Host: Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh. In the last 15 weeks, we've traveled across the city learning the stories of Pittsburgh's people and places. Join us as we explore St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church. I'm Bella Penica. Let's go. And the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Millvale lies a small, unassuming Community Church on top of the hill. St Nicholas' exterior is deceiving with its humble brickwork and simple white steeples, it looks like any other neighborhood church. It is not until you enter the church that its uniqueness becomes apparent. As soon as you walk through the doors, you are surrounded by murals from the walls to the ceiling to the under loft, the church is covered in these intense, almost shocking artistic depictions. These murals are unlike traditional artwork found inside of holy and sacred spaces, while traditional Catholic imagery is featured, these murals mean much more to the community. They represent the story of Pittsburgh's Croatian immigrants and their lives during the peak of the Industrial Revolution in Pittsburgh and a time of international unrest, we welcome you through the doors of St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church. I'm Bella panica with Diane Novosel as our tour guide, and we invite you along with us to explore these idiosyncratic and historical murals painted by Maxo Vanka. Diane: Oh. The church was built in 1900 at that time, estimates approximately about 50,000 Croatians who were in the region, working in the mills, working in the mines, in industry, they did not have their own church, so they were worshiping in a number of different churches. They were then renting a building on the north side of Pittsburgh for a while, and then they petitioned the Diocese of Pittsburgh for permission to build a church, and that was granted. So the cornerstone was laid here for this church in 1900 it was built, and it was built by a local designed by a local Pittsburgh architect whose last name was Bauer. I believe he also designed another Croatian church that was really only about a mile from here, closer to the north side of Pittsburgh. And people say, Well, why were there two Croatian churches so close together? Well, at the turn of the century, a mile and a half apart wasn't really close together. You went to church where you lived and where you worked, and so it was much more community oriented than it is nowadays. But that church had to be demolished. That church did not have murals, as this one does. Host: This church survives today largely because of the murals of Maxo Vanka. Diane: So he was born as a loved child out of wedlock. They believe that his parents were Austro -Hungarian nobility and aristocracy. He did learn of his parents’ true identity at a later time in his life, and he was sworn to secrecy, which he honored, and he took that information to his grave, but all of the information that the family had collected up to that point, they knew that he came from a very, very privileged background. However, the custom in those days for children who were born out of wedlock is that they would be taken to the countryside, to a peasant village. They would be given to a family, a woman who served as a wet nurse, or what we would call today a foster family. He stayed with this particular family for the first eight years of his life. So he was, you know, just as much like my grandparents, he was living in a on a peasant farm without any privilege. But part of the agreement was that every year she would have to clean him up, dress him up, take him into Zagreb, have his photo taken and send it to the family, so that they could assure that he was still doing well. His mother's family decided that it was time to take him from that setting and begin to groom him, begin his formal education, and groom him to be, you know, a young aristocrat, to grow up, to follow in the family style and tradition. So I'm sure that at the turn of the century, that wasn't done very therapeutically. You know, he was probably calm till they came and they took him even as a child. At that point, was then told, forget about this life that you've known for the first most formative years of your life, the first eight years of your life, because now this is your life. So he grew up, really, with this foot in two worlds, one of extreme poverty and one of great privilege. Because he was taken to an estate which was outside of Zagreb. He was raised by a number of caretakers, mostly adults. He was very well educated in the arts, the sciences, languages, and then, as he was in young adulthood, he decided that he wanted to go to art school. He went to art school at the Art Academy in Brussels Belgium, because Croatia did not have an art academy at that point in time, he studied the arts there in Brussels. He did very well. He was well accomplished. He was well liked by his fellow students, the other art students, his friends, he won gold medals for his portrayals of his his own self portrait. And so following that, World War One was still going on again, because of a family connection, he was able to avoid being conscripted into the military and was able to work with the Belgian Red Cross, where he would drive an ambulance, he would go into the fields, and that was the experience that really made him a pacifist. And after the war, he returned to Zagreb. They now had an Arts Academy, and He began teaching there. He did meet his wife, who was touring Europe with her family. And the family was very taken by Maxo and his talents, and they were trying to persuade him to come to New York, because they were very well connected, and we'll make you a famous artist. And he was not interested in doing that, but Margaret, his wife, was smitten, and so she told Maxo that she would be back to see him. And in fact, she did come back, and she pursued him to the point where he finally agreed to marry her. So they married, and they married in Croatia, and they lived in Croatia for several years, until 1934 What was happening in 1934? Things were not good in Europe. Fascism was on the rise. Margaret was an American Jew. His wife and his friend convinced him he did not want to leave Europe, but they convinced him they had to leave. So they did. And then they came, they moved to New York City. So when Maxo came to New York City, he was now living on Park Avenue, I believe, again, a very going from a very sort of average life of an