Nikola Spasić ( sr-cyr, Никола Спасић; 2 November 1838 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 ...

– 28 November 1916 in

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

) was a Serbian businessman, benefactor,

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

, and one of the leaders of the

Serbian Chetnik Organization Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation) ...

Old Serbia Old Serbia ( sr, Стара Србија, Stara Srbija) is a Serbian historiographical term that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the ...

and Macedonia. He was the president of the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Exchange in 1903 and the initiator-founder-builder of the Nikola Spasić Endowment Building in Belgrade, which had a slightly bigger founding capital then the

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation ( sv, Nobelstiftelsen) is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. It ...

. He also initiated and financed the construction of four major edifices in

Knez Mihailova Street Knez Mihailova Street, ( sr, Кнез Михаилова улица, translit=Knez Mihailova ulica, officially: sr, Улица кнеза Михаила, translit=Ulica kneza Mihaila, label=none), is the main pedestrian and shopping zone in Belgra ...

, the third of which were built immediately after the First Balkan War, such as the Grand Passage, designed by Nikola Nestorović."Трећи сектор у Србији - стање и перспективе“ у: ''Непрофитни сектор у Србији и Црној Гори'', Београд, 2002.

Biography

Nikola Spasić was born to a poor Serbian family which moved to Belgrade from the countryside during the 1804-1813

First Serbian Uprising The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 18 ...

against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Spasić trained as an artisan and merchant before opening a leather workshop and store in 1865 alongside his brother. The shop manufactured and sold ''opanci'' (

Opanak Opanci are traditional peasant shoes worn in Southeastern Europe (specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and also Romania and Albania). The attributes of the opanci (name in plural) are a const ...

), a Balkan peasant footwear similar to the

moccasin A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional panel o ...

which was widely accepted as part of the Serbian national costume and was worn in the 19th century both in the city and the village. By the time of the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...

acquired full independence in 1878, Spasić had accumulated enough wealth to retire. The value of the property that the Endowment of Nikola Spasić had at its disposal following his death was close to that of the

. In Belgrade, Spasić is remembered for his professionalism and humanitarian work. For the architectural design of his buildings, Spasić developed a reputation for selecting the most accomplished Serbian architects. His buildings featured the latest technical devices, the construction material of the highest quality, with the entire building inventory procured from European centres. Bista Nikole Spasića

Nikola Spasić's will and last testament, drawn up in 1912, expressly forbade the sale of any of his Belgrade buildings. Instead, it called for their exploitation in order to raise funds and therefore finance all the undertakings of the Endowment of Nikola Spasić. The main goal of the endowment set by Spasić was the economic development of the nation. Only a few days before his death on the island of Corfu, where he arrived as a war refugee, Spasić revealed in a letter, his hope that he would return one day to liberated Belgrade, accompanied by Viennese architect

Konstantin Jovanović Konstantin Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Константин Јовановић; bg, Константин Йованович; 13 January 1849 – 15 February 1923) was a Serbian and Bulgarian architect known for providing the original designs of the Nati ...

, with whom he planned to engage to design new remarkable edifices.

References

Sources

* * * 19th-century Serbian people 20th-century Serbian people Serbian businesspeople Serbian humanitarians 1838 births 1916 deaths Serbian military personnel killed in World War I Serbian Chetnik Organization {{Serbia-bio-stub