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Elementary School King Petar I

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Architect
  
Jelisaveta Načić

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Elementary School King Petar I, the work of the architect Jelisaveta Načić is situated at 7 Kralja Petra Street in Belgrade. At the time of the construction, it was the most modern school building for elementary education not only in Belgrade, but in entire Serbia. Extremely representative, which was conditioned by the position in such an important street and in the immediate vicinity of the Orthodox Cathedral, Мetropolis and Knjeginja Ljubica's Konak, the building was the true representative of the social and cultural situation in Serbia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Contents

Author

Јеlisaveta Načić, the author of the design for the elementary school "King Petar I" was the first woman to graduate in architecture in Serbia, and she belonged to the first generation of the architects educated in Serbia at the newly founded Department of Architecture at the Technical Faculty of the Great School. She graduated in 1900. The fact that she enrolled to the University was a huge rarity in the country when, in the late 19th and early 20th century, only 7 percent of women were literate. Јеlisaveta Načić moved the boundaries by her employment as well. For two years she worked as a technical apprentice in the Ministry of Construction, and her entire career she spent in the Engineering-architectural department of the Belgrade Municipality, which is some kind of a precedent since the jobs in the public service were reserved for men, and only for those who served military service.

With the doctor Draga Ljočić, she paved the way to the employment of women in public sector. Since her career was interrupted by the First World War, an architect Načić for a short time managed to finish many designs, she was innovative and brave in her projects, and she managed to try working in different fields of her profession. She was pretty successful in urbanism and designing of the private, public and sacral structures. After the imprisonment in the concentration camp of Nežider, where she met a poet and a revolutionary Luka Lukai, she got married, gave birth to a daughter and forever left Belgrade and designing. Nevertheless, Jelisaveta Načić managed to give to Belgrade a real architectural master piece – the building of the elementary school "King Petar I", which at that time was called "Elementary School in the vicinity of the Orthodox Cathedral". She was very young when she designed it, it was very soon after her graduation, but she managed to create a mature, well composed, functional and aesthetically well designed achievement, and certainly one of her most important works.

History and tradition

The area around the Orthodox Cathedral in Belgrade is an almost unique area in Belgrade, since there are few places which were unchannged for more than two centuries. This was the venue of the Serbs gathered around the church, cultural and educational institutions, so in the 19th century the elementary school already existed at the place where in the period from 1905 to 1907 the elementary school "King Petar I" was built, designed by Jelisaveta Načić. It was the building with stores in the semi-basement and the school on the ground floor. The old building was located on the place of the south-west tract of the present school, with the access to the Kralja Petra Street occupying one half of the present roadway. When the regulation and the weight of the street was changed in the early 20th century, several lots were joined forming the proper-shaped lot which became the school property. This property, assigned to the school by the municipality, offered all the conditions for the construction of the modern school with spacious schoolyard. It was necessary, since the number of students constantly grew. For example, the population in Belgrade in the first half of the 19th century, when the school was erected, was 8450, and in 1900 even 69769, one third of whom lived in this urban quarter. Apart from the number of the population, that is, the students, the construction of the new building was influenced by the other needs of the modern school system, and the old building was not satisfactory at all. The first modern school buildings in Belgrade were erected in Dorćol and Palilula in 1894, аnd ten years later the construction of the elementary school in the vicinity of the Orthodox Cathedral began.

Construction

The construction of such a huge building in the Belgrade of that time with mainly ground-floored objects, was complex and expensive enterprise, financed by the Municipality of Belgrade with 280.000 dinars. For this project, the Municipality hired its own architect, Јеlisaveta Načić, аnd Belgrade constructors and craftsmen took part in the construction: the construction undertaker Nikola Vitorović, cabinetwork was done by Voja St. Janković`s workshop, the central heating and the electrical installations were done by the undertaker company „Andra Ristić and comp.“, the masonry was the work of the „Ripanj granite industry“, so the school near the Orthodox Cathedral was almost completely the product of domestic industry.

