The Genčić family house ( sr, Генчићева кућа у Београду) in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, at 51 Krunska Street, was built in 1929 and has housed the

Nikola Tesla Museum The Nikola Tesla Museum ( sr-cyr, Музеј Николе Тесле, Muzej Nikole Tesle) is a science museum located in the central area of Belgrade, Serbia. It is dedicated to honoring and displaying the life and work of Nikola Tesla as well as ...

since 1952.

Đorđe Genčić

The house was built as the family house of Đorđe Genčić, an industrialist and a politician, the witness and the actor in the political life of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

in the last decades of the 19th century.

The Architecture

The house was built between 1927 and 1929, after the design by an architect

Dragiša Brašovan Dragiša Brašovan ( Serbian Cyrillic: Драгиша Брашован; May 25, 1887 – October 6, 1965) was a Serbian modernist architect, one of the leading architects of the early 20th century in Yugoslavia. Works Barcelona * ''Serbian ...

who, in the early 1920s moved from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; hu, Nagybecskerek; ro, Becicherecu Mare; sk, Zreňanin; german: Großbetschkerek) is a city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbi ...

and

. Along with his colleagues Milan Sekulić and M. Petrović – Obućin he founded a design and construction bureau "Architect". Before this villa, Brašovan designed and realized several prominent buildings in Belgrade which made him very famous builder of private houses in

, and beyond. The villa Genčić is situated on the corner of Prota Mateja Street and Krunska Street. The construction of the house started in June 1927, and ended in December 1929. The house was conceived as a cubic mass, with the academically divided facade, dominated by the entry part, designed in the form of a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...

. By its architectural and stylistic features, the house belongs to the group of houses where architect Brašovan began the process of a gradual modernization of the academic forms, particularly evident in the equal treatment of all the facades of a particular building. The facade was enlivened with a regular arrangement of window niches and pairs of double columns with Ionic capitals. The balance of masses and the reduced decoration suggest a closer relation with the modern architectural expression. As far as the interior is concerned, in the ground floor there were a dining room, a kitchen, a salon and a lot more space for the guests' reception. Upstairs, there were bedrooms, a study and a bathroom. All the rooms were grouped around the central hall facing Prota Mateja Street, which spread all the way to the first floor. The construction works were assigned to the bureau of the engineer Milan Jovanović and Radomir Zlatičanin.The documentation of the Cultural Heritage Protection Institute of the City of Belgrade The initial design was altered during the construction process, mostly because the location of the building was in a certain disproportion with the entrance parts which demanded larger pre-garden. Until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the building remained a private family house.

Nikola Tesla Museum

The Nikola Tesla Museum has been situated in the house since 1952. The Museum is dedicated to the life and work of the famous world scientist, and his scholarly and personal legacy.

See more

List of Monuments of Culture in Belgrade

References

External links

Kadijević, Draginja Maskareli: O arhitekturi Genčićeve kuće
The heritage, number 5, 2004
List of Monuments

Republic Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments – Belgrade / Base immovable cultural property
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gencic Family House Houses in Serbia Buildings and structures in Belgrade Vračar