Exhibition opening Cement factory "Dalmatia" dd in Kaštel Sućurac (1912 - 1942) will be held on Thursday, December 18th at 19 pm at the Kaštela City Museum, in the Archbishop's Castle in Kaštel Sućurac (Gospojska štrada 1). The exhibition will remain open until May 18th, 2026.
Cement factory "Dalmatia" dd in Kaštel Sućurac (1912 - 1942)
This year marks 111 years since the completion of the construction of the old Sućurac cement factory "Dalmatia" dd. World cement production grew drastically at the turn of the last century, so the Jewish company "Jules Porgès & Cie" located in Paris, the Bavarian company "Otto Steinbeis & Consorten" from Brannenburg, and the joint capital of the Vienna branch of the Hungarian Banking Company from Pest founded the joint-stock company "Dalmatia" in 1912, which began construction of the cement factory in the fall of that year.
The factory was completed on the eve of World War I, the first tons of cement were produced in 1914, and regular production began in 1919. The workers employed in the factory "Dalmatia" dd were primarily people from Sućuran who had sold their land to the factory. Most of them, in addition to working in the "factory", continued to engage in agriculture. The laborers were very cheap labor for the factory workers, and the managers, experts and engineers were mostly foreigners. The factory also had courts for the tennis and football clubs Titan.
Most of the objects for the exhibition from the old Sućurac cement factory were collected by the Podvorje Association, while some objects arrived at the Museum through purchase and loan. The exhibits can be classified into two basic categories: objects that were located within the work spaces or salons (bookcase and hanger, typewriter, sign above the entrance, stamp, stamp-making matrix, marble sculpture, small metal signs) with a subcategory of advertising utility objects (retractable meter, paper clips, letter opener) and archival materials (advertising brochure, rulebook, memoranda, contracts, electoral list, petition, packaging stamps, brand emblems, map, business card, ID cards, letters, envelopes, pay bags, receipts...).
Photo: screenshot MGK / MGK
