Virtual Exhibition / The District Municipality
Thursday-Thursday / AUGUST 24 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 / Cultural Center of Nish / Officers’ Club
On the meadow where a long time ago the Stambol Gate arched across the jendek – a drainage canal that surrounded and protected the old town, a farming settlement could be found in the days of old. This settlement on the town outskirts was still present at the time of liberation and was included in Winter’s “Regulatory Plan of the town of Nish” in 1878. The space of Sindjelic’s Square and the older Turkish settlement, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly served as a public market. In the place of the current theater building, there was a municipal scale that could measure whole carts (a small wonder for that time), and in front of it was the Colourful Fountain, from which the local populace fetched water, and about which Stevan Sremac wrote: “It’s already evening. A crowd has gathered around the Colourful Fountain, overgrown with ancient moss and surrounded by willows. Through the sonorous hustle and bustle, laughter and giggles, pushing and cursing; a slap cracks or a jug shatters…”
Circus tents were often seen in the park area, and in 1906, a cinema was set up under a tent as well. Not far from it, until 1910, stood a lovely house with a garden that once belonged to Ahmed-bey. The famous liberation fighter, Nikola Kole Rashic, lived here too. Later, on its site, a much larger and statelier building would rise: the District Municipality Building with its recognizable clock tower. The name of the architect is not known, but we do know that the construction was carried out by a contractor called Milan Stefanovic.