The building was constructed on the sloping ground of the highest part of Sava slope, by the most modern construction procedures, and it consists of a basement, semi-basement, a ground floor and the first floor. The building consists of three tracts, the most important and the most representative of which was set up sidelong, on the corner of the Gračanička Street and Kralja Petra Street, thus creating in front of it a triangular square. From the backyard side there was a wing set up in the shape of the letter G, which along with the classroom tract makes a small inner courtyard.

The elementary school "King Petar I" is shaped according to all postulates of the academic architecture, with the art nouveau elements, which are reflected in the interior more than on the facades. The facades facing the street are done in three, that is, in two girths, with the dividing wreaths between the floor and with the large roof wreath ending in the attic with balustrade. The representative entrance protruding bay with tall arched windows of the auditorium on the first floor dominates the main façade. On the sides, the dynamics was achieved with the protruding bay highlighted with the triangular sills above the windows on the first floor and some calmly shaped gaps of the ground floor. The yard facades are more modest.

The stylistic processing in the interior is first of all noticeable in the profiling of all supporting and protuberant elements and in the frames of the walls. Completely geometrized decorative elements appear, as well as the stylistic elements of classical origin. The equipment of the school "King Petar I", as far as the hygienic and teaching conditions are concerned, was the reflection of the most modern achievements of that time. The school had a plumbing installations with English toilets, electrical lighting, central heating system and the installation which enabled the ventilation of the rooms. The doors and the windows of a typical appearance and dimensions at a short distance provide for a very good lighting of the rooms, as well as the backyard windows on the shaded sides. In the post-war period, after 1950, all the installations were modernized. The school furniture was replaced with the more modern one.

The Cultural Monument

Based on its functional and aesthetic values the elementary school building is considered as its most important part. It was conceived as two-storey building with three facades facing the street. The representative entrance protruding bay with arched gaps, topped with the attic with balustrade dominates the main facade. Shaped according to the postulates of the academic architecture with the art nouveau elements, which reflect in the interior more than on the facades, the elementary school building represents the important creation not only in relation to the creation of the school buildings, but as the part of Belgrade architecture in general.

The Interesting Facts and the Famous Students

The first basketball match in Belgrade was played in the schoolyard in 1923. Later on, the students of this school, Zoran Slavnić and Dragan Kapičić, as well as many other students, became excellent basketball players of the Yugoslav basketball national team. Many important people, who through their work contributed to the construction and the development of this school make the school specific and valuable. For many years, this school has been the most reputable school in Serbia.

The school is proud of its students and their contribution to the culture, sport, art of Belgrade and the Republic of , such as: Мihajlo Petrović Alas, Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, Моša Pijade, Pavle Savić, Dejan Udovičić, Zoran Baranac, Ivo Lola and Јurica Ribar, Vladeta Jerotić, Svetozar Gligorić, Ružica Sokić, Nikola Simić, Boža Prodanović, Мinja Subota and others. The school has its own hymn, composed by Minja Subota, and the text was written by Saša Trajković.

The Name

The school changed its name several times. Among others, it was called the elementary school "King Petar I", and after the Second World War "Elementary School Braća Ribar". Since 1993 it was renamed the elementary school "King Petar I".

  • 1718–1739 The small Serbian school in Belgrade
  • 1844–1878 The elementary school in the vicinity of the Orthodox Cathedral
  • 1878–1925 The elementary male and female school near the Orthodox Cathedral
  • 1925–1945 The Elementary School King Petar I
  • 1945–1952 The Elementary School number 1
  • 1952–1993 The Elementary School Braća Ribar
  • Since 1993 The Elementary School King Petar I
  • Importance

    The building of the elementary school "King Petar I" represents the important achievement not only in the architecture of the school buildings, but in Belgrade architecture in general. According to the Decision made by the Cultural Heritage Protection Institute of the City of Belgrade no. 278/7 from 25 December 1965, the building was designated as a cultural monument.

    References

    Elementary School King Petar I Wikipedia