The Zemun Gymnasium ( sr, Земунска гимназија, Zemunska gimnazija) is the most prominent gymnasium in Belgrade,

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. It is located in Belgrade’s

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

municipality. Founded in 1858, it's Belgrade second oldest, after the

First Belgrade Gymnasium First Belgrade Gymnasium ( sr, Прва београдска гимназија, Prva beogradska gimnazija) is a gymnasium (Central European type of grammar school) with a long tradition, founded in 1839 in Belgrade, Serbia. Since 1938, it is sit ...

(founded in 1839), and Serbia's sixth oldest gymnasium, after those in

Sremski Karlovci Sremski Karlovci ( sr-cyrl, Сремски Карловци, ; hu, Karlóca; tr, Karlofça) is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the banks of the Danu ...

(founded in 1791),

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

(founded in 1810), Kragujevac (founded in 1833) and

Šabac Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river Sava. , the city ...

(founded in 1837). By the number of students, it is the largest gymnasium in Serbia today.

History

The gymnasium was founded on 23 September 1858 on the orders of the Austrian military command in Zemun as a two-year lower

realgymnasium ''Gymnasium'' (; German plural: ''Gymnasien''), in the German education system, is the most advanced and highest of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being ''Hauptschule'' (lowest) and ''Realschule'' (middle). ''Gymnas ...

. It initially had only one grade and just 21 students. Zemun was then a part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

that was to become

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, and the language of instruction was

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. By 1872 the gymnasium had four grades. In 1883 it was decided that Serbian should be the language of instruction, and a year later, on the orders of the Government, girls were restricted to the first grade, so it was solely for boys by 1887. Due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

events, the school experienced a multitude of problems, and did not start functioning normally again until 1925. Though part of the Serbian, and later Yugoslav, educational system since 1918, German language remained in use until 1925. That same year, the school was open for girls. First cinema in Zemun was open in the school building in 1926. Today's gymnasium exists since 1958, after a merger with two smaller schools (for boys and for girls) created in 1946 after the liberation of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

from the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

by the Communist Partisans and the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. For a while, a Commerce school was located in the building, while in the 1970s the gymnasium was organized as an "educational center". In 2008, the Zemun Gymnasium celebrated its 150th anniversary. In the 2017/18 school year 320 first graders were admitted in total of 11 classes. They are divided in three sections: sociolinguistic, natural sciences-mathematics and physics. Additional 12th grade, for informatics, is planned for 2018/19.

The building

The gymnasium building is located in the

City park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

, situated between

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

's Faculty of Agriculture building and a primary school. The present building was built in 1879 in the

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

style by Nikola Kolar. By 1912 the initial building proved to have inadequate space for accommodating all the students so plans were set up to expand it. Expansion was finished in 1916. The added structure was intended to be in Neo-Renaissance style too, but was, instead, built in post-

secessionist Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...

style. Hence, the building is actually formed by two buildings with a completely enclosed interior court. The total floor area of the building is , of which is used for everyday curricular activities. The interior of the building was renovated in 2009, and the building is now under the State's protection as a

cultural monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...

Present

As of February 2018, the gymnasium has 1,205 students in four grades. There are 95 teachers, of which 20% were students in the gymnasium themselves, and 22 additional workers. The school's library has 35,000 books. It is the oldest student's library in Serbia. About 100 books originate from before 1850. In 1993 a private foundation called "Fund of the former students and professors of the Zemun Gymnasium" was founded. Every year the foundation organizes intergenerational meetings while the best student is being awarded with a

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buf ...

. The award will be named

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic ( sr-cyr, Гордана Вуњак Новаковић) is a Serbian American biomedical engineer and university professor. She is a University Professor at Columbia University, as well as the Mikati Foundation Professor o ...

after the world famous bio engineer and alumni of the school. In 2014, the school organizes a project "Meeting of the European gymnasiums". It is a yearly meeting of the gymnasiums, and as of 2018 the schools from Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina participate.

Notable alumni

References

External links