The two-story building, which was built for residential and commercial purposes, was constructed around 1911. The construction was commissioned by the Serbiab merchant Mladen Popović, who among others founded the Bank of Niš in 1904. After a series of vicissitudes of selling part of the capital, merging, and returning to the old way, the bank went bankrupt in 1929. Soon, the news of the collapse of this institution spread through the bazaar and investors rushed to its doors, where they encountered lowered shutters and metal blinds. The unraveling began only on August 23, 1934, before a panel of three judges in the District Court in Niš. The courtroom was too small to accommodate all the aggrieved citizens who, by throwing and shouting, obstructed the process, demanding that their damages be paid.
The project for the construction
Illegal transactions were made through the so-called privileged account of Branko Nikolić, brother-in-law of Mladen Popović, such as the issuance of false passbooks based on which Branko and Mladen appeared as creditors even though they were bank debtors. The accused pleaded not guilty before the judges, and Popović even convinced the judges that everything was done according to the rules of the banking business and according to the law. All the efforts of the investors were in vain, as the powerful protectors kept them out of jail cells. The building was eventually demolished around 1965, and in its place, they built a high-rise apartment block.
An old postcard that shows the building on the left
One of the corners of the former Neo-Renaissance building features a , which was supported by two and covered with a roof that was crowned with a . The two protruded parts that surrounded the turret were beautifully embellished with a richly decorated . Either a straight or a pointed was placed above the second floor windows, which were supported by two corbels. Between these corbels, you could've seen a decorative shell or a . Another festoon was placed underneath some of these windows, while underneath the other windows, you could've admired a .
Another old postcard that shows the building
Corbels
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
Festoon
A festoon, (originally a festal garland, Latin festum, feast) is a wreath or garland hanging from two points, and in architecture typically a carved ornament depicting conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons. The motif is sometimes known as a swag when depicting fabric or linen.
Finial
A finial or hip knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, gable, or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure.
Mascaron
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent architectural styles to extensively employ mascarons were Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau.
Pediment
A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with relief sculpture. A pediment is sometimes the top element of a portico. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.
Rosette
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design. The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, formed by leaves radiating out from the stem of a plant and visible even after the flowers have withered. The rosette design is used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia, and in funeral steles' decoration in Ancient Greece. The rosette was another important symbol of Ishtar which had originally belonged to Inanna along with the Star of Ishtar. It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance architecture, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.
Spire
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are typically built of stonework or brickwork, or else of timber structure with metal cladding, ceramic tiling, shingles, or slates on the exterior.
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded, turrets were used for decorative purposes.