TOBACCO STATION BUILDINGS (VAGE)

Tobacco Station Buildings (Vage)

The buildings of the Tobacco Station in Metković are testimonies of tobacco production from the end of the 19th century and later. The main building with stylistic features of historicism was built in 1903 with Brač stone. The exterior is dominated by stylized rustication with a slight bulge in the ground floor area. This difference in the treatment of the ground floor compared to the upper floors is a characteristic of the Neo-Renaissance. Historicism also includes the separation of the floors from the ground floor and attic with shallow stone belts and the projection of the volume into the space in the center (to a lesser extent on the front side, to a somewhat greater extent on the back side). The window axes are arranged symmetrically. On the central front side, two balconies supported by volute consoles stand out.

The window frames end with an arched segmental shape of the lintel, which is also the case in approximately the same buildings for this purpose in Imotski and Dubrovnik. The use of radially laid bricks as a material also indicates the time of Art Nouveau, and all together represents the economic and cultural legacy of Austrian rule in Dalmatia. The neighboring building of the Tobacco Station in Metkovo had the same characteristic, but it was badly damaged in World War II and this shape of the lintel was not replicated later. The main building of the Scale also had a sewage system and a laboratory with a microscope and was surrounded by a courtyard with a garden. Most of the courtyard was destroyed at the beginning of the 21st century. Today, the ground floor houses the Natural History Museum, and the City Library is upstairs.