Old Palace (Belgrade)

Old palace
	; The Old Palace, view from Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra
Data
place	Belgrade , Serbia
architect	Aleksandar Bugarski
Construction year	1881-1884

The Old Palace ( Serbian Стари двор Stari dvor ), one of the most representative buildings in Belgrade , together with the building of the New Palace is evidence of the first palace complex in Serbia under the rule of the two dynasties Obrenović and Karađorđević .

history

The history of the first palace complex in Belgrade dates back to the 1840s, when the property, which includes the area of today's Pioneer Park together with the Devojački Park ("Maiden Park"), between Kralja Milana and Kraljice Natalije streets , was owned by Stojan Simić was acquired. He was one of the most influential people in the Principality of Serbia , leader of the constitutional defending regime and President of the State Council.

Old palace at night

Simić drained the swamps, filled in the area, leveled it and finally built a house on the odd side of today's Kralja Milana street from 1840 to 1842, which was later named Old Residence. The purchase of the building with a garden around it for the purpose of housing Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević in 1842/43 marked the creation of the first palace complex in Belgrade. The building was rebuilt in detail for the needs of the Prince's Palace and greatly enlarged, a fence was built around the garden, the rest of the swamp dried up and the garden redesigned. Princess Persida Karađorđević already devoted her attention to the transformation into a more representative designed “traditional garden” . The palace garden was divided into a "garden" facing Kralja Milana street and representing the representative part of the palace as a whole, and a "park" at the rear, which is surrounded by a wall. In the central part of the park there was a basin with a sculpture of a young woman with a jug, which was made in Vienna . From the middle of the 19th century, a number of buildings were built around the Old Residence, as the fulcrum of the future complex: the Small Castle, the Palace of the Heir apparent (building of the interior and foreign ministries), the building of the palace guard and a few auxiliary objects to Dvorska Street (today's Dragoslava Jovanovića Street) and Kneza Miloša and Krunska Streets. None of the listed buildings has survived to this day.

The idea of converting the palace complex into a representative ruler's residence came about when state and territorial independence were achieved after the Berlin Congress in 1878, and was also inspired by the preparations for the proclamation of Serbia as a kingdom in 1882. The future palace was planned as a three-part composition according to the ideas of the architect Aleksandar Bugarski, one of the most important representatives of Serbian architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in the early 1880s. Its central part on the site of the old residence was intended for the residence of the ruler. On the right side of the Old Residence the construction of the wing intended for the palace of the heir to the throne was planned. The left wing, on the other hand, was intended for festive receptions and diplomatic visits. From the overall idea, only the left wing of the complex was realized - the Old Palace. The construction of the right wing, on the other hand, was only carried out three decades later with the construction of the New Palace - according to a completely different project.

Structure and style

The Old Palace was built between 1881 and 1884 on the site of the former Small Castle of Prince Mihailo on the corner of Kralja Milana and Dvorska streets (today's Dragoslava Jovanovića). It was realized according to the project of the architect Aleksandar Bugarski and based on the ideas and instructions of King Milan Obrenović himself. A commission took care of the interior design of the Old Palace, which included the architect Bugarski, the professor from the University of Applied Sciences Mihailo Valtrović and the painter Domenico d'Andrea . All of the decoration and furniture in the palace were obtained from Viennese art workshops. With its harmonious relationship between the symmetrical shape and the academically designed facades with splendid decorations, which come from antiquity, the Baroque and the Renaissance, the Old Palace reflects the prevailing academic style and architecture concepts and represents the most magnificent ruling residence that has been established in Serbia so far.

The idea of creating a more elaborate palace complex led to the facade facing the palace garden and the planned right wing of the complex - the palace of the heir to the throne - taking on the significance of the main facade of the Old Palace. This facade, like the one facing Kralja Milana Street, was significantly more magnificent than the other two facade surfaces. Its symmetry is emphasized by the position of the main entrance as well as the three-part structure and the harmonious division of the architectural elements - balcony, columns with Ionic and Corinthian capitals, pairs of caryatids, decorative plastic facade and two domes with royal crowns. In the center of the pediment over the caryatids of the facade facing Kralja Milana Street, the new coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia was placed. It is considered to be the first and oldest coat of arms of the kingdom to be affixed to a public building. The corner area of the property facing Kralja Milana and Dragoslava Jovanovića streets was designed to resemble a tower with a dome, a high point and a two-headed eagle on top. The erection of such a symbol indicates the direct connection between the construction of the palace and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbia. The more modestly designed facade facing the garden is dominated by a side risalit with a three-sided apse of the palace chapel on the upper floor.

The shape of the floor plan and the fact that the property was originally intended to accommodate guests of the royal family and for festive receptions also determined the distribution of the space to a large extent. The architect Bugarski paid special attention to the design of the rooms. The most impressive element of the interior design was the central room - a winter garden, surrounded by halls from which access to all other rooms on the ground and upper floors was possible. The room stood out through a glass roof and gilded decorative plastic on the walls and the central motif was the two-flight oak staircase. All the representative rooms of the palace were sumptuously furnished: the ballroom, the piano salon, the yellow salon, the red salon, the Turkish Room, the dining room, the purple drawing room, the library, the palace chapel.

Demolition and renovation

After the change of dynasty to the throne of Serbia in 1903, the Old Residence was demolished and the Old Palace became the official residence of the Karađorđević dynasty. Since the property had suffered damage due to the bombing during the First World War , work began on restoring the building in 1921. The commission that led this work consisted of representatives from the building and finance ministries, the palace administration and the painter Uroš Predić. Most of the work had been completed by April 1922. The gilded plaster work on the walls of the winter garden and the ballroom was renewed, and all rooms were furnished with new furniture from Lyon and Vienna. When the New Palace was opened as the official royal residence in 1922, the Old Palace was given its original function, which had already been planned in the project by Aleksandar Bugarski from 1881.

The building of the Old Palace in the background

The next major renovation of the Old Palace took place between 1930 and 1931 under the supervision of the palace administration architect, Dragomir Tadić . All facades and plastic decorative elements that were originally made in mortar were replaced by sculptural and decorative works made of artificial stone, made under the supervision of the architect Svetomir Lazić . The Old Palace was badly damaged in the bombing of Belgrade on April 6, 1941. After the liberation and the social changes that followed, the old palace building was given a new task. As a result of the changes that were made during the reconstruction between 1947 and 1949, the building not only got a new function, but also a completely new design of the entrance area and the facade facing the boulevard Kralja Aleksandra based on the project of the architect Dragiša Brašovan . In the course of this reconstruction, two smaller domes with royal crowns were removed, and the former royal symbols were not re-attached to the renovated facade parts. The reconstruction and interior design were carried out according to the project of the architect Aleksandar Đorđević. Special attention was paid to the design of the ballroom, which was decorated with new state and republic symbols as well as stained glass with motifs from the people's liberation struggle. In addition to Brašovan and Đorićević, other local architects, including Bratislav Stojanović , Milan Minić , Slobodan Mihailović and Momčilo Belobrk , took part in the reconstruction of the building.

After the Second World War, the Presidium of the National Assembly, the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the Federal Executive Council were located in the building of the Old Palace. The Assembly of the City of Belgrade has been housed in the Old Palace since 1961. The building of the Old Palace was declared a cultural monument in 1983 (Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade No. 4/83).