Josip Jelačić, the viceroy of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia and military leader, is one of the most notable figures in Croatian history. He was educated at the Theresianum, an elite academy for noblemen in Vienna. He served as lieutenant field marshal, supreme military commander in the Kingdom of Croatia and the Croatian-Slavonian Military Border, and as governor of Rijeka and Dalmatia. Josip Jelačić took active part in the Illyrian movement and advocated for the use of Croatian as his country’s official language.

In 1848, he severed all official ties with Hungary and annexed Međimurje to Croatia, thus accomplishing a formal, albeit short-lived, union of all Croatian provinces. He abolished serfdom by a special proclamation and established the Ban’s Council, as the first independent Croatian government. During the Revolution of 1848-1849, he participated in the suppression of the Hungarian rebellion against Habsburg rule.

A lesser-known fact about viceroy Jelačić is that he was a literary enthusiast and a poet. Taken by illness, he died in his official residence of Ban’s Court in Zagreb, and was buried on his estate of Novi Dvori near Zaprešić. In 1866, a statue of him by Viennese sculptor Anton Dominik Fernkorn was erected in Zagreb’s main square. The monument to the ban (viceroy), one of the most famous symbols of the city of Zagreb, was removed overnight by Communist authorities in 1947. It was reinstalled in 1990 following democratic reforms.