National Library of Serbia

The National Library of Serbia (Narodna biblioteka Srbije) is the national library of Serbia, located in the capital city of Belgrade. It is the biggest library, and oldest institution in Serbia, one that was completely destroyed many times over in the last two centuries. In 1832, the library was established by bookbinder Gligorije Vozarović in his bookstore, and its first collection consisted of gifts of publisher and bookseller Vozarović and other Serbian cultural figures. On 28 February 1832, Dimitrije Davidović sent a letter on the organization of the library to Miloš Obrenović. In November of the same year, Prince Miloš ordered that one copy of each printed book be made available to the library. During World War I, the Library building and collections were damaged by bombing, so the small remaining holdings were moved from Belgrade to Niš and Kragujevac for their protection. Damages, loses and lack of facilities hampered significantly reconstruction in 1918 and the ensuing years. After the War, and according to the National Library Act and the Press Law, both from 1919, the Library became the central state Library and obtained the right to acquire an obligatory copy from all over the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. With the efforts of Jovan Tomić (1903-1927), a part of the original Belgrade library collection was repatriated from Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1925 the National Library moved into a building in the district of Kosančićev Venac only to be bombed and gutted by fire sixteen years later from 6 to 9 April 1941 at the start of World War II. The bombing by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe of a city officially proclaimed open, completely destroyed the Library building including a priceless book collection of 500.000 volumes, an invaluable collection of 1424 Cyrillic manuscripts and charters, a collection of old maps, medieval manuscripts and prints of roughly 1,500 items, collections of 4,000 journals as well as 1,800 newspaper titles, its rich and irreplaceable archives of Turkish documents about Serbia and the complete correspondence of distinguished figures of the cultural and political history of Serbia, and all holdings lists and catalogs.