Pobednik

Pobednik
Location Belgrade Fortress, Belgrade
Coordinates 44°49′22.9″N 20°26′51.7″E / 44.823028°N 20.447694°E / 44.823028; 20.447694Coordinates: 44°49′22.9″N 20°26′51.7″E / 44.823028°N 20.447694°E / 44.823028; 20.447694
Height 14 metres (46 ft)
Dedicated 7 October 1928
Sculptor Ivan Meštrović

Pobednik (Serbian Cyrillic: Победник, English: The Victor) is a monument in the Upper Town of the Belgrade Fortress, built to commemorate Serbia's victory over Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Erected in 1928, and standing at 14 metres (46 ft) high, it is one of the most famous works of Ivan Meštrović. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in Belgrade and the city's most recognizable landmark.[1]

It is a standing bronze male figure with a falcon in the left hand and a sword in the right, modelled by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, set on a pedestal in the form of a Doric column on a tall cubic base, designed by the architect Petar Bajalović.[2] The statue looks forward across the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, and over the vast Pannonian plain, towards the very distant Fruška Gora mountain (until 1918 a domain of Austro-Hungarian empire), it is probably the most powerful, most popular visual symbol of Belgrade.

History

Origin

The history of the monument goes back to the period between 1913 and 1928, even though the initial idea was born in 1912, when Serbia’s success in the First Balkan War inspired proposals for erecting a monument in Belgrade to honour the final victory over the Ottomans. In August 1913 Belgrade city council made the decision to mark this momentous event by erecting a monument to Victory. Headed by the mayor Ljubomir Davidović, the council decided to rename the Terazije square and build the fountain with the monument in it. They also awarded the construction of the monument to Meštrović, without architectural competition.[3]

Meštrović accepted the job and quickly presented his design.[3] The original concept was that of a monumental fountain which was to be placed in Terazije or what then was the Square of Crown Prince Alexander.[4] The fountain was to be built of stone in the form of an oval basin resting on the backs of four lions. At the centre of the basin was to be a marble column surmounted by the 5 m (16 ft)-tall statue of the Victor. According to the city council resolutions of 4 October 1913 Meštrović was also to produce twenty masks for the rim of the basin and fifty masks for the column, all in bronze. On 19 October 1913[3] the city contracted with Meštrović and he set to work on the fountain but, being an Austro-Hungarian subject, he had to leave Belgrade at the outbreak of the World War I.

Construction

Background information about the fountain and its more detailed description were brought out by the newspaper Vreme:[5] ...a large basin (shell) the outer side of which would be decorated with a relief depicting warriors on galloping horses. Affixed along the rim of the shell would be lion’s heads (from the present-day jet fountain) spouting water into the shell. [...] The column would be girdled with spaced hoops to which Turkish head masks would be affixed, and each would spout a jet of water into the basin below...

In order to finish the work as quickly possible, Meštrović moved his studio to Belgrade. He worked in the semi-basement of the Elementary School King Petar I by the Cathedral Church,[6] actually in the school's gym.[3] Within a short time he completed the figure of the Victor and lion’s heads. Having sent them to Bohemia for casting, he began to work on the large reliefs of lancers. Sketches for the large lion figures were also done.

Meštrović’s statue of the Victor was done in 1913,[7] immediately after and as a continuation, in concept and style, of the cycle of sculptures intended for his large-scale project for a shrine commemorating the Battle of Kosovo (Vidovdanski hram), which includes representative sculptures such as Srdja Zlopogledja, Miloš Obilić and Marko Kraljević. Conceived as a colossal athletic male nude set up on a tall column, the monument symbolically represents the iconic figure of victory. In iconographic terms, the personification of the triumph of a victorious nation can be traced back to classical antiquity and its mythic hero Hercules.[7]