artist, art professor. He was now again, living in the lap of luxury in New York City, and was very taken by what he saw and observed in New York City, which, at the time, all the skyscrapers were being built. You know, it was awesome. But his friend, whose name was Louis Adamic, said to him, this is not representative of what's going on in this country. I visit our people. I visit the immigrant community, and you'll come with me on some road trips, and your eyes will be opened. And so Maxo started going on this series of road trips with his friend Louis Adamic, where he went to all the Mill Towns. He went to the coal mining towns. And he could really see the life that the immigrants were living. And so when the priest said to him, I want you to paint a story of our people, what they left behind in Croatia, and what they came to here, it all came together from Maxo, so here it is on the wall. So, so not only is it just telling the story of the immigrants, a lot of what you'll see here, you'll put it together, is related to his own life, to issues of in his own childhood, his own upbringing, what he saw in the villages, and so that's kind of how it's kind of the back story of how it all came to be. Host: Maxo Vanka’s experience as a peasant child stayed with him throughout his life. When he began painting these murals, he used his history and poverty to connect with the immigrant experience of the Croatian community in which St Nicholas is located. Vanco uses themes of class, war, industry and grief in his murals to explore the depth and complexity of the immigrant population in Pittsburgh. Diane: So when you look at the murals, you know, it's important to realize that they weren't just painted randomly. They were really painted as an installation. And so, you know, we have a slogan here, these walls can talk and there's a conversation going on here. There's a dialog here. However, they are positioned strategically opposite one another. You have point counterpoint. You'll have two dinner scenes, one showing a wealthy individual, the others showing workers. So this is all done purposefully. So he's juxtaposing wealth, he's just juxtaposing class, Old World, new world themes and looking wanting you to, sort of, you know, fill in the blanks and come up with a story. Although when you look at all these paintings, you'll think, did he paint all of these because they're all stylistically. Can be quite different, you know, and it's pretty astounding the way he's able to do that. But he was a classically trained artist and painted in many styles. But if you look at Mary, you'll see that she sort of has this very Byzantine looking face, very large eyes that follow you, slender nose, very full lips. She's seated on a throne in a very typical, iconic style. Her knees are slightly splayed because what she's doing, symbolically, is creating a throne for the child who is standing on her knee, she has her hand pointed in that direction on the child that is for you as a supplicant to know that this is my son who is your salvation. He dresses her in the colors of Croatia, which are also red, white and blue, and He adorns her dress and address of the child with Croatian folk textile design, and above that, in the archway, you'll see words written in Croatian that literally translate to Mary, Queen of Croatia, pray for us. Now, if you know anything about icons or iconic images, especially those of Mary. Mary is really typically portrayed as a very slender, almost bony, emaciated, looking at times, not a very robust or attractive Mary, as we've come to know her in the Western world. This is a very robust Mary, isn't she? I mean, look at the size of her arms, her hands, even her legs, as you can see, that was purposeful, right there. He begins to address the people in this congregation. He wanted to pull them in this was a tribute to them. And so the women in this church, as my grandmother, were hard working women. They were not dainty women who sat and had tea all day. Okay? They were very, very hard working women, either in Europe, where they worked in the fields and tended the family, or here where they often tended. The family ran a boarding home cared for a group of men who might have lived in the home, who worked in the mills or worked in the mines. So he portrays Mary as one of these very hard working women. Host: By 1937 the seeds of war had already been planted. Hitler was entrenched as the German leader Japan committed the atrocity of The Rape of Nanking, and Italy had occupied both Ethiopia and Albania. Europe was becoming increasingly anti-semitic and unsafe. Families were fleeing the continent, and it was an unsettling time. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh steel industry was at its peak in the 1920s and 30s. However, Pittsburgh steel industry began to decline as an industrial leader during the Great Depression. This time of high unemployment and poverty led to Stark ethnic divides, similar to the rest of the world, Pittsburgh's neighborhoods were known to be ethnically divisive, with poles in Polish Hill, Italians in Morningside and African Americans located mainly in the Hill District. Diane: This one behind the side altar of a more traditional crucifixion scene where we have Christ on the cross. We know from the biblical story that there was a horrific earthquake that happened during that time. So we see the temple falling. We see the Roman Centurion who's lanced the side of Christ. We see these disembodied spirits who are now being freed with the crucifixion of Christ, because he was his crucifixion. He came to fulfill a prophecy which was to redeem people. And so here we see people, these disembodied, disembodied spirits who are coming through the earth. And then again, in the rear, we have angels who are collecting droplets of blood, who are weeping. And we have this image of Mary, again, opposite that now we have an image that. Is again, based on a true story, just as the mothers, Croatian mothers raised their sons for war, this one is called immigrant mothers raised their sons for American industry. The story, supposedly, and this may have been one of those stories that he heard when he was traveling around with his friend Louis Adamic, was that a mother lost four sons in a mining explosion, and so we have once the first son here, who was brought up from the mine. He's laid to rest in a very undignified way on newspaper. We see blood coming out here from under his head. When we see the