The historical development of higher geographic education in Croatia dates back to 1883 with the founding of the Geography Division at the Faculty of Humanities (originally called Mudroslovni fakultet) in Zagreb, making it the oldest geographic department in Southeastern Europe. Our Department is even older than some well-known geography departments, such as those in Heidelberg and Chicago (founded in 1895 and 1903 respectively).
The founder of the Department was Professor Petar Matković, who got his education in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin from the world famous professor Karl Ritter, who, alongside Alexander von Humboldt, we regard as the father of modern geography. His work was continued by other prominent Croatian geographers, such as Hinko Hranilović, Milan Šenoa, and Arturo Gavazzi. Gavazzi, among other things, founded the Division for Geography of the University in Ljubljana in 1919, and started the oldest geographic scientific journal in Croatia – Hrvatski geografski glasnik (Croatian Geographic Bulletin). Among the students of the newly founded Division for Geography in Zagreb was Milica Bogdanović from Vrginmost, the first woman who enrolled in the Faculty after the king’s decree of 1901 which allowed women the right to study.
The foundation of the first Division for Geography was the result of a number of factors, including the general socio-cultural transformation of Croatia, the transfer of geographic accomplishments from Europe to Croatia, and stronger development of primary and secondary education. In general, the second half of the 19th century was a period of great economic and technological changes, and in that context education and schooling were also transformed. Ever since Maria Teresa’s ‘Ratio Educationes’ of 1777, 3-years of primary school in Croatia became obligatory, and primary education was further institutionalized by the new school law of 1874. In those times secondary, especially grammar school education, also advanced; new schools were added to the ‘old’ grammar schools in Senj, Zagreb, Varaždin, and elsewhere. Being that geography was an important general education subject from the beginning, teachers and professors were needed in those schools. This was a strong incentive for the foundation of the geographic study programme in Zagreb and for the scientific advancement of geography.
Department of Geography at the Faculty of Science
After the Second World War, in 1947, the reorganized Geography Institute moved from the Faculty of Humanities to the newly founded Faculty of Science. The first chairman was Josip Roglić, one of the leading scientists of the world in those days in the study of karst. Shortly after the move of the Geography Institute, prof. Roglić became the dean of the entire Faculty. Today the Faculty of Science is among the most significant centres of science in Croatia, and the Department of Geography (termed thusly since 1994) is the oldest and most important higher educational and scientific institution in the field of geography in our country.
Since our last reorganisation in 1997 the Department of Geography has been divided into three divisions: the Division for Physical Geography, the Division for Social Geography, and the Division for Regional Geography and Teaching Methods. The Cartographic-technical Centre with a rich Cartographic Collection and the Central Geographic Library are also part of the Department.
