Aleksandar Deroko
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Aleksandar Deroko ( Serbian : Александар Дероко; born September 4, 1894 in Belgrade ; † November 30, 1988 there ) was one of the most influential Serbian and Yugoslav art scholars, architects, illustrators and writers.
In his youth he was also one of the first pilots in Serbia and in the First World War was one of the 1,300 so-called corporals, a youth brigade that came from higher officers and served as the last available reserve of the Serbian army during the crucial hours and days in the Battle of Kolubara Front was sent.
He was a professor at Belgrade University and from 1958 a permanent member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Deroko's work on the folk architecture of Yugoslavia and the medieval monuments of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia were fundamental. As an architect, he was one of the most important Serbian representatives of Neo-Byzantine architecture, whose main work is the co-authorship of the St. Sava Cathedral in Belgrade as one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
Life
Deroko was born on September 4th (16th) 1894 in Belgrade.
Deroko's great-grandfather, named Marco de Rocco, lived in Dubrovnik around the middle of the 19th century. He came from a Venetian family who had moved to Dubrovnik and married a local native there. His grandfather Jovan became an art teacher (teacher of drawing and calligraphy) in Belgrade. Jovan marries Katarina Vuković, a Serb from Vienna. Katarina and Jovan had five children together. One of them was Evžen Deroko (1860–1944), Aleksander's father. He was the director of the well-known travel company "Putnik", deputy director of the state railways and head of the Ministry of Transport.
His mother, Anđi, née Mihajlović from Mokrina, was from the Banat. He had a sister Natalija (born 1890) who emigrated to the USA in 1915 after she got married and a brother Jovan (born 1895) who also moved to America in 1920. On his mother's side was his uncle Jovan Djordjevic , the founder of the Novi Sad National Theater. He was also family related to the Serbian author Stevan Sremac .
In his youth, his family lived in his great-uncle's house on Knez Mihailova ulica on the main street of Belgrade. Deroko described his school performance as poor, preferring to spend his time on boats on the Save. From 1901 he attended elementary school at the Belgrade Cathedral. He graduated from high school in 1913. Before the First World War, he enrolled in the Technical Faculty of the University of Belgrade. He actually wanted to become an aerospace engineer in aircraft construction.
First World War
At the beginning of the World War Deroko volunteered for the artillery, but was sent to Skopje in the battalion of 1,300 corporals where he was appointed captain. He was sent home due to an epidemic of dysentery . After he returned to his barracks, all officers of his year were on the battlefields on Suvobor. Since he was one of the pioneers of aviation in Serbia even before the war, who tried out his own aircraft designs with his brother Jovan on Košutnjak, he was withdrawn with five others for pilot training and the development of the Serbian air force. 1915 was sent to France for training purposes and thus escaped the agony of the Serbian army on their retreat during the Serbian campaign of the Central Powers between September and December 1915. He completed his pilot examination on November 7, 1915 in France and was one of the first pilots Serbia. In 1978 he received the pilot award "Vieilles tuges" from the French consul. His squadron was ordered to replenish the manpower on the Salonika Front in Greece, where he fought until the end of the war and the liberation of Serbia. Shortly before the end of the war, he fell ill with tuberculosis and spent 18 months in a sanatorium in the Vienna Woods.
For his services in the First World War, Deroko was awarded the Albanian Medal 1915-16 and was a member of the Association of 1,300 Corporals.
Professional career
Deroko studied first at the Royal School for Engineers in Rome, then two semesters in Prague and Brno. He graduated in architecture from Belgrade in 1926. He was immediately taken on as an assistant at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, where he remained throughout his professional life through all academic degrees. He taught folk and ancient architecture subjects. He was chief of the chair for the history of architecture and art and in the committee of Belgrade University. In 1948 he was appointed full professor of the philosophy faculty in the subject of the history of medieval Serbian architecture. In 1950 he was appointed dean of the Belgrade Faculty of Architecture. In 1964 he retired.
He was a member of the Scientific Association of Skopje and the Historical Association in Novi Sad from 1930 to 1933.
In 1955 he became a corresponding member, and in 1961 a permanent member. In 1965 he received the award of July 7th and the order with a red ribbon, in 1978 the order of the republic with a gold wreath. He also received plaques from the University of Kolarčevo (1968), the Belgrade City Museum (1973), and the SANU (1978) for an excellent contribution to research into architecture.
With a study permit from the French government, he studied with the influential Byzantinist Gabriel Millet (1867–1953) in Paris, where he made friends with Picasso , Sava Šumanović , Rastko Petrović and Le Corbusier . In the early 1930s he was appointed professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. He taught the architecture of the Middle Ages and in particular the Byzantine architecture . After the flow of Neo-Byzantine architecture by the Russian emigrants in Yugoslavia and the promotion of the style by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia found influential supporters in Belgrade and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Deroko took part in the projects for the bankruptcy of the two largest church buildings in Belgrade in the tenders for the construction of the Cathedral of St. Sava (1926) and the Church of St. Mark on Tašmajdan (1930). Although he did not receive the main prize, he and Bogdan Nestorović were appointed by Patriarch Varnava in 1932 for a synthesis of the two submitted sketches. In 1935, work began on the church, which was dormant between 1941 and 1985.
With Petar Anagnosti he completed the building of the theological faculty in Belgrade in 1939–1940. In 1927 he had designed the private villa of Colonel Elezović with elements of the Neo-Byzantine trend as a city palace.
Second World War
During World War II, Deroko was called up as a reserve officer in the Yugoslav Army. He was interned in a prison in Sarajevo and escaped from there during a transport. After returning to Belgrade, he was arrested by the Gestapo and spent three weeks in the Banjica camp.
plant
Deroko became an influential author in the study and research of folk architecture and the architectural legacy of medieval monasteries and fortifications in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as especially on the Holy Mount Athos in Greece. Deroko illustrated the knowledge gained in field work with precise sketches of floor plans and ornaments of the buildings. His books became objects of graphic art thanks to the artistically high quality graphics he produced.
As an author, besides churches, he designed villas, residences and memorial complexes.
Miscellaneous
The Pošta Srbije was the 125th birthday on November 14, 2019 a Erstagsbrief and post mark with likeness Derokos and floor plan of the Cathedral of Saint Sava out.
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rajko Golubovic 2002: Rodoslov porodice Deroko. Godisnjak za drustvenu istoriju. 9 / 1-3 (2002), 239-255.
- ↑ Sava Mikic 1933: Biografije ratnih avijaticara. In: Kosta Miletic (Ed.) 1933: Istorija jugoslovenskog vazduhoplovstva . - Beograd: Stamparija Drag. Gregorica, 366-367
- ↑ Sima Begovic 1988: Profesori i akademici u logoru na Banjici . Univerzitet u Beogradu 1838–1988: Zbornik radova. - Beograd: Univerzitet u Beogradu: Savremena administracija, 1988. 241-261
- ↑ Sto dvadeset pet godina od rođenja Aleksandra Deroka
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Deroko, Aleksandar |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Дероко, Александар (Serbian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Yugoslav art scholar, architect, illustrator and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th September 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Belgrade |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 1988 |
| Place of death | Belgrade |