Dear Visitor,

Welcome to the website of the ŠTAMBUK association. We wish to assist Štambuk family members everywhere in exploring their genealogy and the amazing history of our extended family. We are committed to bringing together as many members of the Štambuk family as possible and to uncovering the history of our lineage.

300 years ago the first Štambuk, a builder, arrived from Prague, via Venice, in Selca on the island of Brač and he founded a family which today has several thousand members in Croatia and in the wider world. Maestro (Master) Antonio (or ‘Antun’, ‘Ante’), originally Standelpergher, detto Stambucco, founded a stonemasonry business on Brač (drawing on the family owned Saint Mikule quarry in Selca which has been used since Roman times). His quarry supplied the famous Brač stone that was used in the construction of palaces from Paris to the Bosporus. It was used in the construction of the White House, in Washington DC, and the United Nations building on the East River in New York, as well as the Meštrović Art Pavilion in Zagreb and in a number of beautiful buildings in Selca itself. These include the Štambuk and Didolić palaces and the magnificent Church of Christ the King, which Cardinal Kuharić calls the ‘Cathedral of Brač’. Many of the buildings in Selca were unfortunately burned by the Italian army on the 9^th of August 1943, during their occupation of the island.

The Štambuk family, hardworking, and tending to construction and to learning, has come up with many priests, bishops, writers, scientists, doctors, engineers, diplomats, patriots, philanthropists, craftsmen, artists and stonemasons – both stoneworkers and designers.

Also, throughout the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 to 1918), the family was the heart of the Croatian national revival of Dalmatia, along with many domestic intellectuals. Along with the Didolić family, the Štambuk family made Selca a Croatian cultural lighthouse. It was a place to reflect on the homeland, its future, its common good and on its progress. Even today the same effort at renewal radiates from the linguistic-poetic revival of the ‘Croatia rediviva’ festival, which has been held in Selca since 1991. It has been pondering those same subjects, through Croatian language and poetry since that time. The festival is a creative gathering of truthful speakers of the Chakavian, Kajkavian and Shtokavian Croatian linguistic idioms.

It is the goal of the association to re-evaluate the heritage of the Štambuk family and to preserve the memory of its prominent personalities, so that their significance is recognized. In so doing, the association aims to highlight how the family grew and strengthened against the backdrop of the common good. In turn, it seeks to expose valuable lessons that are relevant to us today and for our, sometimes, uncertain futures because: ‘historia magistra vitae est’ – history is the teacher of life.