Serbian Culture - Serbian Cultural Institutions

Serbian Cultural Institutions

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 Vojvodina Museum 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 periodical 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 15th century, and was the site of the Great Serbian Migrations, when Serbs colonized this 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, the Patriarch of Serbia 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 Srpsko Narodno Pozoriste, 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 strong 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 Catholiccolleges 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 12th century, when Serbs overwhelmingly embrassed Orthodoxy rather than Catholicism. First European style higher education facilities however were founded in CatholicVojvodina, Teacher's College in Subotica in 1689, although several facilities have functioned even before (f.e. 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.