NARODNIH HEROJA 2 – HOTEL CENTRAL /OLD POST OFFICE
At the corner of Narodnih heroja and Poštanska streets stands a monumental building in the style of mature historicism, erected in the late 19th century.
Its footprint appears on Sauter’s 1885 plan, but it is not marked as a public building—suggesting it had not yet served a hotel function at that time. It is presumed that the building opened as Hotel Central in 1889, when Jovan Horvat took over the renovated two‑story structure. Photographs and postcards from the late 19th century show the hotel with a garden facing the square, but it soon ceased operations.
In 1899, the Postal‑Telegraph Service took over the building and established the Old Post Office there.
After World War I, in 1926, architect Momir Korunović designed the addition of another floor to accommodate the Post and Telegraph Directorate.
The bust of Branko Radičević, the work of the Novi Sad sculptor Ivanka Petrović Acin, was installed in 1954 in the square in front of the old post office (today Mladenaca Square) and was later relocated in 1974 to Dunavski Park. The bus visible in the photograph is a 1940 Leyland Great Britain. The bus was bought in 1958.
A new post office building, erected on the corner with Bulevar Mihajla Pupina and designed by Dragiša Brašovan, was linked to the Old Post Office in 1963.
Hotel Central is a two‑story building, with its main façade facing Trg Mladenaca, and wings extending along Poštanska and Narodnih heroja streets. Its plan forms an elongated tripartite layout with two interior courtyards. The main façade features two corner risalits and five axes of openings.
The centrally placed entrance is in the form of a portico, flanked by semicircular openings whose tympana are adorned with relief heads of satyrs.
On the upper level, in the risalit zones, there are balconies with balustrade railings, resting on Ionic columns. The decorative plaster work is exceptionally rich, with floral ornamentation and elaborate pediments. In the lunette spaces above the balconies are portraits of male and female figures, interpreted as characters from antiquity (Hannibal, Artemis, Hera, Aphrodite).
On the side façades there are window axes and carriage entrances, while the corner sections are emphasized by risalits with matching decoration.
The added second floor has a simpler treatment, with triangular pediments and a row of toothed friezes. The corner portions are accentuated by quoins, and the planar surfaces are detailed with horizontal joints.
The original arrangement served the hotel function: on the ground floor a large hall with reception, and on the upper floor guest rooms. Long corridors opened into two atrium courtyards. Inside, portions of Prussian vaulting and monumental Tuscan columns have been preserved.
Particularly representative is the decoration of the entrance hallway from Narodnih heroja Street: stucco ornaments in the form of floral rosettes, acanthus leaves, and pilasters, along with two high‑relief portraits.
The grand main staircase with a wrought iron balustrade and stylized botanical motifs is largely preserved.
The building of Hotel Central, later the Old Post Office, is one of the most important examples of mature historicism in Novi Sad. Together with the adjacent new post office and surrounding block, it forms one of the key nodes of the urban and architectural identity of Trg Mladenaca.
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.
