page_title: Serbian culture
section_title: Cultural institutions
hierarchical_section_title: Serbian culture / Cultural institutions
caption_attribution_description: Matica Srpska
context_page_description: Serbian culture refers to the culture of Serbia and of ethnic Serbs.
  The Byzantine Empire had a great influence on the culture; Serbs were initially governing the Byzantine and Frankish frontiers in the name of the emperors and were later through their sworn alliance given independence, baptized by Greek missionaries and adopted the Cyrillic script, with Latin and Catholic influences in the southern regions. The Serbian Orthodox Church gained autocephaly from Constantinople in 1219, whereas Stefan the First Crowned was declared king by the Pope. The Republic of Venice influenced the maritime regions in the Middle Ages. The Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia in 1459 and ruled the territory for several centuries, the consequences of which suppressed Serbian culture but also greatly influenced Serbian Art, especially in the southern regions. Meanwhile, in northern regions Habsburg Monarchy expanded into modern Serbian territory starting from the end of the 17th century, culturally bounding this part of the nation to Central Europe rather than Balkans.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the 21st century, there were 32 art galleries and 142 museums in Serbia. Belgrade has many of the most significant with the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, the Gallery of Frescoes featuring Orthodox Church art, the Ethnographic Museum and the Princess Ljubica's Residence. Novi Sad contains the Museum of Vojvodina, Gallery of Matica Srpska as well as the Petrovaradin fortress.
  Matica Srpska is the oldest and most notable cultural and scientific organisation in today's Serbia. Its name is translated in Serbian as the Serbian matrix or parent body of the Serbs. It was founded in 1826 in Budapest and moved to Novi Sad in 1864. Amongst other achievements, it compiled a six-volume study of the Serbian language between 1967 and 1976. Its journal Letopis Matice Srpske is one of the oldest periodicals examining scientific and cultural issues anywhere in the world. Vojvodina province of Austro-Hungary became attractive for Serbs ever since the fall of Serbia in the 15th century, and was the site of the Great Serbian Migrations, when Serbs colonized the area escaping Turkish vengeance. Sremski Karlovci became the spiritual, political and cultural centre of the Serbs in the Habsburg Empire, with Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church residing in the town. To this day, Serbian Patriarch retains the title of Metropolitan of (Sremski) Karlovci. The town featured the earliest Serb and Slavic grammar school (Serbian: gimnazija/гимназија, French: Lycée) founded on August 3, 1791. In 1794, an Orthodox seminary was also founded in the town, ranking second oldest in the world (after the Spiritual Academy in Kiev). Novi Sad is home to Serbia's oldest professional theatre, founded in 1861 as Serbian National Theatre (serbian: Srpsko Narodno Pozorište), followed by Belgrade in 1868; however two other cities claim this title: City of Kragujevac Knjazesko Srbski Teatar since 1835 and Subotica since 1851 (*there were theatres throughout Serbia long before that time but cannot be classified as "professional").
  There is a network of libraries with three national libraries, 689 public libraries, 143 higher education libraries and 11 non-specialised libraries as at 1998. The National Library of Serbia is the most significant of these. Project Rastko founded in 1997 is an Internet library of Serb culture.
  Roots to the Serbian education system date back to 11th and 12th centuries when first Catholic colleges were founded in Vojvodina (Titel, Bac). Medieval Serbian education however was mostly conducted through the Serbian Orthodox monasteries (UNESCO protected Sopoćani, Studenica, Patriarchate of Peć) starting from the rise of Raška in the 12th century, when Serbs overwhelmingly embraced Orthodoxy rather than Catholicism. The first European-style higher education facilities however were founded in Catholic Vojvodina, Teacher's College in Subotica in 1689, although several facilities have functioned even before (e.g. Jesuit School in Belgrade, since 1609). Following short-lived Serbian independence between 1804 and 1813, Belgrade officially became an educational centre of the country (excluding Vojvodina). The University of Belgrade is the biggest and most prestigious institution of higher education in Serbia, founded as the Belgrade Higher School in 1808. The Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj was founded in 1810 and many important Serb cultural figures studied there.
  Within the Government of Serbia, the Serbian Ministry for Culture is responsible for administering its cultural facilities.
caption: Matica srpska based in Novi Sad, the oldest matica in the world.
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