bg Zrenjanin

City National Library Žarko Zrenjanin

- Trg Slobode 2 -
The educational building was built somewhere in the 1890s for the needs of the editorial office of the daily Torontál newspaper, which was owned by Doctor Lajoš Brájer. He was born on March 23, 1865, in Veliki Bečkerek, nowadays Zrenjanin, and was a writer, journalist, newspaper editor, translator, and owner of Plajc's printing house. He was the grandson-in-law of , who was the founder of the first printing house in Veliko Bečkerek. He was educated in his hometown, studied law in , and became a doctor of philosophy in . Shortly after completing his studies, he married the granddaughter of Franz Paul Pleitz. Shortly after his death in 1884, he became the owner of his printing house and the editor of the weekly papers that were published there. In 1908, he moved to Rijeka, where he edited the evening newspaper. Lajoš Brájer passed away in 1943.
Lajoš Brajer
After the , the first floor housed the famous tavern called Šoljom, which was owned by Đorđe Šoljom. After the , it was nationalized, and from 1959 until 1968, the Serbian Cooperative Savings Bank was housed in the building. Since 1968, it has been owned by the City National Library named after Serbian revolutionary . Before the library moved into the building, it was located in a building on the banks of the Begej River, which no longer exists. During the adaptation to the needs of the library, the interior of the building was completely changed.
An old postcard shows the old library on the right that's demolished
The building, which is built in the styles of Eclectic and Neo-Renaissance, contains two strips of that are placed underneath the roof , one of which is decorated with foliage. The rectangulars that are placed within the frieze, are interrupted by a that's adorned with a female . The same counts for the fragments that can be seen underneath the second floor windows, but in this case you can see a male mascaron. Above these same windows, you can either see a straight or a segmental , all of which are supported with two . The corbels are embellished with three , as well as a , which is also the case with the that's placed on top of the windows. The fragment above the keystone is lavishly decorated with and other kinds of floral ornamentation. The that are placed on the second floor, are crowned with a Corinthian , while the ones on the first floor are crowned with a Doric one.
An old photo that shows the building