Pobednik

Pobednik
Location	Belgrade Fortress, Belgrade
Coordinates
Height	14 meters
Dedicated	1928
Sculptor	Ivan Meštrović

The Pobednik (Lit: The Victor) monument was set up in the Upper Town of Belgrade Fortress in Belgrade, built to commemorate Serbia's victory over Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Built in 1928 and standing at 14 meters high, it is one of the most famous works of Ivan Meštrović. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in Belgrade and the city's most recognizable landmark. It is a standing bronze male figure with a falcon in the right hand and a sword in the left, modelled by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, set on a pedestal in the form of a Doric column on a tall cubic base, designed by the architect Petar Bajalović. The statue looks forward across the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, and over the vast Pannonian plain, towards the very distant Fruška Gora mountain, towards the (at the time), Austro-Hungarian empire, it is probably the most powerful, most popular visual symbol of Belgrade.

History

The history of the monument goes back to a period between 1913 and 1928, even though the initial idea was born in 1912, when Serbia’s success in the First Balkan War inspired proposals for erecting a monument in Belgrade to honour the final victory over the Ottomans. In August 1913 Belgrade city council made the decision to mark this momentous event by erecting a monument to Victory. The original concept was that of a monumental fountain which was to be placed in Terazije or what then was the Square of Crown Prince Alexander. The fountain was to be built of stone in the form of an oval basin resting on the backs of four lions. At the centre of the basin was to be a marble column surmounted by the statue of the Victor. According to the city council resolutions of 4 October 1913 Meštrović was also to produce twenty masks for the rim of the basin and fifty masks for the column, all in bronze. In October 1913 the city contracted with Meštrović and he set to work on the fountain but, being an Austro-Hungarian subject, he had to leave Belgrade at the outbreak of the First World War. Background information about the fountain and its more detailed description were brought out by the newspaper Vreme: ...a large basin (shell) the outer side of which would be decorated with a relief depicting warriors on galloping horses. Affixed along the rim of the shell would be lion’s heads (from the present-day jet fountain) spouting water into the shell. [...] The column would be girdled with spaced hoops to which Turkish head masks would be affixed, and each would spout a jet of water into the basin below...

In order to finish the work as quickly possible, Meštrović moved his studio to Belgrade. He worked in the semi-basement of the elementary school by the Cathedral. Within a short time he completed the figure of the Victor and lion’s heads. Having sent them to Bohemia for casting, he began to work on the large reliefs of lancers. Sketches for the large lion figures were also done. Then the First World War broke out. The Austrian ultimatum forced Meštrović to leave Belgrade and almost all finishing works had to be ceased. During the occupation by Austrian, German and Hungarian troops, all was destroyed except for the statue of the Victor and lion masks, which were away for casting. The exact appearance of the fountain is known from the photographs of Meštrović’s original drawings taken in his Zagreb studio by the sculptor Veselko Zorić.

The project of erecting the fountain in Terazije was revived after the First World War, but the available funds could only cover the casting costs for the Victor and lion masks. The statue was stored in a storehouse for plumbing pipes in Senjak. Yet, in 1923 the city council and Meštrović reached an agreement that he should do the monument in Terazije. However, the beginning of preparation works in 1927 caused a public controversy. The public challenged the erection of the monument on moral and artistic grounds. The author also had his say: Belgrade City Council asked my consent to set up the “Victor” in Terazije temporarily. But aware that our “temporarily” tends to last too long, I have made an agreement with the Belgrade architect Bajalović for a more solid pedestal for the statue. The Council, so I’ve heard, set to work. And then stopped. What have I to say? If they intend to set up the statue in Terazije, let them set it up. If they have found a better place, let them set it up there. After all, it may as well stay where it has been for all this time – in a shed. As far as I am concerned, I’d like it best to have the opportunity to do the whole Fountain the way it was originally conceived.

After much controversy, debate and criticism, the city council decided not to set up the monument in Terazije, but to find a location outside the city. Mayor Kumanudi informed Meštrović that the preparatory work on erecting the monument had been ceased contrary to his instructions. Finally, the statue was given a place in the Upper Town of Belgrade Fortress. This decision of the city council coincided with the completion of the Sava Avenue and the Great Stairway in Kalemegdan Park as well as with the celebration of the anniversary of the Salonika Front breakthrough. It was in commemoration of that event that on 7 October 1928 the freshly refurbished part of the Sava Avenue was inaugurated and the Victor unveiled. Meštrović’s statue of the Victor was done in 1913, immediately after and as a continuation, in concept and style, of the cycle of sculptures intended for his large-scale project for a shrine commemorating the Battle of Kosovo (Vidovdanski hram), which includes representative sculptures such as Srdja Zlopogledja, Miloš Obilić and Marko Kraljević. Conceived as a colossal athletic male nude set up on a tall column, the monument symbolically represents the iconic figure of victory. In iconographic terms, the personification of the triumph of a victorious nation can be traced back to classical antiquity and its mythic hero Hercules. After the creation of a new state and a new spiritual climate in the aftermath of the First World War, the concept of the Herald of Freedomvictory as the crowning motif of the fountain as a monument to freedom and liberation from the centuries-long Ottoman occupation lost its originally intended sense and its name came to reflect its new dedication to the Salonika Front breakthrough and the victory of the Serbian army in the First World War.

The simple design of the pedestal and its well-proportioned height made it possible to take in the monument as a whole rather than in detail, which resulted in the desired monumentality and the perception of the monument as a sign or a symbol. Over time the Victor has become one of the most salient symbols of Belgrade. Along with the Monument of Gratitude to France, it belongs to the few public monuments erected between the two world wars in Belgrade which pursued contemporary stylistic trends. The Victor Monument was designated as a cultural heritage property in 1992.

Gallery

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  Statue of the Victor at night with the Moon and Ursa Minor seen in the background.

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  View of Statue from close distance.

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  View of Statue of Victor from right side.

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  Statue of Victor during sunset.

See also

• Tourism in Serbia
• Protected Monuments of Culture (Serbia)

Sources

• Duško Kečkemet, Život Ivana Meštrovića 1883.–1962.–2002 (Zagreb 2009).
• Danijela Vanušić, “Podizanje spomenika Pobedi na Terazijama” Nasledje IX (Belgrade 2008), 193–210.
• Radina Vučetić-Mladenović, “Pobednik: polemike uoči postavljanja Meštrovićevog spomenika”, Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju VI: 2 (1999), 110–123.
• CHPIB Documentation