Depiction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on a Jerusalem icon from Ružica Church: An example of visual culture in the context of religious practice

Among but few icons brought back home by hajjis from their pilgrimage to Jerusalem (hence the name jerusalems) preserved in Belgrade, the one that stands out for its peculiarity and relatively early origin is the 1819 icon kept in Ružica Church in Kalemegdan. The most important element of the icon is the depiction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This paper presents and analyses numerous peculiarities of this depiction, before all by comparing its iconography and style with the usual kind of the Jerusalem pilgrimage icons of the same age. Th icon painter's method is additionally analysed through the theoretical prism of palimpsest and gloss, recently developed in art-historical studies. It has been concluded that the depiction is basically similar to that on other icons dating from after the 1808 fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but bearing an array of specificities that could be ascribed to the reinterpretation of architectural elements of the Jerusalem Church which the icon painter depicts to underline its holiness. The analysis points to a local Palestinian master as the author of the icon.

A contribution to the research into the history of Zemun Cemetery and the possibilities for improving its current organisation

The focus of the academic subject themed The Protection and Revitalisation of Architectural Heritage in the academic 2019/2020 year was on defining the preservation of cultural, historical, architectural and urban-planning values of the spatial cultural and historical unit of great importance - the Old Downtown of Zemun. The purpose of this paper was to collect and review the literature and other sources and conduct fieldwork in the said area with the view to examining its cultural and historical values, identifying issues, and exploring the potential for its revitalisation and the preservation of its authenticity and identity. The paper presents the results of the research into the historical development and values of Zemun cemetery in Gardoš, and the possibilities for the improvement of its current condition and its further protection. The study spurred the proposals on revitalisation and planning of the space, the increase of its capacity, and the communication of its significance to the community.

The Energoprojekt building in Belgrade, designed by architect Milica Šterić: High modernism as a paradigm of urban conservation

In examining the urban heritage, which has often been fragmented in Belgrade as a result of different social and political circumstances, the issue of the choice of methodology is often raised in urban conservation. The present paper will propose to consider along these lines the role of high (second) Modernism in the architecture and urban development of Belgrade. The strategies of urban conservation focusing on the main issue of the synthesis of the historical and planned structure would be directed towards the Modernist phenomena which are established as a platform structure of the urban conservation of Belgrade's spatial cultural and historical units. The present research analyses the potential and possibilities of implementing the postulates of the Modernist creative efforts in the contemporary architectural, urban planning and conservation theory and practice, with the analytical basis in the seminal work of architect Milica Šterić (1914-1997) - the Energoprojekt building (1956-1960), located in Zeleni Venac Square in Belgrade. This study, which is based on certain aspects of the high Modernism, namely rationalism and neutrality, aims to point out a number of issues in the current globalist textualism, in which concepts of high Modernism and internationalism are evidently manipulated in the historical urban contexts of the city.

Ostrogović's Modernist City Hall in Pančevo

Pančevo City Hall, an administration building erected in the city centre, is rarely accentuated in the oeuvre of the Croatian-Yugoslav architect Kazimir Ostrogović, despite the fact that it was the first Modernist building in this Vojvodina city. The City Hall emphasizes the spirit of Yugoslavia and the dominant Modernist architecture of the time. Its modern form, mass, structure, materials, constructive and technical details stand out from the ambience, which until then had mostly communicated aesthetic ideas of Viennese and Hungarian Secession. The author turned to Le Corbusier's principles combined with his own style. The building has great technical value and immense social, cultural, aesthetic and historical values. The goal of this article is to explore all its aspects by thoroughly reviewing literature, examining archives and interviewing employees. To date, the values of the building has not been fully recognized by experts, given that it has not been placed under any kind of protection, while changes made over the years led only to devastation.

The Urban Planning Institute building in Belgrade

The building of the Urban Planning Institute in Belgrade, designed by architect Branislav Jovin, is one of the most significant achievements of the post-WWII architecture in Belgrade. In the personal oeuvre of the author, the building is his magnum opus and one of the showpieces of Brutalist architecture in Serbia. This paper will examine the architectural and artistic values of the Belgrade Urban Planning Institute building, designed in late 1960s and completed as early as 1970. The significance of the structure was reviewed in the context of its architectural, cultural and historical values, but also by analysing social circumstances and the development of architectural scenery in the post-WWII Yugoslavia and the city of Belgrade. By considering the building in the framework of the post-WWII architecture, we can get the clearer picture of tendencies and aspirations in the architectural treatment of masses and forms, of the material used, but also of European and global influence on the development of Yugoslav architecture of the time.

