Nobless Oblige - Style Magazine, Sunday Times
Once a wild child, Francesca von Habsburg has found a new peace in saving the cultural heritage of the world’s war-torn states. In Croatia, she has gone even further – privately funding the restoration of an island’s ancient monastery, and turning part of it into her holiday home. Bettina von Hase hears why the archduchess wants others to follow her example. Photographs by Simon Norfolk.
Francesca von Habsburg, pictured at the 15th-century monastery of St Mary on the island of Lopud.
Early morning in Croatia. A dazzling, sunny day on the island of Lopud, close to Dubrovnik. I open the shutters of my hotel room window to a timeless scene. Just below, three fishermen are bringing in their catch, the small boat bobbing on the Adriatic Sea. Looking right, I can see a curving bay with a tiny harbour; and straight ahead, in the distance, a magnificent fifteenth-century Franciscan monastery, clinging to the rocks, against a backdrop of sand-coloured mountains.
The monastery has brought me here. Or rather, Francesca von Habsburg has. With a group of art experts and friends from the international business community, we've come to research the potential of this staggeringly beautiful coastline. The monastery is her personal restoration project, separate from her work with the Art Restoration for Cultural Heritage Foundation (ARCH), which restores monuments and art works that have been destroyed by war.
The 43-year.old former Baroness Francesca von Thyssen — now Archduchess of Austria — has just celebrated the tenth anniversary of ARCH, whose foundation followed the bombing of Dubrovnik in the 1991—92 war, which damaged so many of the treasures in that beautiful city. For von Habsburg, art, cultural heritage, and their accessibility are the most important things in the world — "not just buying and Showing it." She should know. As the daughter of the flamboyant art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, known for his world-famous art collection in Madrid, her life has been a whirl of art openings, organizing exhibitions, fund-raising, and developing mobile restoration studios for projects around the globe. The experience has made the trilingual von Habsburg an ideal roving ambassador for art.
On this trip, starting from Split, we concentrate on the former province of Dalmatia, with a coastline so dreamy that the Romans built their summer palaces here — the Emperor Diocletian's being particularly impressive. The Romans loved the warm climate and the quality of the water (clear, pale turquoise shading into deep blue, considered to be the best in Europe). They also appreciated its strategic position, and were among the many empires — from the Byzantines to the Venetians — who established island outposts here, controlling the all-important sea-trading routes. Von Habsburg believes that contemporary travellers will have the same enthusiasm.
Our journey of discovery has so far taken in cities with such exotic names as Ston, Split, and Trogir — our first stop. A gorgeous seaside town, its architectural styles date from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries.
Trogir is a living museum and, like Dubrovnik, it has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Here the conservation expert Toto Bergamo-Rossi — who works with the Venetian Heritage foundation — is in the process of restoring the Chapel of the Blessed Giovanni Orsini. It is part of the cathedral Of San Lorenzo, one of the finest examples of Early Renaissance architecture on the Adriatic.
When the world gets to hear of the treasures of Croatia, there will be an inevitable influx of tourists and, says Bergamo-Rossi: 'The economic potential is immense. But what I would most like to do is stop the Croatians from creating ugly new buildings, and instead be rigorous about the use of traditional materials and good design. This is a new country; they have money, and they are free. Whatever they do, they should respect their countryside. In southern Italy this did not happen, and now it's too late."
Luckily, it is not too late for Lopud, a little jewel of an island, half an hour's boat ride from Dubrovnik and home to the tallest palm trees in Europe. We spend two days here, exploring the monastery, which von Habsburg has taken on a one-hundred-year lease from the Croatian government. She is funding the restoration of the monastery herself to show her affection for and commitment to the place. She would like to turn it into a home for herself and her husband, Karl, with whom she has three children, but she also plans to open study and botany centers here.
The monastery, founded in 1483, is protected by walls and towers added a century later. In a place where history is written over every brick and blade of grass, this building speaks volumes about the life it has endured. "Earthquakes, fires, wars, looting… if these walls could speak, we would have a time-capsule of Dalmatia," says Lori Anglin, restoration director of ARCH, who is also helping von Habsburg on this project. Her challenge is to adapt the monastery to modern needs without compromising its history. There is no water or electricity; doors, windows, floors, and ceilings are missing. Nevertheless, its dual purpose of contemplation and protection from hostile forces is still unmistakable and magical. It will take many years and significant investment, says Anglin, to revive the property, which boasts "great fifteenth. century structural 'bones,' but is presently a mere skeleton of its former self."
Such a project is well-suited to von Habsburg, a devout Roman Catholic. She is keen for us to see another of her foundation's achievements. On returning to the mainland, we are driven to the Dance convent, where ARCH recently restored and re-installed its sixteenth- century triptych altarpiece, Our Lady with Saints, by Dobricevic. It is not a pre. arranged visit — but one quick call from Francesca's ever-present mobile, and ten minutes later we're having tea and grappa with the former abbess, Sister Cornelia.
The two of them collaborated on the restoration of the triptych (Francesca von Habsburg eventually found the original frame, lost en route to an exhibition in 1986). Now they greet each other like old colleagues and friends. “This,” says von Habsburg, “is what it's all about. The warmth of the nuns, people opening their homes, locals reacting positively to us - and the response of my guests, when they're blown away by the beauty of the place - this interaction is really my life's work.”
It took her 15 years in various jobs in the art world to find her true direction. She spent her wild younger years living in London. But despite being half-British - her mother is the former Scottish model Fiona Campbell-Walter - von Habsburg always felt central European, “with strong emotional ties to places like Hungary and Transylvania, from where my family originated.”
A meeting with the Dalai Lama in 1985 was a turning point for her. He gave her encouragement when she curated an exhibition on Tibetan art at the Villa Favorita, her father's estate in Lugano, Switzerland; and that gave her the confidence to see what cultural campaigning and fund-raising could achieve. The ARCH Foundation now has an unstoppable momentum. It has completed projects in China, Russia, Scotland, and Turkey, and has other ongoing ventures in India, Morocco, Laos - and Croatia.
Before taking leave of the latter, we pay a farewell visit to the Dominican monastery in the center of Dubrovnik, where ARCH has restored a famous triptych by Nikola Bozidarevic. The monastery is in need of money following the 1991 - 92 war, during which 28 bombs fell on it. The miracle is that so much survived. The triptych, considered to be Bozidarevic's masterpiece, depicts St. Blaise, the patron saint of Dubrovnik, holding a model of the city in his hands.
Dubrovnik is a great treasure. So is the Dalmatian coastline. Francesca von Habsburg wants the whole world to enjoy - and respect - them both.
Views of the monastery, von Habsburg's personal project, situated near the coast of Lopud island, off the Croatian mainland near Dubrovnik.