Alexander Wittek (12 October 1852,

Sisak Sisak (; hu, Sziszek ; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavin ...

– 11 May 1894,

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popu ...

) was an Austrian-Hungarian architect and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

master. As an architect, Wittek worked in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

during

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with t ...

. His most well-known works in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajev ...

are the City Hall building called "

Vijećnica Sarajevo City Hall ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: Gradska vijećnica Sarajevo / Градска вијећница Сарајево), known as Vijećnica, is located in the city of Sarajevo. It was designed in 1891 by the Czech architect Karel Pa� ...

" (1892–1894) which later became the National Library and the Sebilj public fountain (1891), both of which were built in the

pseudo-Moorish style Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th cen ...

. Wittek was also a chess master. He tied for 5–6th at Berlin 1881 (2nd DSB–Congress,

Joseph Henry Blackburne Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...

won), and was in 9th place at Vienna 1882 (

Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and che ...

and

Simon Winawer Szymon Abramowicz Winawer (March 6, 1838 – November 29, 1919) was a Polish-Jewish chess player who won the German Chess Championship in 1883. Tournament and match results At the Paris 1867 tournament held at the Café de la Régence, his first ...

won). In 1882 he was ranked 9th in the world. Wittek died in a

lunatic asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...

in Graz in 1894, having been diagnosed with a "paralytic mental disorder" the previous year.http://www.klinikum-graz.at/cms/dokumente/10094691_2096265/888a95f9/Ztg%20KlinOptikum%206_07%20druckverson_070725n.pdf One source says that he committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

but another cites

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

. File:Stari Grad Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - panoramio.jpg ,

National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NUL) ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine'' / Национална и универзитетска библиотека Бос� ...

(1891-1896) File:Sebilj (by day).jpg, Sebilj (1891) File:Image taken from page 71 of 'The Outgoing Turk- impressions of a journey through the western Balkans ... With seventy-six illustrations ... and three maps' (11298136376).jpg, Sebilj in 1897

References

External links

Alexander Wittek games of chess
1852 births 1894 deaths 19th-century architects 19th-century chess players People from Sisak Austrian architects Austrian chess players Bosnia and Herzegovina architects Croatian chess players Suicides in Austria 1890s suicides {{Austria-architect-stub

See also

References

External links