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National Museum of Serbia (Serbian: Народни музеј Србије / Narodni muzej Srbije) is the largest and oldest museum in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the central zone of Belgrade on a square plot between the Republic Square, formerly Theatre Square, and three streets: Čika Ljubina, Vasina and Laze Pačua. Its main facade is on the Republic Square and the official address ia 1a Republic Square.[2][3][4]

The museum was established on 10 May 1844. It moved into the present building in 1950, with the grand opening of the venue on 23 May 1952. Since its founding, the museum's collection has grown to over 400,000 objects, including many foreign masterpieces.[5]

The National Museum of Serbia building was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1979.[6]

Serbian art

List of Serbian painters
National Museum of Serbia
Gallery of Matica Srpska
Museum of Contemporary Art
History
Before the erection of the building of the National Museum on this place was a famous tavern called "Dardanelles", meeting point of the cultural and artistic elite of the time. Demolition of the old tavern signified the beginning of the transformation of The Republic Square. The building which housed the most important museum of the Republic of Serbia today originally was built from 1902 to 1903, for the purpose of the Uprava Fondova, the oldest financial institution in Belgrade. The building was constructed according to the design of architects Andra Stevanović and Nikola Nestorović after a competition on which they received the first prize. It was one of the first buildings in which was used some form of reinforced concrete for the foundation. Actually, during the digging foundation trenches, the various pits, wells and basements were encountered because of the proximity of the former Stambol Gate. The newly built two-storeyed building was a real palace of its time. Its volume conception designed in the form of a long solid block with domes over the central and lateral Rizal sites and academic façade shape was based on the principles of neo-Renaissance style with neo-baroque elements on the domes. The greatest attention was given to the monumental staircase and the hall with bank windows which as the basic premises of a bank was given secondary importance. Almost three decades later, the increased development of the State Mortgage Bank of Yugoslavia (Serbian: Državna hipotekarna banka), the successor entity to Uprava Fondova, generated a need for a reconstruction of the building. The extension was made without competition by architect Vojin Petrović, who designed the added wing and atrium facing the street Laze Paču. The new part of the building contained the same elements of interior as the old part, and in the final image, the building got two monumental staircases and two halls with bank windows while only the upper floors form the continuous line of offices. During World War II Mortgage Bank building was bombed and the central part with the dome was destroyed. After the war, the building got a completely new purpose when one of the most important national cultural institutions moved in.


Republic Square, Left: National Museum of Serbia – Centre: Hotel Marriott Belgrade – Right: National Theatre.
Since its establishment during the Constitutionalist, until the end of the Second World War, the National Museum changed location several times. At a beginning, it was placed in Captain Miša's building (1863) and soon after it was moved into two adjacent buildings which were destroyed during World War I. At the same time, the museum art collections were seized and looted by the invaders. During the interwar period, the museum didn't get its own building. The museum was located in a rented private house at 58 Kneza Miloša street. In 1935 the New Royal Palacе became the residence of the museum and named the Royal Museum. Subsequently, it was renamed into the Museum of Prince Paul which consisted of Historical Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art (founded in 1929), which merged in 1935.[5]

The museum managed to avoid destruction during the initial Nazi bombing of Belgrade in April 1941. Professor and major Johann von Reiswitz [sr] noted this in his 1941 report. He was head of the Referat for the Protection of the Cultural Values in Serbia, a local offshoot of the German Kunstschutz. Von Reiswitz inspected the museum, noting that 100,000 exhibits are preserved, except for some items which went missing in the initial stage of the war: some one hundred coins, eight archaeological artefacts, and two paintings "without greater value".[7]

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