Home of Djura Jaksic Attractions

Belgrade Attractions - The House of Djura Jaksic from the list Belgrade Attractions in Skadarlija was without pathos, with damp walls, modestly furnished with a table, some chairs, a hanger and two beds. In the room next door which was also the kitchen there were two more beds. He shared this modest home from the list Belgrade Attractions with his wife and two daughters. This is also where he died.
Numerous tourists and belgradians pass by the house of Djura Jaksic today, sometimes stopping to take a picture with the monument dedicated to Djura Jaksic, not knowing the sad fate of its former owner.
Today the House of Djura Jaksic is home to many writers, painters, artists, musicians and dramaturges. Furnished and ready to accept and celebrate Serbia's most talented citizens, it is a place of a large number of concerts, exhibitions and readings.

"Djura Jaksic, asked the manager of the police for a permission to cross over to Zemun, which at that time was located abroad, and Tucaković strictly asked:
- Who are you and what's your name?
- Djura Jaksic.
- What do you do?
- I am a writer.
- I didn’t ask you that - the police bureaucrat was annoyed - tell me your real job title: what do you do?
- Mr. Warden, I have no other occupation - Jaksic answered defiantly. - Firstly I am a poet and playwright, that is to say - a writer!
The policeman shrugged and pressed the buzzer on his desk, when the clerk arrived, he pointed to Djuro and said:
- I called you to write this man a permission to pass. His name is Djura Jaksic.
- Excuse me, but what do I put down as his job title? - the humble clerk started smearing a pen on a sheet of paper.
- Write - said the Chief of police. - Write, writer without a job title.
After what the clerk asked:
- Mr. Warden, should we then give Jaksic a free permission to pass, or will we charge a fee?
- Of course, write, free of charge - said the governor in good faith and added: - This is according to Cukić’s police regulations. There, Article 49 reads: vagabonds, gypsies, musicians and others like them, people without permanent occupation, receive the permission to pass free of charge. Therefore give a free of charge permission to pass, to this wretch Jaksic, a writer without a permanent occupation"

"The writer without a permanent occupation" is Djura Jaksic, a great painter and writer of Serbian romanticism of the 19th century, he was born in 1832 in Srpska crnja. In his native town he finished elementary school and high school in Szeged, after which he attended a drawing school. Great creativity and the need for artistic expression through painting and writing led him through many European capitals. Despite the wishes of his parents and friends he was never interested in science, he liked the freedom of thought and wanted to show what he cared about and what was bothering him.
After coming back to Serbia he was employed as a teacher, but often changed place of residence, in most cases against his will. Due to his sharp tongue, salient writing and frequent criticism of the then reigning government he was an eyesore, and was often persecuted, convicted, repudiated from work and left without opportunities to earn for his family.
His bad luck he drowned in liters of wine, when he temporarily settled in Kikinda. Djura Jaksic led a solitary life and he loved to visit the inn, where he met and fell in love with Mila, the inn owners daughter about who he wrote the famous lines:

"Ana pours, Ana serves, but for Mila the heart mourns..."

Mila later married and never, not even after the death of this great man, recognized the size and power of his love.
Upon arrival to Belgrade he was employed at the State Printing Office as a proofreader, he lived in Skadarlija which was then one of the poorest parts of the city, the bohemian Skadarlija which we know today came much later.