The program of the European Museum Night entitled “In Vino Veritas” was held in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Saturday, May 18th, 2024, in the period from 18:00 to 00:00. The theme of the program was encouraged by the simultaneous holding of the “Kraljevo Wine Festival” event in the city park, organized by the Tourist Organization of Kraljevo. Wine and viticulture are one of the great themes of heritage, and the program itself was realized in cooperation with the Museum of Spoonsweets – House of Cvetić from Kraljevo and the Museum of Wine and Viticulture from Aleksandrovac.
The program began with a joint lecture by Marina Lukić Cvetić, art historian, and Lidija Cvetić Vučković, PhD, theorist from the Museum Spoonsweets – Cvetić House, entitled “Wine Saga of Serbia”. Their presentation was conceived as an overview of the history of grape growing and wine production in Serbia, from the deepest periods of prehistory, through the ancient, medieval and Ottoman periods, with a focus on representations of this economic branch in works of art, as well as on objects for transport and consumption. wine. On this occasion, it was pointed out that there are three dimensions of wine – spiritual, worldly and symbolic, as well as that the oldest vine is located on Hilandar and after eight centuries it is still bearing fruit, and is linked to Saint Simeon Myrr-streaming, i.e. the Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja in monasticism. There is also a review of the celebration of the feast of Saint Tryphon, who is the patron of wine and girls. A special part of the lecture was related to works of art in our national painting of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the works of Đura Jakšić, Paja Jovanović, Uroš Predić, Katarina Ivanović and Sava Šumanović, which were inspired by wine and grapes as artistic motifs. Marina Lukić Cvetić also presented glass objects for wine consumption from the collection of the Museum of Spoonsweets and from the Ethnological Collection of the National Museum Kraljevo. The glass objects were exhibited as part of a small exhibition prepared jointly by both participants of the program, with the Museum of Winemaking and Viticulture exhibiting objects for the production, preservation and quality control of wine.
The second part of the program was prepared by the Museum of Viticulture and Viticulture from Aleksandrovac, first through a lecture with a presentation by Đorđe Živadinović, an agricultural engineer, with the title “Development of Viticulture and Winemaking of the Župa Aleksandrovačka throughout the Centuries”. The Župa is best known in Serbia for growing vines and making the highest quality wines, which is contributed by its favorable geographical location and climatic conditions, so that the first vineyards were created in the Middle Ages and historical sources link them to the Studenica Monastery and the charter of Stefan Nemanja. Since that time, there has been an intensive history of growing quality grape varieties. At the end of the 19th century, the phylloxera insect decimated the vineyards, so through an intense struggle, local varieties were grafted onto resistant American seedlings, the squid was formed and through this process the vineyards were restored. The greatest success was achieved in the interwar period, and during socialism, private winemakers and vineyards were nationalized. The company “Vino Župa” was founded, which soon became the most famous wine factory in the former Yugoslavia, which lasted until the nineties of the last century. After this period, the production of the widely known Župa wine again passed into the hands of private producers. After the lecture, there was a screening of the documentary film “Gifts of the Župa Aleksandrovačka”, filmed with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.