Virtual Exhibition / Obilic’s Crescent
Thursday-Thursday / AUGUST 24 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 / Cultural Center of Nish / Officers’ Club
A long, long time ago, a writer lived in a town caught at the crossing of two eras. Though this might sound like the beginning of a fairy tale, when the famous novels of Stevan Sremac were being written, Nish was indeed undergoing a momentous transformation. Jovan Skerlic wrote that in this town, Professor Sremac found “a piece of that vivid, exotic East, where old life, old ideas were preserved in all their strength.”
Regardless of the architectural preferences of different time periods, a colony of artisans and tradesmen has existed along the winding street for as long as anyone could remember. During and after the Turkish reign, the space of Obilicev Crescent was brimming with shops with wooden retractable awnings and houses with jettied upper storeys and overhanging roofs that blanketed the street in pleasant shades. Craftsmen would sit and do their work, just like you see them doing in the movie “Zona Zamfirova.” Despite the fashions of the new age rapidly arriving from Belgrade, this atmosphere permeated the street even in the years after its liberation, though it had visibly changed in appearance. Many houses were built around 1884 while the Belgrade-Nish railway was under construction, which means that at least in regards to the facades, Obilicev Crescent had already entered a new age in the days of Stevan Sremac.
Ahead of WWI, more and more “colonial goods” stores appeared along the street. After the Great War, the distinguished edifice of South Morava Bank was erected on this street. If we continue down the road toward King Alexander’s Square, we would come across a warehouse owned by local Jews where leather goods and grains could be bought and sold in the space that is now occupied by the faculties of Law and Economics. Next to it you would find Vule Velickovic’s timber workshop. These emporiums were closed before the Second World War was concluded.
