A company from Zagreb called Novena Digital Media Studio made a 3D animation of the devastating earthquake that hit Dubrovnik in 1667. The animation is created for the Dubrovnik museums and the exhibition ‘Stjepan Gradić: Father of the Homeland’, but it impressed everyone on the Internet as well.
Who was the man of great patriotism, which came particularly to the fore after the great earthquake of 1667 that practically razed the whole of his native city to the ground. From the first tidings of the catastrophe to the last breath he took, his love for his homeland was reflected in the selfless work of assisting his afflicted home in all forms: providing and finding money, food, care for the homeless, building materials, artisans of all kinds, and architects as well, so that the city should be raised as soon as possible from its ruins and defended from the external foe. He insisted that first of all the dwelling places, the family houses, should be built, and then the Rector’s Place, the administrative centre of the town and the cathedral, focus of civilisation and the religious life. For this, he engaged from abroad excellent architects and made available considerable sums of money. Thanks to all his efforts, the city rose like the legendary Phoenix, little by little rising from the piles of stones and ashes and taking on the form that all wonder at today. For all this, his contemporaries bestowed on Gradić the most honourable titles that the citizen of a town or country may be named: “father of the homeland” and “reviver of our city and our liberty”. All of these are more than reason enough for his character and works never to be forgotten.
