STJEPAN RADIĆ STREET

Stjepan Radić Street

Today's Stjepana Radića Street in Metković was built in the mid-19th century, on both sides of the Mostar-Metković road, east of Plokata, today's King Tomislav Square. The creation of this street also marks the spatial expansion of the city to the foot of the Predolac hill, whose owners were the wealthier Metković families who were mainly engaged in trade and other activities related to the port. These are massive stone buildings that usually had business premises for commercial and catering facilities on the ground floor, while the upper floors were residential spaces that were mainly decorated according to the bourgeois style of the time. Although the buildings on this street partly followed the models of traditional architecture in their design, the design of their facades and simple historicist and art nouveau decorations, usually around the windows, they are characterized by modernity. The most significant examples are the Gluščević, Karković, Spajić, and Mandrapa houses, having architectural features from the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, the Mandrapa House was known as the United Nations Building because members of different nations lived in it, and it is notable for its rich Art Nouveau-historicist decoration of the facade, consisting of medallions with female heads and faces, lion heads, masquerades, and floral decoration, dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.