Beogradska 12

“Arsenal of the Lower Fortress”

The monumental building of the Arsenal, a warehouse for keeping weapons and war equipment, was built in the second half of the 18th century on the area created after the demolition of the old ramparts of the Lower Fortress. Its construction can be traced on the original maps of the Petrovaradin fortress from the second half of the 18th century: on the plan from 1761/62. it was marked as a construction site, and on the next one, from 1768, it was marked as the new Arsenal. In Shams’s History of Petrovaradin from 1820, there is a description: “On the back side towards the school, and on the front side on the main street, opposite the Engineering building, there is a large square armory.” Like all armories, without external decorations, but with a neat and clean interior, it stands there undemanding. If you step into the yard, you can see employees everywhere, whose sole purpose is to make weapons for military needs. The upper floor serves partly as an office space, but there are also apartments for officers, usable and unusable rifles and antiques are still stored there, and the Turkish chain with which Field Marshal Lieutenant Count Breuyner was tied to a tree near the Church of Mary of the Snows is particularly interesting, as and his coat and armor; Asian shields, Turkish flags, horse tails, guns, sabers and quivers for arrows in addition to peaked helmets and knight shirts woven from iron wire” (Shams Franz, History of Srem and Petovaradin; Catalog of Petovaradin in the past, translated by Jovan Walrabenstein, MGNS, Novi Sad , p.38).

Today, this large building of exceptional cultural, historical and architectural value is still owned by the Serbian Army, since the 90s of the 20th century it has been converted into a residential area.

The one-story building with its newly created four-wing base, with an atrium courtyard in the center, occupies the area of ​​the entire block.

The characteristic dimension of the building is determined by the already formed urban structure of the sub-structure, which is completed in the free space by fitting the new construction into the existing grid of blocks and the given direction of the street network, as well as the direction of the newly built ramparts. Three wings of the building are located on street regulations, while the fourth, southeastern wing is placed parallel to the direction of extension that connects the bastions of St. Benedict and St. Francis. The foundations of the building were simply designed with entrances-passages located in the middle of each of the wings, of which only two are in operation today.

In the street wings, on the ground floor, there is a series of rooms oriented on both sides, towards the street and the inner courtyard, or on one side, towards the street. On the first floor, the layout of the rooms is similar, with the fact that all rooms are accessed from the communication corridor that stretches along the courtyard facades of the building.

The southeast wing, on the ground floor and on the first floor, once a unique space with a central row of columns, is now divided into several functional units of improvised apartments.

The basement is located under the front, northern wing of the building along Beogradska Street.

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.