Monuments in the Function of State Ideology and Unification of Territory: The Case of Monuments to the Ruling Family of Karađorđević in Slovenia

Abstract

Monuments to rulers are, like national holidays, celebrations of the ruling family‘s birthdays, school observances, and various printed, mass-distributed propaganda material, one of the building blocks of power consolidation of the ruling family, and a way of legitimization. This paper presents this phenomenon via public sculptural monuments that were erected to members of the Karađorđević dynasty in the present-day Slovenian territory during the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A review of the material reveals that such monuments were erected only to King Peter I and his son Alexander I, who embodied the military power of the common state on one hand, and the guarantee of a just rule in an age of peace on the other. Commemorative monuments were usually designed relatively modestly, in the form of busts on pedestals, with some extravagant exceptions such as an obelisk, full-figure statue, and an equestrian statue. The locations were carefully selected, usually in town centers or symbolically significant places - primarily by the western and northern border. With the exception of a few fragments, none of the described monuments survived.

Keywords

• monuments
• ideology
• king alexander i
• king peter i
• karađorđević dynasty
• drava banovina
• kingdom of yugoslavia