Then the First World War broke out. The Austrian ultimatum forced Meštrović to leave Belgrade and almost all finishing works had to be ceased. During the occupation by Austrian, German and Hungarian troops, all was destroyed except for the statue of the Victor and lion masks, which were away in Bohemia for casting.[3] The exact appearance of the fountain is known from the photographs of Meštrović’s original drawings taken in his Zagreb studio by the sculptor Veselko Zorić.[8]

The project of erecting the fountain in Terazije was revived after the First World War, but the available funds could only cover the casting costs for the Victor and lion masks.[9] The statue arrived in Belgrade in the late July 1923 and was stored in a storehouse for plumbing pipes in Senjak.[3][7] Yet, in 1923 the city council and Meštrović reached an agreement that he should do the monument in Terazije, but the sculpture remained in the storehouse for the next 4 years.[3]

Scandal

However, the beginning of preparation works for the monument's foundation in May 1927 caused a public controversy. The public challenged the erection of the monument on moral and artistic grounds. Instigated by the author and jurist Petar Odavić, the campaign against the monument began. Odavić published an article in the Vreme magazine, attacking the sculpture claiming it insults the moral of chaste Belgrade ladies, so as the memory on Serbian soldiers which it was to represent, by not having "symbols of the Serbian soldiers", like the šajkača hat or the opanak footwear. Still, the design was endorsed by numerous members of Serbian academia, like Bogdan Popović, Stevan Hristić, Branislav Petronijević, Ksenija Atanasijević, Zora Petrović, Beta Vukanović or Stanislav Krakov, but also by certain women organizations and parts of the clergy.[3]

Meštrović also had his say:[10] Belgrade City Council asked my consent to set up the “Victor” in Terazije temporarily. But aware that our “temporarily” tends to last too long, I have made an agreement with the Belgrade architect Bajalović for a more solid pedestal for the statue. The Council, so I’ve heard, set to work. And then stopped. What have I to say? If they intend to set up the statue in Terazije, let them set it up. If they have found a better place, let them set it up there. After all, it may as well stay where it has been for all this time – in a shed. As far as I am concerned, I’d like it best to have the opportunity to do the whole Fountain the way it was originally conceived.

Especially vocal against it were the members of several female organizations. They considered the placing of a figure of a nude man in the center of the city is "rude" and that it will damage the moral of the girls.[7] After much controversy, debate and criticism, the city council decided not to set up the monument in Terazije, but to find a location outside the city. As soon as Kosta Kumanudi took over as a mayor of Belgrade in 1926, he pushed to project to finally get it done. The Arts Commission, formed by the city, decided in September 1927 to relocate the monument and place it "on the ridge of the Belgrade Town, at the mouth of the Sava and the Danube". As Kumanudi had other duties in the state government, this decision was confirmed by his deputy Kosta Jovanović, and Kumanudi was neither aware or notified about it at the time.[3] Kumanudi then informed Meštrović that the preparatory work on erecting the monument had been ceased contrary to his instructions. This decision of the city council coincided with the completion of the Sava Avenue and the Great Stairway in Kalemegdan Park as well as with the celebration of the anniversary of the Salonika Front breakthrough. It was in commemoration of that event's 10th anniversary that on 7 October 1928[7] the freshly refurbished part of the Sava Avenue was inaugurated and the Victor unveiled.[3]

Recent history

Measurements from 1989 showed that the "Victor" is partially standing on the embankment and partially on the medieval rampart, which is why it is tilting. The technical documentation for the pedestal is lost so the Institute for the protection of the cultural monuments done its own research. It showed that the core of the pedestal is made of concrete while from the outside it has been slab-sided with the stone. In 1996, the Institute tried to improve the static of the monument and to stop the further tilting. The foundations were strengthened and the piles were placed to prevent the tilting. Still, the monument hasn't been fully straightened and remained in partially tilted position. Researches in 2007-08 showed that it was tilted 0.8 mm (0.031 in).[7]

