The one-story commercial building, which housed the pharmacy of the well-known pharmacist and long-time president of the Psunj Mountaineering Society, Josip Svoboda, was built somewhere at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century. Josip Svoboda lived in Pakrac for a long time as an extremely respectable and socially active citizen. After a sudden tragedy in his life and the loss of his wife in 1935, he was left alone with his two children, Blanka and Zlatko. In 1937, Josip had the first mountain lodge on Velika Poljana built, which bore his name because he donated most of the money for its construction. During the , more precisely in 1942, the mountain lodge on Velika Poljana was set on fire. After the entry of the into Pakrac in 1944, his pharmacy was given a management commissioner and he was tried and sentenced to fifteen years of hard physical labor and was taken to the camp in Zvečevo.
Josip Svoboda
He left the camp in 1945 in a severe physical condition, after which he went to with his children. Not long after that, he was arrested, just like Blanka, who spent 20 days in prison in inhumane conditions. In the meantime, Zlatko and the housekeeper who looked after them were kicked out of the apartment, and for the next few years, they lived with their aunt in Zagreb. They received another message from their father from prison on July 4, 1945, after which all trace of him was lost. It is assumed that he was killed, but it is not known where or in what way. All property of the Svoboda family in Pakrac was confiscated in 1946. Blanka and Zlatko went through their ordeal for years, Blanka managed to get an education and finish her studies in pharmacy, thus continuing her father's path and dedicating her working life to the profession. Zlatko couldn't stand the various bullying and moved to Canada in 1969 and continued his life there.
Josip Svoboda standing on the left
In the yard of the pharmacy, there was a private garden, which was a large green area with a vegetable garden and a large number of fruit trees, but also beautifully landscaped grass and flower areas. Josip Svoboda loved nature and flowers very much, so he enthusiastically accepted and planted everything that his good friend, the famous gardener Franjo Kostlivy, often brought him. In the yard, there were many outbuildings, a large separately built basement where large oleanders and citrus fruits from the garden were kept in the winter, and a winter garden that was turned into a summer dining room by removing the windows during the summer.
The facade of the former pharmacy of Josip Svoboda was significantly changed in the mid-seventies of the 20th century. All decorations and moldings from the facade have been removed.
An old postcard from 1905 that shows the building on the right
The main facade of the Eclectic building was topped with a protruded part that featured several and decorative vases. The frieze contained various air vents decorated with a , as well as an . Above the windows, you could admire either a segmental, a straight, or a pointed , which were all supported by two or more , and of which the straight ones were embellished with a lovely ornament. The central part featured several and columns, which were all crowned with a Corinthian .
The building is visible on the right side of an old postcard
Apron
An apron, in architecture, is a raised section of ornamental stonework below a window ledge, stone tablet, or monument. Aprons were used by Roman engineers to build Roman bridges. The main function of an apron was to surround the feet of the piers.
Baluster
A baluster is a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a handrail, coping, or ornamental detail are known as a balustrade.
Capitals
In architecture the capital (from the Latin caput, or "head") or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column.
Cartouche
A cartouche (also cartouch) is an oval or oblong design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low-relief design. Since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartuccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling.
Corbels
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
Cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element - the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall.
Crestings
Cresting, in architecture, is ornamentation attached to the ridge of a roof, cornice, coping or parapet, usually made of a metal such as iron or copper. Cresting is associated with Second Empire architecture, where such decoration stands out against the sharp lines of the mansard roof. It became popular in the late 19th century, with mass-produced sheet metal cresting patterns available by the 1890s.
Dentils
A dentil is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, and Beaux-Arts architecture.
Epigraph
An epigraph is an inscription or legend that serves mainly to characterize a building, distinguishing itself from the inscription itself in that it is usually shorter and it also announces the fate of the building.
Gutta
A gutta (literally means "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used near the top of the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. It is thought that the guttae were a skeuomorphic representation of the pegs used in the construction of the wooden structures that preceded the familiar Greek architecture in stone. However, they have some functionality, as water drips over the edges, away from the edge of the building.
Keystone
A keystone is a wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically a round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch or vault to bear weight. In arches and vaults, keystones are often enlarged beyond the structural requirements and decorated. A variant in domes and crowning vaults is a lantern.
Mascaron
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent architectural styles to extensively employ mascarons were Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau.
Pediment
A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with relief sculpture. A pediment is sometimes the top element of a portico. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.
Pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements.
Rosette
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design. The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, formed by leaves radiating out from the stem of a plant and visible even after the flowers have withered. The rosette design is used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia, and in funeral steles' decoration in Ancient Greece. The rosette was another important symbol of Ishtar which had originally belonged to Inanna along with the Star of Ishtar. It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance architecture, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded, turrets were used for decorative purposes.
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb is a city with a rich history dating from Roman times. The oldest settlement in the vicinity of the city was the Roman Andautonia, in today's čitarjevo. The name "Zagreb" is recorded in 1134, in reference to the foundation of the settlement at Kaptol in 1094. Zagreb became a free royal city in 1242. The etymology of the name Zagreb is unclear. It was used for the united city only from 1852, but it had been in use as the name of the Zagreb Diocese since the 12th century and was increasingly used for the city in the 17th century.
Second World War
The Second World War was a global war that involved fighting in most of the world. Most countries fought from 1939 to 1945, but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died, most of whom were civilians. The war included massacres, a genocide called the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six entities known as republics that had previously constituted Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia (then named Macedonia). Yugoslavia's constituent republics declared independence due to unresolved tensions between ethnic minorities in the new countries, which fuelled the wars. While most of the conflicts ended through peace accords that involved full international recognition of new states, they resulted in a massive number of deaths as well as severe economic damage to the region.
Stjepan Golubić
Stjepan Golubić is one of the most famous Pakrac builders for whom it can be said that he changed the face of the city in the late 19th and early 20th century. During that period he built several facilities for local wealthy merchants and artisans in the historical style and, even then, quite modern Art Nouveau style. Golubić came from Hungary, completed the Technical University in Graz and at one time worked in Budapest as the consort of a famous architect. He arrived in Pakrac late 19th century working on the construction of villas in Lipik, and, after some time, he built a house in Pakrac and remained there until his death. He was a brick kiln owner in Filipovci and had his own drive to create facade ornamentation. He built several houses that are still protected because of their value as historical monuments and one of the most beautiful houses is definitely Grgurić which was a frequent motif on postcards from the early 20th century.
Španovica
Španovica is a Croatian settlement located along the road Pakrac - Požega, located approximately halfway between Pakrac and Požega, on the pass between Papuk and Psunje. It was inhabited until the Second World War by Croats, who immigrated around 1865, mostly from Ravna Gora in Gorski Kotar. The inhabitants were mostly forest workers and to a lesser extent sharecroppers and herders. The surrounding smaller villages were inhabited by inhabitants of mostly Serbian ethnicity. The village was burned down by partisans in September 1942, during which they killed 142 inhabitants (out of about 1,300 of them) and burned 227 houses, and all the rest were expelled. The communist authorities did not allow that village to be rebuilt even after the end of World War II. world war. The history of Španovica was described in detail by Tonči Erjavec in the book Španovica.
Partisan
A partisan is a member of a domestic irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements. The most common use in present parlance in several languages refers to occupation resistance fighters during the Second World War, especially under the Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Broz Tito.