The city of Split has bought forty-one paintings by one of the best known English architects from the 19th century. Thomas Jackson RA (1835-1924) was a distinguished architect, best known for his work at Oxford, where he designed - among many other buildings - the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ over New College Lane, which has become almost an Oxford logo.

But he also knew and loved the Croatian coast and recorded its monuments for his architectural history-cum-travel log, “Dalmatia, The Quarnero and Istria”.

The Victorian architect travelled to the Croatian coast three times in the 1880s to study its little-known monuments. Gleeful that there was then no guidebook to follow, he sketched his way down the coast, writing, “It was perhaps the last bit of Europe to be explored in which there were important treasures of art.” Indeed, Jackson was an early campaigner for the protection of Croatia’s cultural heritage and actually worked there completing the fifteenth-century Venetian clock tower on Zadar’s cathedral.

An exceptional collection has been secured for Split thanks to the mediation of the Cultural Attaché in the Croatian Embassy in London, Flora Turner-Vucetic, and the director of Split’s Conservation department of the Ministry of Culture Josko Belamaric, who managed to convince Sir Nicholas Jackson to sell his grandfather’s works to Split and not to numerous other interested parties including the RIBA and the V&A Museum in London.

In September, the public will have the chance to see the works for the first time in Dubrovnik (Knezev Dvor). Before the collection moves to Split’s Museum Halls, it will be displayed in the Old City Hall in October.

Last month at an auction of drawings and paintings of old artists held at Sotheby in London, the Croatian Government bought the so far unknown work of the Croatian artist Julije Klovic - a miniature showing “The Last Judgement”.

According to the inscription on the frame, Klovic gave “The Last Judgement” to Pope Clement VII as a present. The painting was presented to Croatian Culture Minister Bozo Biskupic on a recent visit to the UK.

The government expressed satisfaction with the fact that the painting was finally in Croatia.