POZORISNI TRG
Today’s Pozorisni trg Square is the beginning of the old Jevrejska Street after it was cut in half by the construction of Marsal Tito’s Boulevard. The street is located on the route leading from the city to Futog, which two hundred years ago was more important than Novi Sad and the seat of a County.
The city of Novi Sad was built at the crossroads of 3 roads that met at the Zmaj Jova’s monument in front of the bishop’s palace. From the crossroads to the west, through Zmaj Jovina (Main Street), there is a road to Futog and Kamenica, which diverge on today’s Trg Slobode, at the City Hall, to the left (Kralja Alesandra Street) and to the right (old Jevrejska and Futoška Street). From the crossroads to the south, through Dunavska Street, there was a road to Petrovaradin over the pontoon bridge and further to Belgrade, and to the north, through Pašićeva, a road to Temerin (Temerinska Street), and further to Budapest. At the end of Pasiceva street, there used to be an old Inn called “At Three Crowns”, just as the road turned to Temerin, and also the road to Kisac (Kisacka Street) used to separate here. Somewhere in the middle of Zmaj Jovina Street, to the north, another old road separates – the road to Rumenka which leads through Miletićeva Street, then Vojvode Bojovića and Kralja Petra, to Rumenačka Street.
Today’s Theater Square on the city plan from 1745 was part of the then Futoška Street, and later part of the old Jevrejska Street as we can see on Sauter’s city plan from 1889. Futoška Street flows into Trg slobode via Jevrejska Street (today Pozorišni trg), where it merges with Kralja Aleksandra Street and continues as Zmaj Jovina. The theater square was formed by the demolition of a line of houses on the right side of the old Jewish street, all the way to Hadzic’s house, which was then adapted to be part of the Apollo Center. In the next picture we see this street marked in red on Sauter’s plan of Novi Sad from 1889, and the trilingual name of the street (in the then Serbian Civutska street).
This is one of the streets used by trams from September 30, 1911 until the same day in 1958, when it was abolished. Line one, known as the white line from Futoška Kapija to Temerinska Street, passed here. This line went from the spa and hospital along Futoška Street, Jevrejska, Zmaj Jovina next to Vladičin dvor and then Pašićeva and Temerinska to the canal, where the line ended.
In the following pictures, we can see the old Jewish Street and the current appearance of the Theater Square. At the end of 1979, when the works on the construction of the Serbian National Theater were nearing completion, nine old houses in the old Jevrejska Street were destroyed by explosives, which hid the new building like an urban backdrop. The new SNP building was ceremoniously opened on March 28, 1981.
Today’s Pozorisni trg Square used to be part of the old Futoska Street on the oldest plan of Novi Sad from 1745. A part of the street from Trg Slobode to the synagogue was changed to Jevrejska Street at the end of the 18th century, after in one of the first decisions of the newly established Magistrate: Jews were given a deadline to sell their houses and settle in a certain place, in Jevrejska Street. The name Futoška Street remained until the 1930s when it was changed to Kralja Petra II, together with Jevrejska Street. In the period from 1941 to 1944, Rakoczy Ferenc II utca, Futaki ut, and 1944-2000: JNA Street from Trg Slobode all the way to the Barracks on Futoški put, and from there first Edvard Kardelj Boulevard, and later Revolution Boulevard. In the 1990s, the names Jevrejska and Futoška streets and Futoški put were restored, and this square was named Pozorisni trg.
