Virtual Exhibition / The Bridge and the Fortress Gate
Thursday-Thursday / AUGUST 24 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 / Cultural Center of Nish / Officers’ Club
Once upon a time, the site of one of the city’s central squares was covered by densely studded low-rise houses with recognizable bright facades with the marks of numerous craft shops whose owners found respite in numerous taverns in Decanska, Makedonska, and other nearby streets. “Topola” was one of those taverns where locals could find a hot meal, relax with a drink, and perhaps arrange some important business.
Next to the tavern was a ground-floor antique shop, and next to it was the warehouse of the “Weifert” brewery. Musician Bogdan Kojovic told Novosti that he remembers how during the war, as a child, he stood with his mother in front of that antique shop, looking at the piano, whose keys fluttered under the fingers of Queen Natalia in a happier time, as well as the beautiful leather furniture. The antique store with all the former queen’s piano, fine furniture and other small items, disappeared in April ‘41. years. A German missile blew them to pieces. Across the road from “Topola” was the “Agrarna banka” building, which was a little more fortunate, and even today, the Historical Museum of Serbia can be visited in this building.
Many buildings in old Belgrade were destroyed during The April Bombing of 1941, and later battles for liberation leaving legends of Belgrade that does not exist anymore behind. After the war, kafana “Topola”, along with the cheerful noise of craftsmen, traders, officials and bohemians that pervaded its walls, disappears without a trace from the map of Belgrade. In its place a square, that will carry the names of Marks and Engels for decades to come, materialized.
