Cankar’s monument

How did it come to be that Ivan Cankar has been sitting, immersed in thought, by Tržaška Road for more than eight decades?

Ivan Cankar is known for his many anecdotes. He once said at a social gathering, “'When they make a monument of me, I want one in a sitting posture, I don't like standing.'' In designing the statue by Tržaška Road, the people of Vrhnika have indeed fulfilled the wish of Slovenia's greatest writer and playwright.

Shortly after Cankar's death, in January 1919, a committee was formed in Vrhnika to erect a monument to the famous native. In the ten years of preparation for this task, they also sought help from our compatriots in America. They responded and set up a committee in Detroit to collect donations for the memorial. As the American Slovenes wanted to attend the unveiling of the monument in as large a number as possible, the Committee decided that the inauguration ceremony would take place in the summer of 1930.