Petar Popović (architect)

Petar Popović (Prilep, 25 May 1873 – Belgrade, 4 February 1945) was a prominent Serbian architect.

Early Life and Schooling

Popović was born into an old and distinguishable family of priests in the town of Prilep, at the time in Ottoman Empire. His family left Macedonia when he was a child and came to Smederevo in Serbia where Petar received his primary education. He continued schooling in Belgrade where in 7th grade he switched from classical to technical high school which he finished with excellent grades. Popović proceeded to the studies of architecture at the Technical Faculty of Belgrade University (1892-1896). This is where he got interested in monuments of Serbian medieval art, which he considered of utmost importance for Serbian architecture.^[1]

Career

In 1897 Popović started working in the Ministry of Construction, where he stayed for the next three decades. In 1901 he passed state exams for an architect and subsequently began his designs. In 1919 Popović became head of the Ministry of Construction as well as professor of Medieval Serbian and Byzantine architecture at Belgrade University.

He became a member of the Serbian Royal Academy (today Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts) in 1925 while the next year he became a corresponding member of Masaryk Academy of Labour in Prague. He was also highly decorated.

Except architecture, Popović was also engaged in church interior decoration, restoration of buildings, urbanism, historiography and heraldry.

Although he retired from state service in 1927, Popović remained active in research, publishing as well as in building.^[2]

Style and Works

Although some of his projects (mostly private buildings as well as some public ones) were executed in academic manner, Popović preferred the Morava style of Serbian medieval architecture for most of his works. He promoted the creative reconstruction of Serbian medieval building styles as opposed to new, modernist architecture. Some of his achievements in this style are regarded as best of their kind (Vranje County building, Kostolac Church, Alexander Nevsky Church).

His works include:

• Belimarković Chapel, Vrnjačka Banja (1903)
• reconstruction of Lazarica Church, Kruševac (1904)
• County building, Zaječar (1907)
• County building, Vranje (1908)
• Petrograd Hotel, Belgrade (1912)
• Ruski Car building, Belgrade (1922–25)
• Memorial church with ossuary, Štip (1926)
• Church in Kostolac (1926)
• Dimitrijević House, Belgrade (1928)
• Samodreža Church, Kosovo Polje (1928, with Aleksandar Deroko)
• Alexander Nevsky Church, Belgrade (1930, with Vasiliy Androsov)
• Ministry of Education building, Belgrade (1933)
• Vavedenje Monastery, Belgrade (1936)^[3]

References