Hidden treasure of The House of Jevrem Grujić

Story Natural
Country
Serbia
Year
2019
Storyteller
The House of Jevrem Grujić
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Overview

The House of Jevrem Grujić, museum of history, culture, diplomacy and avant-garde is the first private museum in Belgrade and Serbia. We have opened our museum in September 2015 for public in our family home which has been built in 1896 for our famous ancestor Jevrem Grujić, statesmen, politician, diplomat and writer of memoires. By entering Jevrem Grujic's Home, a unique town villa you stepped into the past, Serbian tradition and avant-garde. In an authentic ambience where time has stopped, you can drink coffee from cups used by kings and queens, see one of the most beautiful portrait of queen Natalia Obrenović which is an excellent master piece considered to be Serbian Mona Lisa. You can enjoy an art collection carefully preserved for over the two and a half centuries. The art collection of this unique house is rightly called the hidden treasure!

Hidden treasure of the House of Jevrem Grujić The House of Jevrem Grujić, museum of history, culture, diplomacy and avant-garde is the first private museum in Belgrade and Serbia. We have opened our museum in September 2015 for public in our family home which has been built in 1896 for our famous ancestor Jevrem Grujić, statesmen, politician, diplomat and writer of memoires. There are several important facts about our museum – the architecture of the house in the style of Renaissance with a fresco painting parts of the façade, the collection, the historical personalities members of the family, and the historical events that occurred in this place. Our collection is showing paintings of the most famous Serbian painters, sculptors, furniture, collection of the ancient arms, and beautiful art objects from Italy, France, Russia, China, UK, Belgium, Austria, Greece, USA, Canada and Japan. The House of Jevrem Grujić is a very active member of the Association of Old Serbian Historical Houses and also interesting cultural center. All year round we organize promotions of new books, novels, poetry evenings, exhibitions, concerts and theatrical plays. A very important thing is that during our guided tours which are given in several languages we always stress the privileged bonds of Serbia during two centuries with the most important European countries. Those bonds are made thanks to our ancestors who represented the kingdom of Serbia and the kingdom of Yugoslavia on their high diplomatic positions. The House of Jevrem Grujić shows the most interesting things from the Serbian cultural and diplomatic heritage. But we are aware of the present moment and how all this is adapted to today’s living. Our famous ancestor Jevrem Grujić and his wife Jelena in 1889 for the fabulous Universal exhibition in Paris gave the most beautiful paintings from our home to be shown in the Art Exhibition Gallery. It was a fantastic support to Serbian art and culture. Today that is a tradition that we still follow by supporting young talented people and helping their launching in the world of art and culture from a very prestigious cultural place. By entering Jevrem Grujic's House, a unique town villa you stepped into the past, Serbian tradition and avant-garde. In an authentic ambience where time has stopped, you can drink coffee from cups used by kings and queens, see one of the most beautiful portrait of queen Natalia Obrenović which is an excellent master piece considered to be Serbian Mona Lisa. You can enjoy an art collection carefully preserved for over two and a half centuries, among them are the works of the greatest Serbian painters, old and rare weapons, original furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, royal gifts, diplomatic correspondence, art objects of silver, porcelain, faience and many other valuables by the miracle preserved through the burning past of the Serbian people. The art collection of this unique house is rightly called the hidden treasure! What/why hidden treasure? Going trough beautiful saloons visitors see the masterpieces of the greatest Serbian painters such as Paja Jovanović, Uroš Predić, Steva Todorović, Miloš Tenković, Zora Petrović. The oldest preserved wedding gown in Serbia from 1856, consisting of several hundred thousand silver threads. The old weapons from the First and Second Serbian Uprising, among which are the rifles of the two largest Serbian heroes: Haiduk Veljko and Tanasko Rajić, inscribed with silver, gold, pearls and decorative stones. Royal gifts that family members received from members of Serbian dynasties Obrenović and Karadjordjević with whom they were in close association. The most beautiful item is waiting for you, a gold-plated chest that will enchant you. The first city balls were held in this home, where the Serbian queens Maria and Natalia came to visit unannounced, and Milan Rakić and Jovan Dučić prominent Serbian writers wrote some of their most beautiful verses! The walls of this unique house hide many stories and secrets that we want to reveal to you, and nobody can tell them better than Lazar Šećerović, one of the descendants who preserves the intangible cultural heritage of this respectable diplomatic family who shaped modern Serbian and European history. During the First World War, the largest part of the collection of this house was ruined. Educated by this tragic experience during the Second World War the family concealed the rest of the collection in the basement of the house, where it remained for the next 50 years! The most beautiful parts of the collection are now in front of visitors, conserved by experts who have restored their original shine! You will not believe that the first discotheque in the Balkans was opened right in the basement of the House of Jevrem Grujić, and the world's greatest stars danced in it: Allen Delon, Catherine Denver, Omar Sharif etc. The discotheque was popularly called “At Laza Sugar’s” and it pays homage to the popular avant-garde culture from the 1960s Belgrade, whose trendsetters were young intellectuals and the youth who gathered there to enjoy the latest hits and sounds from the world.

European Dimension

With guided tour in several languages of exhibition “Hidden treasure of the House of Jevrem Grujić“, through interesting stories of distinguished diplomatic family of Jevrem Grujić and his descendants, we enlighten relations that Serbia had with Europe, from 19th century untill now.