Zagreb Marks 156th Anniversary of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

On 28 July 1867 the institution then called the Yugoslav Academy was ceremonially opened in Zagreb, becoming today’s Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU). The academy’s foundation was prepared after the 1860 constitutional reforms that granted the Croatian parliament greater autonomy, and after Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s 10 December 1860 donation of 50,000 forints that enabled the academy’s establishment.

The Croatian parliament approved Strossmayer’s proposal, formed a committee to draft the statute, and after revisions the imperial decree of 4 August 1866 confirmed the academy’s charter. Its first members elected Strossmayer as patron and Franjo Rački, a canon‑historian, as the inaugural president.