ABSTRACT
Velika Mlaka is only a stone’s throw away from Zagreb. Anyone can drive there easily; there is a direct turn-off from the motorway to the village. You will find St. Barbara’s Church standing there with its wooden beams darkened with age and its breathtakingly rich decoration of painted wooden panels. The name Szmendrovich rings familiar to the old people of the village. The narrow lane leading past the vicarage garden straight to the school bears the street sign, “Smendrovićeva ulica.” It must be owing to local historians that community remembrance has retained the historical fact whereby someone by the name of “Petar,” born here and later renamed as “Rok Smendrović” during his years as a Franciscan friar, deposited a fund in favour of the school of Velika Mlaka in the 1760s. Today the school’s website also proudly shares this feature of its past. 1 Obviously it is with pride that the exemplary benefactor is mentioned and commemorated at school and village celebrations. It is also quite clear that beyond this small scrap of data no one knows anything about the biography of the founder, the twists and turns of his life-course and about his personality.
