DUNAVSKA 16
This Neoclassical two-story house, with an L-shaped floor plan, was built in the first half of the 19th century. On the 1745 map of Novi Sad, there was a rectangular-shaped house, in its place.
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 the early 1850s, probably for the owner Tosic.
In the second half of the 19th century, the owner of this house was Marija Trandafil (1816 – 1883), a renowned Novi Sad philanthropist. She bequeathed the house to the Matica srpska, with a lifetime tenancy for Luka Jocic (1836-1926), the administrator of her estate, an officer, publisher, and writer.
Luka Jocic reconstructed this house at the end of the 19th century. Later his daughters bought it.
Sofija Vujic (1851 – 1921) an actress of the Serbian national theatre, and her daughter Milica Milka Markovic, also an actress, writer, the first Serbian female theater director, both lived in this house since 1878, probably in a rented apartment.
On this photo of Dunavska street taken during the Great flood od 1876, we can see the facade with the arched gateway for vehicles, but instead of the shop openings, there were arched windows. At the time, the two windows that are not on the avant-corps, had just architrave pediments above, with no acroterions or consoles.
On this photo of Dunavska street taken in 1905, all the windows on the ground floor but the one on the left end were adapted to shop-openings. The still functioning arched gateway was in the middle, while on the first-floor facade wasn’t changed.
On this hand-colored photo of Dunavska street taken in 1907, the facade looks very similar to the previous one.
On this photo of Dunavska street taken in the 1930s, the first-floor facade looks the same as on the previous photos, while on the ground floor the openings were rectangular-shaped.
On this photo taken in the 1950s, we can see the right half of the gateway adapted into a small shop, while on the first-floor facade we can see no significant changes.
On this photo, taken in 1992, we can see the façade of the house after the reconstruction in the early 1980s, and it looks much like today.
The ground floor was adapted for the first Chinese restaurant in the city. This restaurant named “Szechuan” was a very popular and upscale place, at the time.
On this photo, taken in 1995, we can see the façade didn’t change much since 1992.
All the rooms of the shops on the ground floor are under vaults and those on the first floor under flat ceilings.
In the 1984/85 reconstruction, the left yard wing was added and the right extended, covering the courtyard, entirely.
The street wing of the house has a double-slope roof, while the yard wing has a single-slope roof.
It is covered with the original crown tiles and modern roof 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.