In 2015, when the broken plates were being removed and replaced at the foothill of the statue, it was discovered that the earth beneath is sagging. The measurements were conducted and an underground room, dug in the 1950s, was discovered beneath the plateau. That delayed the works on the plateau itself, which were finished in September 2016: the new marble plates were placed, so as the decorative lights, while the problem of draining the atmospheric waters was solved, but the monument itself (both the pedestal and the sculpture) were not renovated.[7]

In September 2017, it was reported that there is a crack on the monument. The crack starts from beneath the Victor's left foot, goes over the capital and down the Doric column. It is some 50 cm (20 in) long and quite visible. The reporters remarked that it looks like the "Victor stomped with his left foot, creating the crack". The Institute stated that the crack is there for a long time and that it is not affecting the stability or the static of the monument, despite the tilt. They announced the full reconstruction and static overhaul for 2019, for which the special technologies are required.[7]

On 9 May 2018 on the occasion of Europe Day, the Victor was illuminated for the first time with the colours of EU - blue and yellow (stars) - thanks to the EU Delegation in Serbia.

Assessment

After the creation of a new state and a new spiritual climate in the aftermath of the First World War, the concept of the Herald of Victory (which was the original name of the statue)[7] as the crowning motif of the fountain as a monument to freedom and liberation from the centuries-long Ottoman occupation lost its originally intended sense and its name came to reflect its new dedication to the Salonika Front breakthrough and the victory of the Serbian army in the First World War.

The simple design of the pedestal and its well-proportioned height made it possible to take in the monument as a whole rather than in detail, which resulted in the desired monumentality and the perception of the monument as a sign or a symbol. Over time the Victor has become one of the most salient symbols of Belgrade. Along with the Monument of Gratitude to France, it belongs to the few public monuments erected between the two world wars in Belgrade which pursued contemporary stylistic trends. The Victor Monument was designated as a cultural heritage property in 1992.[11]

See also

Sources

  • Duško Kečkemet, Život Ivana Meštrovića 1883.–1962.–2002 (Zagreb 2009).
  • Danijela Vanušić, “Podizanje spomenika Pobedi na Terazijama” Nasledje IX (Belgrade 2008), 193–210.
  • Radina Vučetić-Mladenović, “Pobednik: polemike uoči postavljanja Meštrovićevog spomenika”, Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju VI: 2 (1999), 110–123.
  • CHPIB Documentation

References

  1. ↑ "City of Belgrade - Famous Monuments". www.beograd.rs. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  2. ↑ CHPBI Documentation.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Branko Bogdanović (16 September 2018). "Градоначелник коме је пресео "Победник"" [Mayor who got fed up with the "Pobednik"]. Politika-Magazin, No. 1094 (in Serbian). pp. 28–29.
  4. ↑ Danijela Vanušić, “Podizanje spomenika Pobedi na Terazijama” Nasledje IX (Belgrade 2008), 193–210.
  5. ↑ M. Popović, “Kako ce izgledati Meštrovićev Pobednik na Terazijama?”, Vreme, 12 May 1927.
  6. ↑ Milenija Simić Miladinović (27 August 2017), "OŠ „Kralj Petar Prvi" dočekuje 300. generaciju đaka", Politika (in Serbian)
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Branka Vasiljević (16 September 2017), ""Pobedniku" puca pod nogama", Politika (in Serbian), p. 1 & 15
  8. ↑ M. Radošević, “Meštrovićevi crteži terazijske fontane”, Politika, 14 December 1988.
  9. ↑ On the history of and the debate over the erection of the Victor monument after the First World War see Duško Kečkemet, Život Ivana Meštrovića 1883.–1962.–2002 (Zagreb 2009), 437–443; Radina Vučetić-Mladenović, “Pobednik: polemike uoči postavljanja Meštrovićevog spomenika”, Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju VI:2 (1999), 110–123.
  10. ↑ Gustav Krklec, “Sa g. Jovanom Dučićem u Zagrebu kod Ivana Meštrovića”, Politika, 14 July 1927.
  11. ↑ Službeni list grada Beograda, no. 26/92
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