The Main Post Office Building - architect Vasily Androsov

The Main Post Office building (Serbian: Палата Главне поште) in Belgrade is located at the intersection of Takovska Street and King Alexander Boulevard, in close proximity to the building of the National Assembly, the Administration of the President of Serbia (the New Palace building), and the City Hall of Belgrade (the Old Palace building). The building was constructed between 1935 and 1938 to house the Postal Savings Bank, the Main Post Office, and the Main Telegraph Office. Since the completion of the work until the present time, the part of the building located on Takovska Street, designed to accommodate the Main Post Office, has not changed its primary purpose. On the other hand, the part of the building located on King Alexander Boulevard, which housed the Postal Savings Bank, was used from 1946 until September 2006 by the National Bank until it moved to a new building on Slavija Square. Additionally, since 2003, separate ministries of the Republic of Serbia were located in this part of the building, and since 2013 it has been used by the Constitutional Court of Serbia. In the same year, 2013, the Main Post Office building was recognized as a cultural monument.

Since the 1840s, the Main Post Office represented the highest postal institution not only in Belgrade and Serbia but also throughout the entire Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). On the other hand, the Postal Savings Bank began operating on October 1, 1923, in the "Moscow" building on Terazije Street. Although the Postal Savings Bank was a young institution, just a few years after its establishment it became one of the most popular financial and credit institutions in the entire country, which made the premises of the "Moscow" building too cramped for its activities. The authorities saw the solution to improving the accommodation of both institutions in the construction of a single building that would house both the Main Post Office and the Postal Savings Bank.

Despite all attempts to build buildings intended for postal administration, the construction of the Main Post Office building had to wait until the beginning of the fourth decade of the 20th century. An all-Yugoslav competition for the design of the Postal Savings Bank and the Main Post Office and Telegraph building in Belgrade was announced in 1930. Out of fifteen submitted entries, whose authors were architects from all regions of the country as well as those who studied and worked abroad, three projects were selected and awarded in September 1930. The first prize was awarded to a joint project by Zagreb architects Josip Pičman and Andrija Barani, based on the principles of modern architecture; the second prize was also awarded to a modern project by Slovenian architect Aco Lovrenčič. However, soon the authorities abandoned the implementation of the first-prize project because the early 1930s were marked by an economic crisis in Europe. The second reason was that the country's top officials were dissatisfied with Pičman’s project, which, in their opinion, did not meet the requirements for public buildings. The simple design and plain facades of Pičman’s project did not fit the prevailing construction concept, which demanded that the architecture of public buildings, with their luxurious facades designed in the academic style, express the power, prosperity, and statehood of the young Yugoslav kingdom. Immediately after the competition, the Ministry of Construction decided to make changes to the first-prize project. The development of sketches was entrusted to architect Dimitrije Leko, and an internal ministry competition was organized to develop new facade drawings, resulting in the best evaluations for architect Vasily Androsov’s proposal. However, after adopting Androsov’s new project, it took another five years before construction began. After obtaining a building permit in 1934, the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone took place only on August 17, 1935. Construction of this important building for Belgrade at the time lasted three years and was completed on October 10, 1938.

The architecture of the Postal Savings Bank, Main Post Office, and Main Telegraph building in Belgrade reflects the social, political, stylistic, and aesthetic circumstances prevailing in the field of artistic creation as a whole during the period between the two world wars. It is based on a combination of a project executed in the styles of modernism and functionalism, and representative facade decoration in the academic style. Androsov’s new project largely relied on the original competition solution, which is most evident in the building’s plan and layout of the premises. The relationships of masses, the building’s orientation relative to the street, the contour of the asymmetrical plan solution, as well as the location and number of entrances, were fully preserved from the original project. All facades of the free-standing building were recomposed according to the principles of monumental academic architecture characteristic of Belgrade’s construction in the 1930s. Instead of simple facades made of glass and concrete, the author provided cladding with granite blocks and artificial stone. The protruding central risalit of the main facade not only divides the facade into two unequal asymmetrical parts but also reflects the internal functional division of the building. The risalit is designed as the front facade, emphasized by the main portal on the first-floor level, elongated Doric columns from the third to the sixth floor, and a characteristic clock tower at the highest level. The adaptation of the modern plan concept of the structure to its representative academic exterior reflects the generally accepted position of the authorities at the time, according to which the monumental character of public buildings, designed in the style of high academicism, was to visually express the power and prosperity of the new Yugoslav state and Belgrade as its capital.

As a building that housed the central and most important postal institution of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Main Post Office building is an important testimony to the development of postal service and its activities from its inception to the present. On the other hand, due to its remarkable location at the intersection of two major city thoroughfares, it is one of the important visual landmarks of the city center. At the same time, the monumentality of the building and the representativeness of its exterior decoration classify it as an important example of academic architecture in Belgrade.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Здание_главного_почтамта_(Белград)