GRAMMAR SCHOOL – Sremski Karlovci

GRAMMAR SCHOOL – Sremski Karlovci

During the 18th century, literacy among the Serbian people was not widespread, except among priests, monks and wealthy people. The metropolitans of the time recognised this situation and frequently sent petitions to the Austrian court, seeking permission to establish schools in Sremski Karlovci. The Austrian emperors were not favourably disposed towards these aspirations, believing that schools would undermine the military spirit of the Serbs.

In 1728, Metropolitan Mojsije Petrović opened a school where the distinguished Russian teacher Maksim Suvorov taught, after whom the school was named. In 1749, Metropolitan Pavle Nenadović founded the Latin School, which was closed after the Metropolitan’s death in 1768, together with several other schools that existed in Sremski Karlovci at the time (the Clerical School, the Slavonic-Greek School and the Slavonic-Grammar School).

With the accession of Leopold II to the Habsburg throne, the policy of the Austrian emperors towards the Serbs living in this area partially changed. Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović took advantage of this situation and obtained permission from the court in Vienna to establish a grammar school in Sremski Karlovci. Thanks to the efforts of the Metropolitan and the generosity of the prominent Karlovci merchant Dimitrije Anastasijević Sabov, who donated 20,000 florins as a charitable contribution, the Serbian people gained the first grammar school in their history.

Teaching at the grammar school began on 1 November 1792 in the building of the former Latin School, a small, low-rise house which contained both classrooms and accommodation for the professors and the headmaster. Instruction was conducted in Latin and German, and due to the lack of educated people among the Serbs, the first headmasters were Czechs and Slovaks. The Grammar School included the “Blagodjejanije”, a boarding house for poor pupils, and the Convictus for children from wealthier families. From the 1852/53 school year, Serbian was introduced into the grammar school curriculum as the mother tongue of the pupils of Karlovci.

From 1873, Karlovci Grammar School was granted the right to hold matriculation examinations, but only in the presence of a state school inspector. From then until 1918, the grammar school bore the name “Serbian Orthodox Grammar School of Karlovci”.

At the end of the 19th century, at the wish of Patriarch German Anđelić, his brother, Archpriest Stevan of Sremska Mitrovica, raised 35,000 crowns in gold for the construction of a new building for Karlovci Grammar School. The foundations were consecrated by Patriarch Georgije Branković in 1890. The architect of the new building was the Hungarian architect Gyula Pártos, whose design used a combination of yellow and red on the facade to evoke medieval ecclesiastical architecture.

From 1956/57, with the establishment of the primary school, the grammar school had four forms. At the same time, a teacher-training school also operated in the grammar school building. From the 1990/91 school year, Karlovci Grammar School became a typical philological grammar school.

Memorial Library

The library of Karlovci Grammar School is the oldest school library among the Serbs. It was founded in the same year as the grammar school and today contains around 18,000 books. The library’s donors were primarily the headmasters and professors of the Grammar School, former pupils, benefactors, patrons, scholarly societies and institutions, booksellers and publishers.

Among its most valuable books are certainly the facsimile edition of the Miroslav Gospel, the Four Gospels from Mrkšina Crkva (1562), Vićenco Vuković’s Service Book from 1554, as well as works by Zaharije Orfelin, first editions by Dositej Obradović, Vuk Karadžić and Branko Radičević, Jovan Rajić’s History, and many others.

Text taken from the website of the Tourism Organisation of Sremski Karlovci.

2 Branka Radičevića Square, Sremski Karlovci
+381 (0)21 882 127 (Tourism Organisation of Sremski Karlovci)

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