THE HOUSE OF DIMITRIJE ANASTASIJEVIĆ SABOV – Sremski Karlovci

THE HOUSE OF DIMITRIJE ANASTASIJEVIĆ SABOV – Sremski Karlovci

Dimitrije Anastasijević Sabov House in Sremski Karlovci was built in 1790. On August 13, 1791, Stefan Stratimirović arrived at the house with his entourage, where he was received on the upper floor by Dimitrije Anastasijević Sabov along with his family and servants. Sabov provided funds to Stratimirović, who gave those funds to Emperor Leopold II of Austria, enabling the Serbs to establish a grammar school. For this, Sabov received a noble title and coat of arms. In the autumn of 1792, the grammar school admitted its first students, with instruction conducted in German and Latin.

Dimitrije Anastasijević Sabov died in 1803 and was buried in the lower cemetery of Sremski Karlovci. The following year, his stepson Mata, heir to Sabov’s nobility and wealth (about 90,000 forints, houses, and vineyards), also died. Sabov’s daughter-in-law, Marija, a widow from the elite Tabán district of Buda, thus became the sole heir to his estate and noble title, earning the title Noble Marija Anastasijević.

Through the direct involvement of Stevan Stratimirović, Marija met Count Dimitrije Branković, then captain of the Petrovaradin regiment. They married in the Grgeteg Monastery on July 19, 1805, making her Countess Marija Branković. Dimitrije Branković left military service but retained the title of count; he was the grandson of Count Jovan Lipovac Branković, the first ober-captain of the Sombor freikorps.

Count Dimitrije Branković personally knew Karađorđe, the leader of the First Serbian Uprising, from their time in the Mihaljević freikorps during the last Austro-Turkish war. Branković acted as a liaison officer between the Serbian insurgents and Metropolitan Stratimirović, who materially supported Karađorđe’s forces. Dimitrije Branković died in 1867 at the age of 67 and was buried next to the monument of Dimitrije Anastasijević Sabov in the lower cemetery of Sremski Karlovci.

In the Sabov House, Countess Marija Branković accommodated Aleksej Radičević (later Branko) and his younger brother Stevan during the 1839/40 school year. For the following two years, she sent the Radičević brothers to Timișoara, where their father Teodor was already employed. Countess Marija was herself from a wealthy Serbian family in Timișoara. Branko Radičević later described his final year at the grammar school in her household in his posthumously published lyrical poem, ’Tuga i opomena ’ (Sorrow and Admonition).

Later, the house was purchased by Marko Popović Smotra, a wealthy Sremski Karlovci citizen and trained viticulturist, who pioneered the replanting of vines resistant to phylloxera after the devastating infestations of 1885. From 1932 to 1936, Teodora Petrović Majica, a long-time grammar schol professor and major collaborator of Matica Srpska, lived there with her godmother Angelina Popović Smotra. For a short period before 1941, Vasa Stajić also resided in the house.

The founder’s house has been revitalized with funds from the Province of Vojvodina. Historically, scholars like Milan Kašanin, Veljko Petrović, and later Dejan Medaković considered the grammar school and the Sabov House among the most important cultural sites in Sremski Karlovci, alongside the Patriarchate, Theological Seminary, and the Palace of National Funds.

 

18 Stratimirovića Street, Sremski Karlovci
+381 (0)65 8 100 693
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