An overview of the architectural activities of Jovan Đ. Ilkić in Belgrade

Architect Jovan Ilkić is perceived in current historiography as a significant cultural emancipator and one of the leading figures in Serbian pre-WWI architecture. With his broad academic education, thorough knowledge of different architectural styles, and the great quality of his architectural compositions, he managed to distinguish himself as an authority, whose attitudes and opinion were deeply respected. He had no preference for a single style, rather applied the principles of Academicism, late Romanticism, Neo-Byzantine style, and Art Nouveau, producing some of the finest architectural pieces in Belgrade and Serbia. The aim of this paper is to expand and deepen the knowledge of Ilkić's work, and possibly raise some issues or present points of view which would shed new light on the subject. The focus will be on the architect's designs erected in Belgrade, with descriptions of major structures.

Architect Dušan Babić: Reconstruction of identity

To this day, the Belgrade oeuvre of architect Dušan Babić has not been subjected to broader historiographic research, making the elements of his architectural vocabulary all the more difficult to define and evaluate. The available archival material does provide valuable insights into the life of architect Babić and his works in the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1927 and 1946. He produced over fifty designs for residential and mixed use buildings (comprising both commercial and residential space), several churches and the crematorium in Belgrade, simultaneously participating in at least ten big state competitions with notable entries, such as the designs for the Terazije slope, the Princes' Palace in the Dedinje Royal Compound, the Veterans Club building, etc. In the diversity of movements, styles and trends developing in Serbia between the two world wars as a result of the surge of predominantly West European cultural influences, the application and modification of modern architecture principles formed the mainstay of Babić's creative endevours. Stereometric forms, cubic volumes, unadorned facades, and strict lines were refined with often more freely interpreted bas-relief ornamentation, free standing sculptures or geometric forms. Babić made an effort to turn each and every structure into a unique architectural experience, especially by dynamically interpreted drawings of perspective and accentuated details.

The house of Marko Stojanović (1885): The first independent work of architect Konstantin Jovanović in Belgrade

The first independent work of the Viennese architect Konstantin A. Jovanović (1849-1923) in Belgrade, the house of solicitor Marko Stojanović at 53-55 Knez Mihailova Street, built in 1885, signifies the Europeanising surge of the secular architecture in the Kingdom of Serbia, which conclusively suppressed the Oriental architectural practices. Jovanović's father Anastas helped him develop friendship alongside the business relationship with the patron of the house. This allowed Jovanović to construct a notable privately-owned building in the city thoroughfare, thus recommending himself to the favour of wealthy investors. Often linked in historiography to Jovanović's cult of the Italian Renaissance, Stojanović's house also contains elements of Mannerism and Baroque, harmoniously combined into an eclectic whole. Adapted to the Belgrade setting as a two-storey structure built at the top of the Sava River Slope, the house is a direct interpolation of the Viennese eclectic experiences.

On the work of architect Milosav Mitić in Belgrade

Architect Milosav Mitić figures prominently among numerous authors who contributed to the emancipatory and artistic development of the post-WWII architecture in Serbia. Recognised even in his student years as a talented and artistically inclined author, in the years to come Mitić became a member of the renowned Belgrade 5 group, together with his colleagues Mihailo Čanak, Leonardo Lenarčić, Ivan Petrović, and Ivan Simović, submiting designs to numerous public competitions and designing major housing areas and related facilities in Novi Beograd. Although his prolific professional engagement earned him timely acknowledgement of his contemporaries, a thorough historiographic evaluation that would put the life and work of this author in the limelight for both professional and general public is still missing. That is the very reason behind this comprehensive analysis of the life and work of architect Mitić, aimed at interpreting his Belgrade oeuvre as coherently as possible.

1951-1952 competition for the Monument to the fallen Jewish soldiers and victims of fascism in the Sephardi cemetery in Belgrade

In their wish to preserve the memory to the compatriots who lost their lives in the Holocaust, the Jewish community in Yugoslavia started erecting monuments to Jewish civil victims and fallen soldiers as early as the first few post-WWII years. The Monument to the Fallen Jewish Soldiers and Victims of Fascism put up in the Sephardi cemetery in Belgrade in 1952, potent with artistic and political significance, stood out from the rest of the monuments of the period. It was dedicated to all the Jews from the Socialist Republic of Serbia who lost their lives in the World War II. The purpose of this article is to analyse the competition for the design of the monument by examining the documents from the Archives of the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade, thus making a contribution to the research of the culture of Holocaust remembrance in the Yugoslav Socialism, but also to show artistic, social and ideological aspirations of the time when, after the Cominform schism, Yugoslavia was at political crossroads. By exploring the symbolism and aesthetic values of this work, the research presented in this paper attempts to enhance the understanding of architect Bogdan Bogdanović's early creative efforts.