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Platon Papakostopoulos House

- Topličin Venac 9 -
The construction of the two-story building, which was executed according to a design that was created by the Serbian , took place at the beginning of the 20th century. The building was built for the residential needs of the first pediatric specialist in Serbia, Platon Papakostopoulos, who was born in Belgrade on September 4, 1864. His parents, mother Ephthalia and father , were of Greek descent. Together they had five children, Peruclus, Euphrosina, Plato, Aspasia, and Cleantus.
Platon Papakostopoulos and his parents and brothers and sisters
Platon completed elementary school and high school in Belgrade, and during that time, his father and older brother died. After finishing high school, he served his military service in . After that, he studied medicine in and where he graduated from the University in 1892. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine and returning to the country, he was appointed a county doctor in in 1893. With his dedicated work and good relationship with the sick, he gained great trust and respect among the people. In addition to his regular work, Dr. Papakostopoulos also carried out vaccinations against infectious diseases, performed autopsies when necessary, and took measures to suppress the diphtheria epidemic in , where he was sent in 1895. After five years of work in Obrenovac, he went to Vienna to specialize in pediatrics. After returning from Vienna at the end of 1898, he was appointed as a regional doctor of the witch doctor section in Belgrade. Platon was a participant in the First and Second Balkan Wars in the rank of reserve medical major.
Platon Papakostopoulos
In 1899, Platon Papakostopoulos got married to Emilia Gađanski, the daughter of Ljubomir Gađanski, a lawyer from , and the maternal grandchild of , one of the first doctors in the Principality of Serbia. Platon and Emilja had three children, Miloš born in 1899, Ljubica born in 1903, and Jelisaveta born in 1910. The Papakostopoulos family had a tragedy in 1907 when their son Miloš died of scarlet fever at the age of eight. Platon requested that an anti-scarlet serum be sent to him urgently from , but by the time the medicine arrived, his son Miloš succumbed to the disease. It hit the family hard. Doctor Platon Papakostopoulos died on May 8, 1915, in , at the age of 50.
Platon as commander of the First Polish Hospital of the Drina Division
The corner building, which is built in the Art Nouveau style, contains several protruded parts with underneath it the roof that's adorned with . The pilasters, which are located on the second floor, are richly decorated with a , a , and floral and geometric ornamentation. Above some of the second floor windows, you can see a straight and a , and underneath some of these same windows, you can see a fragment adorned with even more floral ornamentation. The building features a balcony, which is secured with a cast and wrought iron railing that contains even more geometric forms.
An old photo that shows the building on the left