
One of Franjo Klein's designs
The Neo-Renaissance building is richly decorated with all sorts of that depict geometric and floral decorations, as well as three in which architectural objects are shown. The objects include a compass, an Ionic , and a , among other things. set square The building also features a roof under which air vents and two strips of , one of which is adorned with female figures. Underneath the pointed , which are placed above the second floor windows, you can alternately admire and . The that flank the windows are either topped with a Corinthian capital or with a motif. Between the second and first floors, you can see various adorned with . In addition to , the basement level contains a lot of , which are embellished with foliage and .
The building is shown in an old photo