Bozo Boskovic (merchant)

Božo Bošković (Serbian Cyrillic: Божо Бошковић; Dubrovnik, 18 February 1815 - Dubrovnik, 3 January 1879), was a Dubrovnik merchant and landowner, and a central figure in the construction of the Serbian Orthodox Church Cathedral there back in the second half of the 19th-century. He is remembered as a prominent philanthropist in Serbian history in the old tradition.Cite web |url=http://www.maticasrpska.org.rs/biografije/tom01.pdf |title=Српски биографски речник, том 1. |access-date=18 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916095457/http://www.maticasrpska.org.rs/biografije/tom01.pdf |archive-date=16 September 2011 |url-status=dead |df= 
==Biography==
His father Vasilije, with the nickname Ukropina, was originally from Herzegovina, from Mostar, but he lived in Dubrovnik and worked there as a tailor. There he married his godmother Ana Petrović, who was from a respectable, Eastern Orthodox, Dubrovnik family name=":0">Cite book|title=Знаменити Срби XIX века III том|last=Ур. Гавриловић|first=Андра|publisher=Наклада и штампа Српске штампарије|year=1904|location=Загреб|pages=7}}. 
After graduating from school, he started trading, together with his brother Niko. With their value and thrift, they quickly acquired property and became famous merchants in their area. name=":0" 
He was the manager of the Dubrovnik Maritime Society for a long time. He was also involved in politics and was elected a member of the municipal administration. In October 1857 he married Teodor Putica from a very rich Dubrovnik Orthodox family. He made a great contribution to the building of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Dubrovnik, dedicated to the Annunciation, which was the first Orthodox church within the city walls.
During the Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877), he was one of the great benefactors of both refugees and orphans.
He died in 1879, and by his explicit order, his wife and brother donated 10,000 forints to the Božo Bošković Foundation for the founding of the Serbian Orthodox Girls' School in Dubrovnik, which was inaugurated on January 30, 1880. 
 name=":0" In addition, he left the same 10,000 forints for the Božo Bošković Endowment, from which the Institute for Poor and Abandoned Children in Dubrovnik will be established.
==Altrusitic work==
In 1839 permission to build a Serbian Orthodox cathedral in Dubrovnik was granted by the authorities, but nothing was done in that sense for a long time.
Then in 1865, Bošković who had been a member of the church tutorship, for the most part, its president, but also the most agile in affairs of that kind. The most important work done at that time from 1865 to 1877 was the erection of the Cathedral in Dubrovnik. With his business skills, Božo Bošković managed to buy a building in the City from Gučetić, under the name Stari teatar. 
As a member of the Society of Serbian Dilettanti, he wrote to the bishop (1865): 
"I thought about that job day after night, where I would find a decent place. My wish was at Pile, but it is not possible to find a place there under any money. God have mercy, and in the most beautiful place in the City, one of the most spacious houses, completely isolated, had to be sold, and that is the Old Theater. As soon as I announced that the house was going to be sold, I immediately started thinking about buying it for the church. I can't tell you how much I tried, effort and headaches. And what is most, I had to keep my intention in the greatest secrecy, because in order for my intention to be known, they would not give it to me in any way. God bless my work, and I bought the Theater at that time… "
Bošković wrote in May 1867:
"You know that we bought the Old Theater with the intention of demolishing it and building a church there. Our government had approved the purchase. When we sent through the Consistory to the Governor for confirmation, His Excellency Mr. (Lazar von) Mamula (governor of the Kingdom of Dalmatia) told the consuls in full session - all forms should not be investigated in detail, I know Bošković well, this should be approved… “In 1871, the foundations of the Church of the Annunciation in Dubrovnik were consecrated. In the same year, Archimandrite Gerasim Petranović was appointed bishop of the newly established Episcopate of Boka Kotorska and Dubrovnik (separated from the Dalmatian diocese) with its seat in Kotor" -- more in the book: Irena Arsić, "Serbian Orthodox Church in Dubrovnik", pp. 108-113.
Chronology of important events for the Orthodox in Dubrovnik:
*In 1717, Count Sava Vladislavich asked for permission to build an Orthodox church;
*In 1775, by a contract in Livorno, the Dubrovnik authorities allowed the erection of a chapel of the Eastern Rite at the Russian Consulate in Dubrovnik;
*In 1790, the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality and Parish in Dubrovnik were registered;
*1800 consecrated church in Posat;
*In 1804, an Orthodox priest was allowed to reside in the City;
*In 1830, a Serbian school was opened near the church in Posat;
*1837 consecrated church in Boninovo cemetery in Dubrovnik;
*In 1849, with the imperial patent, the Orthodox faith became equal in the Habsburg Monarchy…
Category:1815 births
Category:1879 deaths
Category:Merchants
Category:Landowners