MILETICEVA STREET
This street has long been known as Lebarski Street, and was on the road to Rumenka. We find it on the oldest plan of the city from 1745.
As we can see on the city plan below, 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.
There are many beautiful houses and interesting stories related to Mileticeva Street. The house at number 8 was built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, for Sava Vuković (1743-1811), the landowner and founder of Zmaj Jovina Gymnasium.
Later, the owner was Stevan Branovački (1804-1888), the City mayor and lawyer city of Novi Sad, and then Pavle Macvanski, also the City mayor.
This theater was the first theater in the city of Novi Sad. The Society for the Serbian National Theater (later the Serbian National Theater) was founded in 1861. The first initiative to build a theater building (1838) was unsuccessful. The second (1868) resulted in the issuance of a permit for the construction of the Civic Hall (1871) in the empty space between Lebarski Street and Dobrog pastira Street, on the current Trifković Square. The building was designed by Đerđ Molnar. Despite the important place that the Civic Hall had in the social and cultural life of the citizens of Novi Sad, the building was demolished in 1892, after the expiration of the temporary permit, disregarding the protests of citizens.3D reconstruction of the Civic Hall on Trifković Square:
Na uglu Miletićeve i Grčkoškolske ulice vršena su masovna ubistva Srba i Jevreja iz Miletićeve i okolnih ulica. Tu su žandarmi i vojnici dovodili grupe ljudi, kojima je naređivano da kleknu u sneg. Posle toga im je pucano u leđa, a žrtve su padale licem u sneg. Novodovedeni su morali da stanu ispred pobijenih žrtava pa su i oni ubijani. Nekima je naređeno da legnu na zemlju, pa su tako ubijani.
Mass murders of Serbs and Jews from Mileticeva and surrounding streets were committed on the corner of Mileticeva and Grckoskolska streets. Gendarmes and soldiers brought groups of people there, who were ordered to kneel in the snow. After that, they were shot in the back, and the victims fell face down in the snow. The newcomers had to stand in front of the killed victims, so they were also killed. Some were ordered to lie on the ground, and then killed. According to the initiative from 2017, it was proposed that a memorial plaque be placed on the street facade of building number 19 in Mileticeva Street.
Slobodan Jovanović, a lawyer, historian, writer and politician, was born on December 3, 1869, at Miletićeva 29, and in 2019, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, a memorial plaque was placed on this house.
From the very beginning, the street was called Lebarski sokak (in three languages). After the First World War, the name of the street was changed to Svetozara Miletića Street, then during the occupation to Košut Lajoša Street, and after the war, the name Miletićeva Street was returned, which this street still bears today.
