Arhitektura i Urbanizam (Jan 2003)
Public buildings architecture built between 1868 until 1900: Part one
Abstract
The main transformation courses in Serbia and its capital have been portrayed covering the period of the 19th century's last three decades, i.e. the aftermath of the partial national liberation from the centuries lasting Turkish occupation. Political and economic changes in the princedom and later the kingdom of Serbia prompted the capital's swift transformation and the construction of numerous edifices, especially those accommodating government or public institutions. The construction of the Royal Theatre several Ministries, schools, hotels and other public edifices brought to the capital the new building spirit clearly influenced by the European historic style architecture. Through a chronological overview of the major stateowned and public edifices construction and their architectural form analyses, some key characteristics of this period's architecture in Serbia have been elucidated, with reference to some authors` importance and their relationship with the European building art. The emphasis is put on the reflection of certain phases, which the architectural form had undergone at the end of the 19th century. The changes became manifest through the permanent enrichment of the architectural expression and the construction advancement, thereby achieving the European centers standing. The creation of closer links with the adjacent neighborhoods, namely Zemun and Pancevo and subsequently with the broader European surroundings, particularly Budapest and Vienna, where most of the authors came from, introduced the European academic architecture spirit into Serbian architecture. However, in the first period, analysed in part one of this study, by the end of the 60s and during the 70s of the 19th century, because of adverse political and economic times, only a fairly small number of public edifices were built. Distinguished are the Theatre at the Stambol Gate, the new hotel at the Serbian Crown, and the hotel Russia, in whose formal expression the transitional phase characteristics might be discerned. Under the influence of the academic neo-renaissance, this period's essential trait was the interweaving of the new formal elements with the motifs of the previous romantic epoch.
