page_title: Belgrade Cooperative
section_title: The building
hierarchical_section_title: Belgrade Cooperative / The building
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Beogradska zadruga Karadjorđeva 48 svečana sala This is a photo of Cultural Heritage site of Serbia number СК 86
context_page_description: Belgrade Cooperative was a cooperative bank founded in 1882 to promote savings and support small enterprises, craftspeople and the poor of Belgrade. Member-shareholders have been paying membership in amount of one Serbian Dinar per week. That is the way for cooperative to become a public savings bank. Luka Ćelović was the first president of cooperative, also a first Serbian insurance group.
context_section_description: Belgrade Cooperative Building was built according to the project by two leading Belgrade architects, University professors, Andra Stevanović and Nikola Nestorović. The majority of the building was constructed on the old embankment, and since the land was underwater due to the proximity of the river, the foundation of many walls has to be made of reinforced concrete, the first time in Belgrade, but using the iron for clamps, since there were was no round iron in Belgrade at the time.
  The contractors of construction works were brothers Stok. All cut stone materials were made by the "Industry of Ripanj granite." Decorations on the facades and interior, with rich decorative plastic in stucco on the walls and on the ceiling, are work of Franja Valdman, the sculptor of building ornaments.
  Decorative paintings in the main entrance are work of Bora Kovačević and Andrea Domenico, while the paintings on glass were made by R. Marković.
  Belgrade cooperative moved into the new building immediately after the completion of construction in 1907 and remained there until its abolition.
  The building was later used by the Geological Geophysical Institute "Jovan Žujović".
  The social status of the Belgrade Cooperative dictated that the representativeness and monumentality become the only possible architectural concept.
  It was designed in the style of academism, with elements borrowed from both eclectic academic style, as well as contemporary Art Nouveau architecture. It was built as a monumental corner building with three wings in the floor plan at the irregular plot. The most representative part of the building is the prominent and jagged central part, where the public rooms are located, with the main facade in Karadjordjeva Street. The wings in Travnička and Hercegovačka Streets in which the workrooms are located have simple facades with uniform peaceful rhythm and different composition in every elevation. The central wing facing the street has two floors – the entrance and the ceremonial hall with the vestibule that extends through two floors and one storey Counter hall in the rear, while both side wings have a ground floor and two floors. Shops were once located on the ground floor of the side wings while the administrative and management offices were on the first floor.
  The Belgrade Cooperative building was built using mixed techniques. Cellars, which extend beneath the entire building, are made of reinforced concrete, with Prussian vaults. Most of the building was built using a standard procedure, brick in lime mortar, and only partly in reinforced concrete. Bridging is architrave for the side wings, and the architrave and arch in the middle wing. Lantern construction above the central staircase is resolved in the form of triangular metal grille. Roofs have jamb walls, small slope and domes. Façade which is facing the street is made in stone slabs in socle zone and dressed in artificial stone, while the courtyard façade is plastered.
  Structural system has vaults and marble columns. Main staircases are three-armed, stone or marble, while side staircases are spiral and iron. The interior walls are plastered and painted, while the representative rooms are decorated with wall paintings and marble imitation and have pilasters with gilded capitals and applied polychrome decorative female masks. The floors have parquet or terrazzo tiles. On the facades decoration was made of artificial stone, while the interior is in stucco and plaster.
  All the decorative motifs of Belgrade Cooperative Building are borrowed from post Renaissance, predominantly Baroque, but modernly interpreted to form the unique style expression. Frontal facade is dominated by the large glass surface above which is a dome with merlon flanked by sculptural group consisting of a female figure, the personification of Serbia and four children's figures that embody the Industry. In the niches on the side projections of the main façade are the figures of a Woman with beehive and a Man with a scroll. Inside the building in the main hall, at the beginning of the staircase there are tw
caption: Ceremonial hall
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