Lovro Monti
Lovro Monti (Knin 21 April 1835 - 9 April 1898) was a Croatian politician of Italian descent. He was a Dalmatian italian, whose grandfather fought for the Republic of Venice against Napoleon.
Biography
In 1859 Monti graduated from law school in Padua (Italy), and lately worked as an aprentice in Split (then called Spalato) for a while. Along with M. Klaić, N. Nodilo (another Dalmatian italian), Mihovil Pavlinović and K. Vojnović he was one of the founders of the Croatian popular party ("Narodna stranka") and the Illyrian movement.
Since 1862 he worked in Knin (called officially Tenin, in italian, until 1879) as a lawyer, and in 1866 he became the president of the municipality. He has been elected as a deputy in the Dalmatian assembly 5 times in a row. On the first direct election he became a deputy in a royal council (and was reelected in 1879).
In 1874 Monti (renowned for his impartiality and honesty) defended the rights of the Italians of Dalmatia declaring in the Dalmatian assembly that half of the 98,000 population of the dalmatian cities spoke italian and needed italian schools. That meant that the Italians represented 12% of the 457,000 inhabitants of Dalmatia, according to the austrian census of 1871.[1]
In 1882, due to the dissatisfaction of the new policy of "narodna stranka" against the Italians and Serbs in Dalmatia, he resigned from the public life.
Lovro Monti died rich and respected in his Knin in 1898.
Achievements and legacy
During his mandate he developed Knin and the surrounding area, especially in agriculture. He left a legacy of reciprocal respect between the different communities of the Knin region: the Croats, the Serbs and even the few Italians, Vlachs (Morlachs) and Jews. Unfortunately after his death the nationalism brought deaths and sufferings to the city, mainly during the XX century.
| Year | Knin population | Serbs | Croats | Italians | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | total: 1,400 | 82.3% | 15.1% | 2.4 % | 0.2% |
| 1890 | total: 1,500 | 84.3% | 14.4% | 1.0 % | 0.3% |
| 1991 | total: 12,331 | 85,5% | 10,3% | --------- | 4.2% |
| 2001 | total: 11,128 | 20.8% | 76.5% | --------- | 2.7% |
In his will he left to the Knin municipality his farm, later called "Montova glavica" (that included 32 ha of land, 2000 fruit trees, 2 ha of vyneyards and a couple of buildings) with the condition that an agricultural school would be founded there.
During SFRY, the real estate was divided and some leaders of the Knin municipality got assigned for themselves the construction yards. The school has never been named after him. Monti belonged to the rich "class of gentlemen" and, according to the communist criteria of that time, would have been considered an "heresy" to name a school after him.
However, there has been made a monument in front of the school on his honor.