TRIFKOVIĆ SQUARE
Perhaps the oldest name of today’s Trifkovic Square was Jarčev trg (Goat’s Square), whether it was named after some old inn that used to be on this square or because there was a market where goats were sold, it is difficult to say today.
On the city plan from 1745, there was a border that separated the eastern military half of the city (pink colored buildings, where military families lived), from the western civil -traders half (yellow colored objects), and a line of separation, on the plan, went along the Dunavska Street, Zmaj Jovina Street, Laze Telečkog Street, then around today’s Trifković Square and a part of Njegoševa Street towards Masarikova Street. On this plan, in the picture below, we marked the place of the future square, and with a dashed red line the direction of the part of Negoševa, built later, from Trg Slobode to Trifković Square. We also see that in a row of houses is interrupted by a crossroads that used to be part of the line separating the two parts of the city. At this place where the line of houses, became the Trifković Square.
On Sauter’s plan of the city from 1889, we see that Trifković Square has already got its present shape, but instead of the buildings on the left side, there was the Plebanija garden. The name of the square was Dobri pastir (Good Shepard’s) Street:
On the plan, we see important buildings in the city originally marked in black, with inscriptions. Two buildings were marked on Trifković Square: the Theater (Civic Hall) in the middle of the square facing Miletićeva Street and the Firehouse on the corner of Njegoševa Street and the square.
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:
At the corner of the Square and today’s Njegoševa Street, there was a Firehouse. When the bell rang from the town hall, volunteer firefighters, mostly Novi Sad craftsmen, would gather here, sit in the car and rush to put out the fire. There were sheds for carts and hoses in the Firehouse, and barns next to them, in which there were always two pairs of horses on standby. A picture from1963, of the building where the old Firehouse used to be:
Next to the Firehouse was the garden of the Roman Catholic parish. This garden was parceled out by the parish, and in the second half of the 19th century, two buildings were erected in its place.
The corner three-storey house on the square, where the pharmacy is located, was built on the site of four small, two-room and three-room family houses. In one of them, on the very corner, lived the famous long-term director of the gymnasium, Vasa Pusibrk.
Next to the pharmacy, in house number 1, lived a great comedian Kosta Trifković, and unfortunately on February 19, 1875, at the age of 31, he died. The Square was later named after him and it still bares his name. The Serbian National Theater placed a memorial plaque on the house, in honor of this renown playwright, lawyer and city lawyer.
The oldest names of this square are, as it has already been said, Jarčev Squar and Dobrog pastira Street. It was also known as the Theater square because of the first Novi Sad’s theater that was located here. Then around 1900 it was renamed to Deak Square, and after the First World War Kosta Trifković Square. During the occupation, in WWII, it was called Deak Square again, and after the liberation, Trifković Square.
