Famous Monuments 2

MONUMENT TO VUK KARADŽIĆ
Author: ĐORĐE JOVANOVIĆ

In the park, on the corner of Roosevelt Street and Boulevard, bronze, 300 cm, total height 725 cm.
Erected by the Belgrade Municipality in 1937.

VUK STEFANOVIĆ KARADŽIĆ
(Tršić, near Loznica, 1787 - Vienna, 1864), linguist, ethnographer, historian, reformer of the Serbian language

He went to school in Loznica (1795) and at the Tronoša monastery. After the First Serbian Insurrection he worked as a clerk for the government, then as a teacher and civil servant. He went through a serious illness which left his left leg permanently cramped and made him use artificial leg for the rest of his life. After the failure of the insurrection in 1813, Vuk went to Vienna, where he was encouraged by the philologist Jernej to start collecting folk songs, stories and poems, and to work on language and spelling. He published the first collection of folk songs and Pismenica (Grammar), This was the start of his epochal work on the establishment of a new Serbian literature, language and orthography. In 1818, he published his Dictionary (including grammar) which proclaimed the reform of the language. He has collected stories, proverbs, riddles, written historical accounts, etc. He has fought against the despotism of Knez Miloš Obrenović, and the strong block of opponents to his reformatory ideas. He edited the Danica (Day-Star) almanac, and sought to acquaint people abroad with the national treasures of Serbia and its past. Jena University conferred upon him an honorary doctorate and he received similar recognitions from many European academies.

Thanks to Vuk, Serbian national poetry and songs became known and admired throughout Europe. Goethe especially liked them. The "Poems", written by Branko Radičević, have shown that even the great artistic works could be written in folk language, while the "War for Serbian Language and Orthography" by Đura Daničić has proved, by power of scientific argument, the correctness of Vuk's language stands. His work has had tremendous influence to other Yugoslav peoples, too, so that in 1850, at so-called Literary Agreement in Vienna, the representatives of Serbian and Croatian cultural life agreed upon introduction of uniform literary language for both nations. Vuk's remains were transferred from Vienna to Belgrade in 1897 and buried in front of the Cathedral Church.

 

MONUMENT TO DOSITEJ OBRADOVIĆ
Author. RUDOLF VALDEC

Bronze 300 cm, total height 500 cm. Erected in 1911 in front of the former National Library (entrance to Kalemegdan), and in 1930 transferred to Univerzitetski Park.

Inscribed on the monument is a maxim: "Learn while going, look at centuries!"

DOSITEJ OBRADOVIĆ
(Čakovo, Banat, 1739 - Belgrade 1811), writer, philosopher, teacher and popular educator

As a young man he has entered a monastery but, later, left monastic life and travelled widely and studied at European universities. He was one of the most important and influential Serbian personalities of the XVIII and early XIX centuries. He moved to Serbia in 1806 during the First Serbian Insurrection, and in 1808 founded the Great School, afterwards becoming in 1811 the first Minister of Education. He aspired to educate the people of Serbia by spreading his knowledge and ideas among them. As a rationalist, patriot and reformer, he fought against superstition and the omnipotence of the Church, and he was one of the first who strove to unite the Yugoslav peoples regardless of their religious differencies. He pleaded for usage of popular language in literature, liberation of women from slavish position etc. The most important works: "Život i priključenija", "Basne", "Sovjeti zdravog razuma". He has been buried in the yard of the Cathedral Church in Belgrade.

 

MONUMENT TO IVO ANDRIĆ
Author: MILENKO MANDIĆ

At Andrićev Venac, near Pionirski Park; bronze 140 cm. Erected in 1992 commemorating the 100th birth anniversary of our Nobel laureate.

IVO ANDRIĆ www.ivoandric.org.yu
(Dolac near Travnik, 1892 - Belgrade, 1975), 1961 Nobel laureate in literature

He has finished gymnasium in Sarajevo, studied in Zagreb, Vienna, Krakow and Graz. In Graz he obtained a doctorate. Between the two world wars he was in diplomatic service. He was a writer of powerful imagination, and at the same time extraordinary expert in historical circumstances of old Bosnia, which he has mostly written about. He has impressively pictured human and social panorama of past times. In the beginning he has published poems, and later he has gradually moved towards short story and novel. He is one of our most popular writers, and one of our most translated writers in the world.

He has written "Na Drini ćuprija", "Travnička hronika", "Gospođica", "Prokleta avlija" and "Omer-paša Latas"; short-story collections "Nemirna godina", "Žeđ", "Jelena, žena koje nema", "Lica", "Deca", "Kuća na osami"; lyrical prose "Ex ponto", "Nemiri"; meditative prose "Znakovi pored puta", "Razgovor sa Gojom". He has also written essays about his favourite writers Njegoš, Kočić, Matavulj. For many years he has been president of the Association of Writers of Serbia.

MONUMENT TO MILOŠ CRNJANSKI
Author: DRINKA RADOVANOVIĆ

Bronze 70 cm, total height 260 cm. Erected in 1993 commemorating the 100th birth anniversary of the great writer.

MILOŠ CRNJANSKI
(Čongrad, Hungary, 1893 - Belgrade, 1977), poet, writer of novels and short stories, playwright

One of the most prominent representatives of modern literary expression in the country after World War I. He has worked as a professor and journalist, and in 1928 he entered diplomatic service. When World War II began, he was in Rome. From there, he went to London, and haven't returned to Belgrade until 1965. He began to publish his works in 1918, and has written the most poetical novels in Serbian ever (Seobe" and "Druga knjiga Seoba"), the deepest poem in honour of Belgrade ("Lament nad Beogradom"), the most moving novels on war ("Dnevnik o Čarnojeviću") and exile ("Roman o Londonu"), study on Michelangelo, the "Stražilovo" poem, in which "really monumental construction of architectural substances does not contradict the lightness and emerald transparency of materials it was built of, nor spontaneity of elements built in it" (Marko Ristić).

He has founded newspapers and magazines ("Putevi", with M. Ristić, in 1922, "Ideje", a political paper, in 1934), received the greatest number of literary awards in Belgrade between the two world wars. Film adaptations of his works ("Seobe", by Aleksandar Petrović, and others) prove that Crnjanski has been rightfully sure of his dramaturgical skill ("Maska, 1918, "Konak", 1957, "Tesla", 1966). He has also written several brilliant essays about painters and theatre, a travel book "Ljubav u Toskani", memoir notes "Itaka i komentari" and "Embahade" I-III and a novel "Kod Hiperborejaca".