bg Pancevo

Aleksić-Smederevac House

- Vojvode Živojina Mišića 1 -
The original building was built for residential and commercial purposes somewhere at the end of the 19th century but was reconstructed in 1906. The building was inhabited by the Serbian doctor and art collector, Stevan Smederevac, and his wife the Serbian philanthropist, art collector, and custodian, Olga Smederevac-Aleksić. Stevan was born on February 16, 1882, in the village of , in the family of Konstantin Smederevac and Sofija Petrović. He graduated in medicine in in 1905 and started working in the field of medicine in that same year. He went to Switzerland twice for the specialization in the field of tuberculosis. He came to Pančevo in 1912 and stayed there to work as a doctor permanently. Doctor Stevan Smederevac and Olga Aleksić got married on February 21, 1914, in the municipality of Pančevo, and then a day later a church wedding was held in the . Stevan Smederevac died in November 1957, at the age of 75, and was buried in the old Orthodox cemetery, in the family tomb.
The building before the reconstruction
Olga Smederevac was born on July 28, 1891, in Pančevo, into the respectable merchant family of Milutin and Jovanka Aleksić. She graduated from the Serbian High School for Girls and was a student of . Olga was fluent in French, German, Hungarian, and Russian, and played the piano and often performed in public. She married for the first time at the age of 17 to Armin Krevrat and their marriage lasted four years from 1908 to 1912. She entered into a second marriage soon after the first, with Baron Bathory, who was much older than her, but the marriage was quickly dissolved by mutual consent. She married for the third time, this time in 1914 with Stevan Smederevac. Olga Smederevac was the founder of the institution known as Salon Olga Smederevac, which was housed in this building. In the salon, everything was according to protocol, from entering the salon, greeting, kissing hands, and giving compliments.

Olga Smederevac dedicated part of her work to various charitable and patriotic societies. For a time, she was the vice-president of the association Dobrotvorna zadruga Srpkinja Pancevački, where her mother was once a member. She also helped the organization of the Sokol Society and was a member of the Circle of Serbian Sisters. She also helped humanitarian Serbian victims who were in Nazi camps all over Germany. When the began, most Serbian artists stopped painting and withdrew from public life, and some fell into military or political captivity. Of course, the salon no longer had as many guests as before, there were simply no conditions for that. When the war ended, Olga herself withdrew from public life, not fitting into the new society. Olga died on August 22, 1973, at the age of 82 in Pančevo in the house where she was born.
A portrait of Olga Smederevac created in 1924 by Stevan Čalić
The corner building, which was originally built in the Biedermeier style, significantly changed and now is built in the Art Nouveau style. The top of the building, which is separated by a from the rest of the building, contains multiple piers that are topped with a decorative vase. The cornice is held up by various amounts of in different sizes, which are all adorned with foliage. A in different shapes is placed above the second floor windows, some of which are embellished with two decorative vases and a with a in its midst. The that flank these last-mentioned pediments contain a garland wreath from which two garlands hang. A beautifully decorated with floral ornamentation is placed above some of the second floor windows. The balcony, which is located on the southern side of the building, is secured with a wrought iron railing adorned with and supported by three corbels adorned with three huge .
An old postcard that shows the building on the right