Urban Elites and Real Estate in Medieval Town: Owners of Palaces in Medieval Gradec (Zagreb)
Urban Elites and Real Estate in Medieval Town: Owners of Palaces in Medieval Gradec (Zagreb)

Author(s): Bruno Škreblin
Subject(s): Architecture, Local History / Microhistory, Social history, Culture and social structure , Rural and urban sociology, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: urban elite of Zagreb’s Gradec; palace owners; property records; organization of urban space;
Summary/Abstract: Exploring the property relations in a medieval city is often the only way to re-construct the financial status of citizens or families. In Central European cities, a citizen’s wealth was closely related to his political power, i.e. his administrative functions and honours, which is why social topography is essential when reconstructing the socio-political status of individual citizens. The urban elite of Zagreb’s Gradec is a representative example of such urban elites. Same as in other Central Europe-an cities, the urban elite of Gradec consisted of wealthy merchants, craftsmen, and members of petty nobility, all of whom can be identified as owners of various estates, urban houses, or land plots in the municipal territory. Owning real estate in the city was the basic prerequisite for obtaining civil rights, which were required in order to join the city administration. Therefore, ownership was closely related to authority in medieval Gradec. Nevertheless, this research focuses on ownership over a single type of property – the palace – as the most representative private possession, at least in principle. Naturally, we could not avoid raising the issue of what the term actually denoted, but since the analysis is mostly based on archival records, the final decision and definition have been left to art historians and historians of architecture.

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