Virtual Exhibition / The Post Office Building
Thursday-Thursday / AUGUST 24 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 / Cultural Center of Nish / Officers’ Club
The current Main Post Office building in Nish was constructed in 1931 to accommodate the local branch of the State Mortgage Bank. The building is located at the intersection of Vozhdova Street and Orlovica Pavla (Pavle Orlovic’s) Street, and its main entrance is accessed through a wide semicircular staircase. Above the entrance, a relief composition in the spirit of French academicism is visible, depicting the god Mercury and muses of art and architecture, among other details. In the early 1930s, there was a sudden increase in interest in bank loans in Nish. Many people in Nish, particularly prominent industrialists, traders, craftsmen, and farmers, were borrowing heavily from the Mortgage Bank. This surge in demand led to the construction of the bank’s branch in Nish, as the existing 11 branches couldn’t meet the growing demand for loans.
In an era where we often take for granted the ease and diverse methods of leaving and transmitting messages, we sometimes forget how crucial letters were in the years preceding the internet, let alone before the first telegraph wires bridged distances between distant parts of the world. During the Ottoman Empire, official mail was transported only for the Turkish authorities, with sensitive documents handed over to couriers known as the “Tatars”, who were sought after for their equestrian skills. Skilled riders on horseback carried mail from Istanbul to cities in the interior and back.
The first official post office building in Nish could be found in 1841 within the Nish Fortress, and about twenty years later, letters and correspondence could be submitted on the left bank of the Nishava River as well. This second Post Office building was located in the 1860s in the area now occupied by the Serbian Army Hall, where the Nish customs house was also situated.
