Austrian Governor von Lilienbergand the Erotes of Salona

Abstract

Wenzel Alois Vetter Graf von Lilienberg (1831-1840), governor of Dalmatia during the Second Austrian Administration, decided to tour the province after assuming office in order to, in his words, gain his own impression and obtain valid data on the overall socioeconomic situation. His journey lasted more than two years, from 1832 to 1834. In a detailed report to the authorities in Vienna, he presented a description of the province that included a survey of the current situation and a plan for improvement. In one part of the report, he makes a remark about the Dalmatians as a people negligent of their monuments and destroying them. As evidence of such behaviour, he attached a drawing of a sarcophagus fragment, allegedly from Salona. The drawing and the accompanying description are part of an unpublished manuscript kept in the Austrian National Library. The depicted monument is kept in the Archaeological Museum in Zadar, and present-day scholarly literature locates it to the surroundings of Zadar or Biograd. This research, based on archival sources, shows that the monument originated from Salona, and that it was transferred to Zadar during the governorship of Count von Lilienberg.