Gorup – Kalister family

JOSIP GORUP VON SLAVINA, businessman, financier, entrepreneur, shipowner, patron (Slavina near Pivka, 6 April 1834 - Rijeka, 25 April 1912) and his family

JOSIP GORUP VON SLAVINA is the most prominent representative of a group of Slovenian shipowners who embarked on their maritime entrepreneurial journey in the 19th century and continued it, although to a much lesser extent, after the collapse of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, as well as the best-known member of the Gorup - Kalister family.

 

The seafaring and shipping activities of the Gorup - Kalister family began in Trieste with Janez Kalister and the purchase of his ship, the barque Maria Francesca, in 1855. Kalister used and managed the ship until 1862, when he sold it two years before his death. He was the owner of the whole ship. He carried out his business with the most eminent members of the political and economic life of the time, as well as with his simple and unschooled compatriots from Slavina and the surrounding villages. Sources also refer to the Slovenian shipowner Nikolaj Valušnik as one of his partners.

 

Janez Kalister left her property in her will to her nephews Franc Kalister and Josip Gorup. Her uncle left nothing to Josip's sister Ivana Mucha née Gorup, the youngest (born 1849) of Gorup's five children. Still, her role in the Trieste shipping industry of the second half of the 19th century is fairly noticeable. As a woman, she entered the shipping business in Trieste with great ambition and was one of the very few female shipowners of her time.

 

After her death in 1864, half of the property and business was assumed by Josip Gorup. In Trieste, he leased ships for transporting his goods and specialized in financial transactions. He was totally uninterested in classical trade or industry, but solely in financial investments. Although he soon moved to Rijeka, where he resided with his large family until his death, he never interrupted his business and business ties with Trieste or Austrian, Hungarian and Italian provinces and their insurance companies, savings banks and similar financial institutions, as well as with shipping companies and individual influential shipowners.

 

He was one of the founders, vice president and majority shareholder of the shipping company Ungaro Croata and a member of its administration. He also held shares in three other shipping companies: Dalmatia, Oriente and Adria. He even held the largest ownership stake - 4 carats - in the iron steamship Rečina (home port of Rijeka), considered by Croats of historical significance. This is also the only known case of Gorup opting for concrete co-ownership with individual shipowners. The resolution to sell the Rečina was made before Gorup's death, with the sale process coinciding with the very Gorup's death and the probate process.

 

The sale of the ship Rečina was conducted by Sigismund Kopajtić von Bakar, who was the director of the ship Rečina, its co-owner, and at the same time Gorup's son-in-law - the husband of Gorup's daughter Joža. He was an ocean-going captain and the most prominent member of the Bakar noble Kopajtić family. He was the initiator of maritime development in Bakar and the consul of the Kingdom of Norway in Rijeka, as well as one of those who founded Ungaro Croata in 1891 and was also its president from 1898 onwards.

 

Gorup's sons Kornelij, Milan and Aleksander continued their father's work and were noteworthy actors in the maritime business; Kornelij in Trieste, Milan and Aleksander in Rijeka. Gorup attempted to introduce his sons effectively to his business during his lifetime and to link them with his business partners. This is apparent in the co-ownership of ships, as (for example) shipowner Gustav Pongrac was a co-owner of both Josip's ship Rečina and Kornelij's ship Triglav. The sons received more from their father only after his death, but no more than the other 15 legal heirs – 14 children and wife.

 

Kornelij, the oldest Gorup’s son, was most attached to Trieste. He, too, started his maritime business early. He was one of the most powerful shareholders and a member of the supervisory board of the Austro Americana Shipping Company in Trieste. Kornelij Gorup was a shipowner in the true sense of the word. He held a stake in two steamships, the Triglav and the Pećine.

 

Milan, the second-born son, operated in Rijeka. He was a member of the industrial section of the Rijeka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 1906, he became a member of the supervisory board of the Ungaro-Croata Company, was a member of the supervisory board of the Oriente Company, and one of the directors of this company from 1907 on. Milan died in 1914, shortly after his father, and could not enrich his maritime legacy.

 

After the death of his father and his brother Milan, Aleksander Gorup remained in maritime affairs for his entire working life. Aleksander's name is closely associated with Ungaro- Croata, with the steamships Piceno and Dorico (owner) from 1922, and with the successors of Ungaro-Croata after World War I, i.e. Prekomorska plovidba and eventually Jadranska plovidba. Specifically, the company moved its headquarters from Rijeka to Sušak after World War I and became one of the most significant Yugoslav shipping companies between the two wars. The Treaty of Rome in 1924 set a precise state border on the Rečina River and, by doing so, roughly separated the two neighbouring ports. Rijeka became Italian and gradually developed into an important Italian port, while nearby Sušak became one of the most significant ports in the former Yugoslavia. Aleksander Gorup was therefore torn between two countries: Italy and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He resided in Rijeka, but carried out his maritime business in Sušak.

 

The Kalister – Gorup family became aware of the importance of merchant - maritime and shipping companies early enough to opt for a precarious and on many factors depending shipping business. The family members were respected in society and able to exert influence on the economic (national, political and social) situation, considering that they were elected or appointed to important functions or positions. As owners of individual carats on a ship or the whole ship as well as shares of important shipping companies in those years, they were a prominent part of the Austro-Hungarian and later Yugoslav maritime affairs.

 

A small albeit extremely rich publication by Miroslav Pahor, the historian and director of the Maritime Museum, entitled One Hundred Years of Slovenian Shipping 1848-1941, was published in 1969. This is no doubt a fundamental work in demonstrating the Slovenian presence in the Adriatic and other seas. Pahor collected data on Slovenian shipbuilders who were engaged in shipping in Trieste and Rijeka in the 19th century. On the basis of these data, a series of ship models were made in the model shipbuilding workshop of the Maritime Museum Piran, representing the vessels described in the book.

 

 

Prepared by Nadja Terčon

 

 

Source:

 

Museum photo documentation

Pahor Miroslav, Sto let slovenskega ladjarstva 1841-1941

 

TERČON, Nadja. Josip Gorup. IN: RAHTEN, Andrej (ed.), et al. Tvorci slovenske pomorske identitete. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2010, pp. 49-63, portret, ilustr. Zbirka Življenja in dela, 6, Biografske in bibliografske študije, 4.

 

TERČON, Nadja. Kalister, Gorupi in pomorstvo. V: PREINFALK, Miha (ur.). Rodbini Kalister in Gorup. Ljubljana: Zveza zgodovinskih društev Slovenije, 2010. Str. 87-110, ilustr. Kronika, 58(2010),

 

1. Digitalna knjižnica Slovenije - dLib.si. - The GORUP – KALISTER family