The Stipić grave

Neo-Classicist memorial to Mihajlo Stipić, the oldest monument, probaby brought from the older Florian Cemetery. The characteristic stone sepulchral monument dedicated to the wealthy Karlovac shipping wholesaler Mihajlo Stipić is the oldest sepulchral monument in the Catholic Cemetery and was made in 1808. It is supposed that is was moved from one of the older Karlovac cemeteries to its current position. The massive square base has inscribed on it an epigraph on all four sides; the upper pyramidal part is decorated with dignified neo-Classsicist garlands and wreaths of bay leaves. A lengthy epitaph in Latin tells of the life and work of the departed. It states that Stipić earned his earthly wealth exclusively by his work and persistence, his trust and faith in God, and because of his virtue and honesty, he shared his great estate, making donations to the Church of Holy Trinity, to the hospital and the poor. Also told is his unhappy wedded life, in which he married three times, and up to his death in his sixty ninth year had two children. The conclution of the epitaph is of interest: after he had for many years carried out the duty of grand master of the societes, lain down more by physical forces than by the power of sickness in his sixty ninth year, on the second day of the month December, full of good services, he commended his hasty soul to his maker, and there wqas great grieving for him. 1808. The memorial is a very important document of Karlovac cultural history.