Museum of Jovan Cvijić

The Memorial Museum of Jovan Cvijić is set up in the house in which the great geographer and scholar lived and worked. It is located at Kopitareva Gradina, in more than a century old cultural and historical nucleus in the very heart of the city. The house was built in 1905, after Jovan Cvijić’s drawings and in accordance with his wishes. Cvijić’s house, together with the surrounding garden noted for its beauty and rare plants, still reflects the spirit of the early 20th century.

Jovan Cvijić (Loznica, 1865 – Belgrade, 1927) was the founder of modern Yugoslav geography and the first modernly educated scholar in Serbia. He was a lifelong President of the Serbian Royal Academy and a Rector of the first university in Serbia. Jovan Cvijić was also the founder of the first geographical institutions in the Balkans: the Geographic Institute and the Serbian Geographical Society.

He significantly contributed to the founding of the University Library in Belgrade and new university faculties in Belgrade, Skopje and Subotica. Cvijić was a member of several European academies of sciences and laureate of numerous awards and honors (Gold Medal of the American Geographical Society, Gold Medal of the University of Paris–Sorbonne, French Legion of Honor, etc.).

The entrance hall and the anteroom are all of three premises with preserved wall paintings, from the seven that were originally made. The walls and ceiling are additionally decorated with plaster ornaments, which symbolically show the interest and scientific work of Jovan Cvijić. In the entrance hall, there is an eagle standing on a circle, a symbol of the Earth, which holds a hammer, representing the sharpness of Cvijić's thought, while the hammer and the circle indicate the geologist occupation.

In the anteroom, an owl, leaning on a hammer, with a book on its outstretched wings, presents Cvijić's scientific and research work. The wall decoration was made in ornaments taken from Macedonian and Serbian rugs, embroideries of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and stylization of flowers from the famous Cvijić's garden. Stylized animal motifs, primarily goat heads, were used to decorate hat stand, umbrella holders, and chandeliers.

Jovan Cvijić married Ljubica Krstić in 1911. Ljubica was his faithful friend and companion on numerous excursions. The couple maintained intensive correspondence during Cvijić's numerous travels. His wife is responsible for taking care of Cvijić's legacy after his death.

Jovan Cvijić was one of the first eight professors of the newly founded Belgrade University. He had served during two mandates as the University Dean, was twice appointed Chairman of the Serbian Royal Academy, and received numerous diplomas and medals from both domestic and foreign Universities and scientific societies.

Half-length portrait of Jovan Cvijić, which was situated in the lounge of his house and which was painted only four years before his death by the famous painter Uroš Predić, in 1923. Jovan Cvijić was one of the first eight professors of the newly founded Belgrade University and its rector for two terms. He was twice appointed for the president of the Serbian Royal Academy, and has received numerous diplomas and medals from domestic and foreign universities and scientific societies.

Cvijić organised excursions and engaged in scientific work, leaving behind a substantial and diverse bibliography, for the most part in foreign languages, maps, atlases, and geographic charts of the Balkan peninsula, ethnographic maps, notes and drawings, dedicating entire editions to the phenomenon of Balkan house types, national customs and psychological traits of the peoples of different cultural zones of the peninsula.