The 2025 badge contest ended in a tie. I was alternating the badge but I kept losing track. You’re free to use the combined badge or either Teagan’s or Ritva’s individual badge.
Before I get started, I want to remind my regular readers that there will be a second post here at 2:00 this afternoon. It’s my post for the 1Day4Cee challenge Marsha Ingrao and I are hosting for Cee Neuner. Marsha and I shared a birthday with Cee. Cee would have been 64 tomorrow — sadly, gone too soon.
I am returning to my exploration of the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. If you’re new to this series, you can find the introduction and previous entries in the links below:
- Nationality Rooms—Intro and Syria-Lebanon Room
- Russian Nationality Room
- French and Norwegian Rooms
- The English Room
As has happened before, the next room in the order of our tour was closed the day were visiting. I find the benefit of exploring these rooms great enough to warrant using publicly available photos and information. Also, the Yugoslav is interesting to me because I had several friends whose heritage traced back to the countries represented by this room.
The Yugoslav Room combines carved designs and portraits of people from regions, now sovereign countries, that made up this nation at the time this Room was created. Designs from Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia decorate the ceiling, walls and are especially seen in the royal crest of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia seen on the corridor wall side. The men shown are linguists, poets, and scientists. Objects reminding one of the faith and faith in the future are shown with the lace Madonna and the statuette “Post War Motherhood.”
From Pitt.edu
A picture of the Lace Madonna is shown below, courtesy of the university. I was unable to find a picture of the statue that I could share.
The Yugoslav Classroom was designed by Professor Vojta Braniš [hr], a sculptor and director of the Industrial Art School in Zagreb. The walls are paneled in Slavonian oak and hand-carved with geometric figures and the old Slavonic heart design which is combined with a running geometric border, a favorite with South Slavs. This type of work, known as “notch-carving”, was traditionally done with a penknife as pastime of peasants. On the corridor wall is a specially designed coat of arms featuring a double-headed eagle symbolizing the religious influences of Eastern Empire of Byzantium and Western Empire of Rome along with the founding dates of the universities in Belgrade, Ljubljana, and Zagreb. The ceiling is carved with intricate Croatian, Slovenian, and Serbian folk motifs and the wooden chandeliers are similar to those in the White Palace in Belgrade. The professor’s chair and guests chairs were carved by students at the International Art School in Zagreb, and each spindle of the chairs bears a different notched design. At the window, a bronze sculpture by Vojta Braniš, “Post-War Motherhood”, depicts a barefoot mother nursing her child whom she has protected during the long months of war. In the display cabinet is a lace portrayal of the Madonna of Brežje by Slovenes Leopoldina Pelhan and her student Mila Božičkova which took six months to complete and was inspired by the story of a lace Madonna created by the villagers of Sveta Gora in order to replace a priceless painting during World War I.[69] The ceiling squares contain one of the three alternating ceiling ornaments suggesting flowers, stars, the sun, and other radiating geometric patterns, which are organized into a matrix of 9 by 7 squares.
Wikipedia
I hope you enjoyed the photos I was able to find. I also hope you have a few minutes to explore some of the doors from the other participants.
One more note about the 1Day4Cee challenge. If you want to participate, just add an image of a flower or any black and white image to your post tomorrow (or create a post with one of those elements). Feel free to use the badge below and the hashtag #1Day4Cee
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