Publisher: The Service of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Professional associates: Vera Pavlovic-Loncarski (architecture) Marija Bujic and Ivanka Zoric (interior design) Vera Grujic (sculpture) and Ljubica Miljkovic (painting) Belgrade, 2007 THE HOUSE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF The National Assembly of the Federal People's THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA Republic of Yugoslavia, the highest state body, adopted a new Constitution in January 1946 which affirmed the ARTISTIC VALUES principles of parliamentary rule. The House of the National Assembly of the Republic Pursuant to the new Constitution, adopted in 1963, the of Serbia was erected near the place where on Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was pro- November 30, 1830 the Great National Assembly took claimed and the Federal Parliament became the highest place. On that occasion, the Turkish sultan's state legislative body. From 1974, the Constitution changed decree on the rights of Serbs was proclaimed and the the parliamentary structure. During this time, the hereditary title of Prince Milos was confirmed. Parliament of the Socialist Federal Republic of The construction of the parliamentary edifice, based on Yugoslavia was constituted as the highest legislative the design of the architect Jovan Ilkic from 1901, start- body, in which the Republics and Autonomous ed in 1907, when King Petar I Karadjordjevic laid the Provinces were directly represented. cornerstone of the future House of National After the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia, in the 1990s, Representation. The construction of the building was this edifice became the Federal Parliament of the completed in 1936 and the first session in the new edi- Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of two fed- fice was held on October 20th of the same year. At the eral entities - the Republic of Serbia and the Republic time, it was the National Assembly of the Kingdom of of Montenegro. Yugoslavia. In September 1939, the Assembly was dis- missed and during the Second World War it was occu- The relations between the two Republics were rede- pied by the aggressor's civil administration for Serbia. fined by the Belgrade Agreement in March 2002, and on the basis of the Constitutional Charter of the State Several decades after the end of the war, this was the Union of Serbia and Montenegro, in March 2003 the building of the Yugoslav Assembly and was the highest Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro was constituted. legislative body of the common state of Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians, as On June 5, 2006, Serbia became an independent state well as the ethnic groups that lived in it. again. Thus, the parliamentary building located at Nikole Pasica Square, after an entire century from the In 1945, this building hosted the Third Session of beginning of its construction, regained its original pur- AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council of the Yugoslav pose - it became the House of the National Assembly Nations), after which the Provisional National of the Republic of Serbia. Assembly of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was established. Later on, it was transformed into the Expanded edition Constitutional Assembly which on November 29th of the same year proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. 1 Architecture Façade project In 1901, the Constitution was changed and the Assembly became bicameral. The design had to be changed or adjusted. It was considered more pur- poseful to make a new design and therefore, in August 1901, the compe- tition was announced for designing the House of National Representation. The architect Jovan Ilkic won the competition. This competition did not pass without The construction of the building of the House of the National public criticism. It was considered that Assembly, originally the House of National Representation, the winning design was too similar to began in 1907, as the representative edifice for the needs of the Jovanovic's design and could therefore Kingdom of Serbia. not be considered an original creation. It was also noted that it had too little The design for the building of the House of the National of its own architectural tradition. The Assembly was made by the architect Konstantin A. Jovanovic, public requested that a new competi- who lived and worked in Vienna. The representative parliamen- tion be held which would set a tary edifice was designed by Jovanovic in the manner of aca- requirement of designing the parlia- demic architecture of monumental public buildings. mentary edifice in the national style. Unfortunately, the Serbian state did not have the financial resources for this kind of project. Historical view 2 Main façade According to the renewed design, the Assembly building continued to be constructed until 1926, when the construction works were interrupted. The following construction phase started after the death of King Aleksandar in 1934. The Architectural Department of the Ministry of Construction assumed the responsibility for all the work and the chief architect was Nikola Krasnov, a Russian immigrant close to the court. At the time, he was the author of some of the most significant edifices in the capital. The building of the National Assembly was finally constructed and consecrated on October 18, 1936, almost three decades after having laid In spite of the fact that in 1903 the Constitution the cornerstone. changed again, that the Assembly became bicameral, and that the ruling dynasty was changed in the mean- time, the construction of the bicameral Assembly build- ing continued. King Peter I laid the cornerstone for the new House of National Representation on August 27, 1907, in the presence of many distinguished guests. Due to a lack of resources, as well as to the Balkan and First World Wars, by the beginning of the establishment of the new state-the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes- the parliamentary edifice was constructed only up to the first floor. Since the new, much bigger state was established, the planned parliamentary session halls did not provide suf- ficient space and their reconstruction was necessary. In 1920, along with the decision to continue construction works on the Assembly, the decision was brought to entrust the design to the architect Pavle Ilkic, son and associate of Jovan Ilkic who died in a prisoner of war camp in 1917. Main entrance 3 The parliamentary building presents a monumental aca- demic architectural construction. The central part of the building is dominated by the portico with the dome above it, and the lateral wings extend both to the left and right, ending with the triangular tympanums buttresses. The subterranean part is constructed rustically in the green stone of Ripanj and the high ground floor and the upper floor, embellished only by a row of windows and pilasters, end with the roof cornice and the balustrade above it. All facades are covered by artificial stone. Large plenary hall The monumental stairway leads to the vestibule - the entrance hall. A long corridor separates the vestibule from the central hall, staircase, and the small and big session halls. Along the corridor, parallel to the vestibule, there are offices. There are two symmetrically-placed staircases made of white marble, which connect the ground floor with the first floor premises. On the first floor there are rooms for the deputy clubs, jour- nalists and administration, but also the representa- tive quarters of the library and diplomatic salon. The entire design of the interior, including all the details, was made by the architect Nikola Krasnov. The vestibule stands out because of its signifi- cance, its successful combination of architecture, sculpture, handiwork, and richness of applied Hallway in the basement material. The representative marble floor, poly- The molding of the facade has never been finalized, because the plan to place the sculptures above the later- al wings of the building, as well as in the central and lateral tympanums and the dome crown has never been implemented. The only examples of decorative plastic art on the façade are the medallions on the lateral but- tresses at the window level of the first floor, the work of the sculptor Djordje Jovanovic, and sculptural deco- rations above the portals facing Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard and Kosovska Street, whose author is proba- bly Petar Palavicini. 4 Dome over entrance hall The specific char- acteristics of the ground floor halls, left and right from the central hall, are the leaning massive pillars with the Corinthian capi- chromous plaster decoration of the walls, marble pil- tals, plaster deco- lars, first floor loggias, rich decoration of the dome ration of the ceil- drums and zenithal lightening create a magnificent ing, and especial- framework for the four standing marble sculptures of ly wrought the rulers placed in the niches. engraved door. The central hall is simple and dignified, done by the The interior of the multiplication of portal elements with Ionian pillars in library is carefully the lower zone and loggias in the upper part, connected designed and the furniture is shaped in a national with pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The cassetted style. ceiling, with glass prisms in its centre, is decorative. The integral parts of the interior are sculptures in the The luxurious diplomatic salon, known by people niches and engraved furniture. as the salon of Prince Pavle, with the walls coated by silk carpets, minutely wrought ceiling and cen- tral rosette, white woodwork, and wooden engraved door also received adequate furniture. For its important function- the connection with the historical events and architectural and artistic values- the building of the Assembly was pro- claimed a cultural monument in 1984. Hall Room in basement The big plenary hall consisting of the floor level and the gallery is especially significant. The walls of the hall are partly covered by wooden plating and partly by marble. The hall is illuminated with natural light which comes from the glass semi-circular ceiling.