About us

Croatian Philatelic Society (HFD) was founded on 1 June 1896 by the physician Eugen Sladović.

Also present at the first meeting were Franjo Bučar, Dragutin Dukat, Dragutin Gogolja, Stjepan Jarić, Ivan Kerschbaumer, Antun Mikšić, Vjekoslav Panian, Peroslav Paskijević, Dragutin Taborski, and Dragutin Zistler.
The draft of the Society's first Rule Book was read at that meeting.

At the time the Society was the only stamp collectors' club between Vienna and Athens.

The Croatian Philatelist Society is the oldest association which has since its inception continually - for 110 years now - carried the adjective in its name, although Croatia was at first part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and later in both the monarchist and the socialist Yugoslavia.

The Society organized the first Croatian philatelic exhibition in the Artistic Pavillion in Zagreb from 1 to 8 September 1907, under the auspices of the then Mayor of Zagreb, Milan Amruš.

At the beginning, the meetings were held mostly on Saturdays in the former inn of Dragica Kregar in Gundulićeva 4. Today, the members meet on Tuesday afternoons and Sunday mornings in the HFS headquarters in Habdelićeva 2, in Zagreb's Upper Town.

There are hundred members (in 2006)

The spirit of the Society is marvellously caught in the following passage by Branimir Kunec, taken from the 1951 Almanac:

"The fact is that always, even in the most inauspicious circumstances, a few committed people would emerge who would give it all to pull the Society out of a crisis. Once a person forges a bond with the Society, they find it very hard to sever their ties with it, even if they leave Croatia. Usually they keep in touch with it as associate members for ten years or even more, they regularly pay their membership fees and help the Society whenever they can. Of course, some quit the Society, those more or less sensitive ones, but the true, devoted members never endure long and soon return... The meetings, never massively attended, and perhaps just because of that, have perfectly reflected the spirit of brotherhood and cameraderie. There have been some perhaps too presumptuous and ambitious, which is not surprising as it is in human nature. But they did not remain such for long. Soon they would change, imbued by the spirit of collectivism that has permated the Society and become enthusiastic champions of the Society for the Society's sake. Today it would be difficult to point out the initiators of numerous campaigns and activities: someone comes up with a proposal at a meeting, others agree... and the Society once more makes a step forward."