
Lovro Žvab
(1852–1888)
The Žvab’s tombstone, which was raised by his friends from the Unity Society (društvo Edinost) on 15 September 1889, can be found in the Dutovlje cemetery at the left side of the iron gate. You cannot miss it because it is the tallest in the line.
Lovro Žvab was born on 9 August 1852 in Dutovlje as the fourth son of Mihael and Marjana Vrabec at the Rošt Homestead. In 1865, he went to the Gorica general secondary school and transferred to the technical secondary school in 1868, which he continued in Trieste. He did not complete his studies and found employment as a trainee at the Trieste tax office. In 1871, he called for the establishment of a reading room in Dutovlje. In 1875, he volunteered to fight in Serbia in the rebellion against the Turks. After the Serbian volunteer troops were disbanded, he returned home. In 1876, he started teaching geography, Slovenian, German and Serbo-Croatian in Ljubljana. He taught until 1881, until he fell ill and returned to Dutovlje. In this time, he published a folk tale titled The Poplar Slope (Topolovo rebro, 1882) and bibliographic articles on rare Slovenian books and old Trieste prints. In the second half of 1880s, he became the chief editor of the Unity (Edinost) newspaper in Trieste, a newspaper of the Slovenian political society from the Trieste area. He was one of the more prominent facilitators of the Slovenian national culture. He also participated in the establishment of a branch of the Ciril-Metod Company, which opened a Slovenian kindergarten. Lovro Žvab died after a long illness on 31 August 1888. |