National Museum in Belgrade

The National Museum, the most important and oldest museum in Serbia, was founded in 1844. It has changed many locations since then: from the Kapetan Miša edifice, Princess Ljubica’s Residence and the New Court Palace, to the present day building at Trg Republike (the Republic Square), to which it was moved in 1952. The building completed in 1903 for the Funds Administration, later Mortgage Bank, after the designs by Belgrade architects Nikola Nestorović and Andra Stevanović. At that time, it was one of the first bank buildings in Serbia, after the National Bank premises from 1889. The monumental appearance of the main façade owes much to the symmetrical academic design, dominated by the entrance part with coupled columns, a luxurious neo–baroque dome, polychromatic façade walls with rich plastic decorations of neo–renaissance origins. The significance of the building was underlined not only by the outside artistry, but also by the ornaments of the interior, the work of well–known artists of the time: Andrea Domenico, Franja Valdman and Bora Kovačlević. The first extension of the building was completed in 1930, with the addition of an atrium and a wing towards Laze Pačua Street. After the building was adapted to serve as premises of the Museum in 1952, the first subsequent major reconstruction was in 1964 and 1966, after the designs by architects Aleksandar Deroko, Petar Anagnosti and Zoran Petrović. The works satisfied the requirements and museum standards of that day. The National Museum building is a representative example of public buildings in Belgrade from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but is also an important work in the creative opus of the Stevanović–Nestorović team.