Although under the Turks for centuries, Serbs found ways to acquire basic knowledge and not remain illiterate. They learned letters and geography in monasteries, but in the Gornji Milanovac village of Lunjevica, under the patronage of the wealthy merchant Nikola Milicevic Lunjevica, the first private school in western Serbia was formed in 1807.
“His wealth at the time was estimated at sixty thousand ducats. In his village, he had several houses, and each had its own purpose. In one stone house, he made a classroom and an office, and there his children, and the children of prominent Serbs, were taught basic education. Teachers came from surrounding villages, and one even from Osijek. He paid them all fairly, and the schooling lasted for several years; the most famous student is certainly Jevrem Obrenovic, Milos’s own brother,” said Aleksandar Marusic, director of the Museum of the Rudnik-Takovo Region.
Dozens of village students passed through the benches, but the school ceased to exist after the Second Serbian Uprising. However, the wooden house remained to remind of the old times when Serbian history began precisely from such buildings. Today, it has resisted the tooth of time, and it was bought from the National Bank of Serbia by Major Pantelija Mijatovic, a Salonika front veteran, and now his descendants live there.
“This house is a significant cultural and historical asset, and there is no question of it ever being demolished. As much as our finances allow, we will reconstruct it, but in a way that it still remains authentic and reminds of past times. Armed with knowledge from literature, tourists also often come here, but the first private school built in this part of Serbia has also been visited by high state officials, as well as several ambassadors,” says Milovan Petkovic, son-in-law of the Mijatovic family.
In addition to the fact that a private school was located here, this village of Gornji Milanovac, precisely thanks to Nikola Lunjevica, was one of the most developed at that time. As one of the richest Serbs at the time, Nikola often received wealthy Turks at his residence and cooperated with them, so it is not surprising what the locals found on their properties over time.
“While I was building the house, I found the remains of a Turkish bath, which means that Serbs and Turks gathered and spent time here together. And how capable Nikola Lunjevica was is also shown by the fact that he brought water to his houses from a nearby hill and laid clay pipes that are still in the ground to this day,” says local resident Ilija Matijevic.
The house of Nikola Lunjevica in the village of the same name was also frequently visited by his granddaughter, Queen Draga Obrenovic, who spent time there with her family. At one time, there was also a chestnut plantation there because on the fertile land near the Bistri stream, as historians say, everything that was planted thrived.
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Source: RINA; Photo: RINA