18. tribina HGZD-a, Mirko Marijan, 11.12.2012.
The eighteenth HGZD Tribune was held on 11 December 2012 in the premises of the Zagreb Classical Gymnasium Association (DZKG). Mr. sc. Mirko Marijan, chief of the Decorations and Awards Department of the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia held us a lecture titled “The Implementation of the Croatian National Symbols on the Decorations and Awards of the Republic of Croatia” presenting us the Croatian heraldic heritage as implemented on the state awards and decorations.
Besides the coat of arms and the flag, the anthem and the national currency, the decorations of the Republic of Croatia are part of the corps of national identity, suverenity and international irreconcilability, without much doubt expressing the historical sources of the Croatian state suverenity and high artistic , aesthetic and technical level of manufacture. In the lecture these recognizable Croatian national symbols were highlighted including their surprisingly relatively minor presence in the implementation of designs and aesthetic solutions of our academic artists, i.e. in the physical layout of the design of the medals, charters and other elements of the entire process of the awarding of these decorations and awards. Comparing these Croatian national symbols with other symbols in a wider context, may confirm the initial thesis of low frequency of these symbols in the state decorations and awards.
Beside the lecture, on this Tribune we had an exceptional opportunity to see certain pieces of decorations and awards and their paraphernalia from the collection of the Decorations and Awards Department, some of which, especially those highest decorations, may be seen extremely rarely (cf. the photo of decorations according to the 1992 Legislation, which were, besides a few exceptions, never awarded). This gave to this Tribune an additional peculiarity and provided enough material to keep us in interesting discussions in informal tone after the lecture itself.
CIGH