The fourth season of Conversations with a Reason opened with a question that summer poses to us every year - what consequences has tourism left in our cities and in our space? The answers were offered by the former rector of the University of Split, art historian, archaeologist, prof. dr. sc. Ivo Babić, writes HRT.
The most authentic, most original thing that Dalmatia has is its cities, says prof. Ph.D. Ivo Babic. They grew out of local circumstances, geography, geology and historical circumstances. They are unrepeatable and unique. It is not only a matter of visual but also of civilizational aspect.
- Cities civilized us, all of us who came down from the hills. They made us citizens. So, those cities were the starting point of civilization, the great retorts of civilization. That is their role. And today they are dying out in the most valuable thing, which is population, he points out.
The city is not walls, but people. But our morality and our practice remain on the facades. We forget the people and what it is like for these people to live in old city centers, says Prof. Babić. Conservators and designers impose expensive renovations on people instead of helping them.
- Their intelligence lags behind on facades. It's not just the Romanesque window or Gothic that matters, but the people inside. A house without people will fall apart in a few years. Someone has to open those shutters, someone has to live. A city is a living being.
The dominance of the "Zimmer frei" ideology
It is a big mistake, according to prof. Ph.D. Babić, why did we play only one card - tourism. Our tourist product is the sun and the sea. The "Zimmer frei" ideology is dominant.
- They used to rent you double rooms, but now they rent apartments. That's one magic word... Instead of an industry that is mostly looted and destroyed, we have an entertainment industry. That is the official term.
Professor Babić believes that with various events and manifestations for tourists, we are 'making fools of ourselves'. People have become obsessed with tourism. Perhaps for good reason, he points out, because tourism is the only way to make good money in our country.
- Diversity in the economy is necessary. There is a popular saying - you can't play with one card or everything in one bag. We can't rely only on tourism. In our country, if I'm not mistaken... somewhere around 18% of GDP is tourism... One of our officials from Split, one of the mayors, said that Split must be like Ibiza, and that is an example of failed mass tourism, he says.
The difference between city and village
There are different interpretations of what a city is. Professor Babić says that the closest to him is the thought of Max Weber, who said that a city differs from a village because it is an articulated social structure where various sectors live. A village, on the other hand, is homogeneous.
- For example, Korčula is miniature, it is very articulated, it is a city. A settlement in Slavonia is not a city because the houses are all the same, and here there is a hierarchy... A city that has a cathedral, that is something... A city without a court is not a city, he points out.
Prof. Babić was particularly interested in analyzing the area between Trogir and Split. He says that this is where our Croatian history lies. It was, he believes, the most beautiful part of Dalmatia. It is a rare fertile belt with the source of the Jadr, so it is understandable that history began there in prehistory.
- In this beautiful area was the metropolis of all of Roman Dalmatia... Salona. Diocletian's Palace was built nearby, and it was here that the Croatian and Slavic population built their first centers next to the ruins of Salona. I don't like those strong words, but here the Croatian people truly found their homeland.
"We don't love our cities"
However, this area has been destroyed since the beginning of the 19th century. The first industry developed there, and illegal construction flourished. Urban planners even talk about a settlement from Rogoznica to Omiš. But it is not just this area that is being destroyed.
- We are systematically destroying. Why are we destroying? First of all, we are such a population... We did not have citizenship, we had revolutions, counter-revolutions. Croatian history is like the continuations of the aorist - h, nothing, nothing. It begins, then it ends. We were here a national border, we wanted to deceive all the authorities, to evade everyone...
It is interesting that Prof. Babić believes that we do not love our cities.
- There is a hatred for cities that is especially characteristic of shepherds. Because shepherds cannot sustain their lives without a little theft, maybe stealing something. All shepherds are the same. So there is that too. That is perhaps exaggerated. Then there is also class hatred in cities because we recognized that cities are centers where class enemies live, the rich. They lived usurers... Then there was a misunderstood Marxism against that bourgeoisie that we didn't even have... Then in cities, the truth must be told, it's not easy. It's cramped there, there's no sun...
The fields are getting smaller, the coast is becoming more and more concreted.
There is no longer a sense of the region, of the peculiarities of a particular area, of a particular landscape.
- Day by day I witness how those fields are getting smaller and smaller, how the coast is becoming more and more concreted. The entrance to Trogir is concreted, the western one. They have filled in over 50 meters and the entire coast is concreted... The 'lovely complex relationship between land and sea' has disappeared. There are no more shrimps, prawns, algae. A catastrophe is happening on that coast.
"With privatization, we have divided our coast," says Prof. Babić. "Private coasts and private coves are emerging."
- I suffer painfully that there are no more dear swallows in the city. There are fewer and fewer sparrows. And when the animals, our relatives, disappear, it's our turn.
The world is becoming commercialized. Everything becomes a commodity. Everything can be monetized. Heritage is being sold for huge sums.
- I am of the generation that remembers how green my valley was. I remember the babbling of the stream in Kaštela, I remember the silence and the roosters. And now these new owners are bothered by the roosters, they are bothered by the pigs, and they were raised among pig pens.
We have been caught in a rush, greed, says Prof. Babić. Perhaps it is a compensation for centuries of hunger. Perhaps we have been hungry for too long, so now we have to acquire everything, concludes Prof. Babić.
Source: HRT
Photo: Ivana Topić, PGK Archives
