DUNAVSKA 14
This two-story house, with an L-shaped floor plan, was built in the first half of the 19th century, in the style of Neoclassicism.
The house had sustained extensive damage in the 1849 Uprising bombing, sharing the destiny of most buildings in the city center, and it was reconstructed in 1854 for its owners, family Gavrilovic.
In the 1870s a prominent Serbian politician Svetozar Miletic (1826.-1901.) lived in this house. In 1926, a bronze memorial plaque in his honor was placed on the facade of this house.
His daughter grew up in this house, and after she got married in 1885, her husband Jasa Tomic (1856-1922) also moved in here.
Jasa Tomic was later the leader of the Radical party, the Editor of the newspaper “Zastava” and the person who contributed the most for the joining of the regions Backa, Banat and Baranja to Serbia, on November 25th, 1918.
Between 1865 and 1869 the Matica srpska was in this house. In 1909 the owner of this house was Djordje Radomanovic. Present day look of this house was the result of the 1922 reconstruction, by the design of Vilhelm Lehrer, for the owner Dezider Racmanji. In this reconstruction, the balcony with balustrade railing was added.
In the 1938 reconstruction, a new left yard wing was added to the house, by design of a general contractor Jovan Maca, for the owner Bela Trupel, the musical instruments trader, from Dunavska 5.
This house bears the features of the Neoclassical style.
The symmetrical street facade has six shop-openings on the ground floor, with Neoclassical martyr lunettes above each one.
In the 2010 fire, the first floor and the roof had sustained extensive damage, but the reconstruction didn’t start before the end of 2013.
The first-floor balcony with a balustrade railing, that was added in the 1922 reconstruction, fall down on October 8th, 2013, with a part of the facade, probably because of the structural damage caused by the fire in 2010.
The photo below shows the facade and balcony after the reconstruction, but without the balustrade railing of the balcony.
On this photo of Dunavska street taken during the Great flood od 1876, we can see the facade with seven arched windows and no balcony.
On this photo taken around 1907, we can see the facade didn’t change much since 1876 and it was yellow.
On this photo was taken in the 1930s, after the reconstruction in 1922, we can see it looks much like today, with a balcony in the middle of the first floor, and rectangular-shaped windows instead of the arched ones. On the ground floor were shop-portals characteristic for the first half of the 20th century.
After the WWII the house was reconstructed in 1967/68 and in 1984/85. This photo was taken in 1987, after this other reconstruction.
On this photo was taken in 1992, the facade hasn’t changed much.
On this photo was taken in 1995, the facade also hasn’t changed much.
The rooms on the ground floor are vaulted, while those on the first floor are under flat ceilings. On the ground floor, the third opening on the left was a pedestrian passage, until the 2013 reconstruction.
On this photo was taken in 2000, the original look of courtyard facade was still mostly preserved, with the communication balcony, on stone consoles and a wrought-iron railing.
The courtyard facade was changed in the 2013 reconstruction, so at present only a part of the original communication balcony is preserved.
The street wing of the house has a double-slope roof, while the yard wing has a single-slope roof. It is covered with new crown tiles.
The realisation of this site was supported by the Administration for Culture of the City of Novi Sad
The sources and materials of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad were used for the realization of this website
The Old Core of Novi Sad was declared a cultural asset, by the decision on establishing it as a spatial cultural-historical unit – 05 no. 633-151/2008 of January 17, 2008, “Sl. gazette of the Republic of Serbia” no. 07/2008.
