Visit home of Ivan Hribar – a legendary Ljubljana mayor

It has been over 80 years since the six-time mayor of Ljubljana, Ivan Hribar committed suicide after the Italian fascist troops entered the city. At the age of 90, he jumped into the Ljubljanica River.

**Ivan Hribar loved Ljubljana with all his heart.**

The final act of love

Ivan Hribar (1851 – 1941) was a banker, politician, diplomat and journalist. Between 1896 and 1910, he was the mayor of Ljubljana and greatly contributed to its rebuilding and modernisation after the city’s 1895 earthquake.

Hribar was known as a passionate politician and a great Slovene and Yugoslav patriot.

On 18 April 1941, after returning home from a meeting with the Fascist Italian authorities, which had just offered him the mayorship of the city, he jumped into the Ljubljanica River, wrapped in the Yugoslav flag leaving a note with the verses from France Prešeren’s poem The Baptism on the Savica:

“Less fearful the long night of life’s denial than living ‘neath the sun in subjugation!“

Manj strašna noč je v črne zemlje krili,
kot so pod svetlim soncem sužnji dnovi.

**Ivan Hribar was an advocate of progress and Ljubljana’s most popular mayor (portrait by Ivana Kobilca)**.

Hribar Embankment: Ljubljana will never forget

Through the years, Ljubljana has had many different mayors. While some were forgotten soon after leaving City Hall, others are remembered for certain things they did for the city. However, no mayor has left a greater mark and legacy on Ljubljana than Ivan Hribar.

After WWII, the embankment of Ljubljanica from which Ivan Hribar jumped into the river was named after him. On 30 August 2010, also a monument to Hribar was unveiled on the Hribar Embankment (Slovene: Hribarjevo nabrežje), next to the Shoemakers’ Bridge, not far from the place of his death.

**Monument to Ivan Hribar near the spot from where he jumped into the Ljubljanica River as a protest against the Italian annexation of Ljubljana.**

Villa Zlatica – a NEW cultural venue in Slovenia’s capital

Hribar lived with his family in Rožna dolina in a villa he named after his daughter Zlatica. After years of decaying the now renovated Villa Zlatica, together with the landscaped garden, has opened its doors to visitors.

**Villa Zlatica in Rožna dolina – the middle-class home of the Hribar family. (Photo: Villa Zlatica on Facebook)**

The former home of Ljubljana’s mayor Ivan Hribar is managed by the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana. Beside a permanent exhibition place it will also serve as a new venue for exhibitions, lectures, education and other events, which will be designed together with the Forum of Slavic Cultures.