mothers, she's bereft, she's absolutely consumed with grief. And we see the women, the mothers, who were grieving in community in the old world now here, grieving in community again, here in the new world, we see a group of men who were going back into the mine on a rescue mission. The story has it that they didn't, there was another explosion, and they lost their lives as well. And so that completed the 37 session. He did these 11 murals in eight weeks. Imagine it almost, almost you really can't wrap your head around it. You really would almost have had to be here every day and see what he was able to accomplish in a day. So old world, new world themes, themes of mother, themes, especially of grieving mothers, comparisons of mothers and Mary, the life of Christ, the life of He's showing us the life of immigrants and the life that they had in Europe, which would have been a life serving in the military, going to war as young men, young boys, which was just sort of a given At that time in history, and how their lives changed when they came here, but now no longer being victims of war. Mothers are sacrificing their sons in the name of progress because industry, everybody was working in industry. By 1941 fascism had taken over. Croatia, Vanka’s homeland, was overrun and taken over by Nazi collaborators. World War Two was escalating, and the partisan fighting in the former Yugoslavia was horrifying. The United States industrial machine was beginning to supply Great Britain but remained neutral in the war until December. Pittsburgh's industry experienced a temporary boost during wartime. The city once again became the nation's supplier of wartime steel, leading to a large economic uplift. Pittsburgh's industrial economy was once again booming. However, after World War Two, Pittsburgh suffered from industrial decline, poor municipal services, deteriorated housing and infrastructure, and heavy smoke pollution from the decades of contamination by industry leaders. Diane: So Vanka takes a break between 37 and 41. The themes that are portrayed here, they're not very light hearted, and they're not very pleasant. So in 41 things had changed. Now we're in a war again. Host: These 1941 murals explain how the current state of the world had gone from bad to apocalyptic, the death and destruction, hurt Vanka’s soul. Diane: The Fascists were taking over. So he was extremely disturbed by what was going on then. So you'll see an escalation in his messaging as he moves into 41 so in 41 as I mentioned, he did, the window walls under the choir loft and the ceiling above that is an Old Testament theme, which is Moses being handed one of the tablets on a hand, the hand of God with Angels carrying that is the theme of the golden calf. Moses is holding a tablet of the commandment that says, Thou shalt not kill. So again, he's making a statement about war, and he's making a statement about greed and money. In the golden calf, then we have the two vertical images. Well, we have four vertical images in all but these two. So this one is entitled prudence, the one opposite that is called Mati, 1941 why prudence? Of all of the here, he has all these themes of social justice, clearly wanting people to understand that they've been part of this whole system of money and power. Why is he sort of giving them this, this warning to be prudent that was really a sign to the congregation that as immigrants, you should be prudent in. In your thoughts, not only in your thoughts, but specifically in your spoken word, because as an immigrant, first of all, you're speaking with a heavy accent, right? So you will be judged more harshly. So be prudent in your words. Be prudent in your actions. Think before you take action, so that you are not judged more harshly. Host: A consistent theme across the 1941 murals is injustice, which comes in several different ways, from oppressing minorities to the blight of the lower classes. As a pacifist, Vanka simply looked for peace, justice and discipline, but total war breeds the exact opposite. Diane: Now, under the choir loft we have a battlefield scene, but this is really sort of a contemporary crucifixion scene. Look at how it differs from the one painted behind the altar. One painted behind the altar is the more biblical rendition. This one differs in a number of ways, especially the image of Christ, no longer a crown of thorns, but a crown of barbed wire here, no longer being lanced with a spear, but the bayonet of a rifle bullet who bullet wounds on the chest of Christ, lancing the heart of Christ. And we see soldiers, not centurions, but we see more contemporary soldiers on the battlefields of Croatia that Vanka, well, I guess he was in Belgium at the time, but he witnessed the battlefields. He was an ambulance driver, and he said that he purposely painted these two this kind of sickly color of green, because that was what he remembered, in terms of the the color that the dead soldiers would be who had been just decayed, their bodies just decaying. But over here on the opposite panel is Mary, again, a very powerful Mary, wanting to stop the carnage, stop the killing. She's so powerful. She's standing on this body of this dead soldier. She has broken the barrel of this soldier's rifle. Interestingly, the soldier behind her is wearing a religious metal. The soldier who she's who's dead here has a crucifix emerging from his pocket. One of the soldiers on this side has a rosary and a crucifix around his neck. So the image here is really about the soldiers recognizing that in killing one another, they're, they're putting a sword through the heart of Christ. They're really, it's really seen by Christ as killing him and his message. Host: We hope that these murals do more than just highlight the state of the world in 1937 and 1941. They really show how war and injustice bring out the absolute worst in people. The murals are so unsettling because they represent people as cogs in a larger machine. These murals are just as much a commentary on current events as a plea for peace. Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of the St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church. We hope you were inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all of the episodes we produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript on secret pittsburgh.org. I'm Bella Penica. Kyle Harwick served as audio editor, and Matthew Faberman and myself wrote and researched this episode. See yinz later.