The exhibition “Mataruška Banja: Beneath the Cold Linden Trees, Near the Fast Ibar River” was opened in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Friday, December 15th, 2023, starting at 6 p.m. At the beginning of the opening, the audience was greeted by Darko Gučanin, director of the National Museum Kraljevo, who announced the participants of the protocol. The exhibition was opened by Vladan Virijević, professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Priština, with temporary headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica and reviewer of the exhibition catalogue.
He referred to the wealth of exhibited material, among which he emphasized photographs and postcards – illustrated correspondence cards. They bear witness to specific events, persons or objects and represent precious material about past times, an illustrative record that has lasting value for the reconstruction of the past. Their value is even greater when you bear in mind that these are layers of the past that no longer exist. He pointed out that the exhibition as a whole shows the genesis of the origin and development of Mataruška Banja, its flourishing and rise, but also the time when, due to unfortunate social and economic circumstances, it experienced a kind of stumbling.
Đorđe Mojović, PhD, who is the grandson of Milan Zloković, the designer of the hotel “Žiča”, and the founder and director of the Foundation of this famous architect, also addressed the audience. It is one of the most important buildings in Mataruška Banja, designed in the spirit of modernism, which seems to invite you to travel. It has the shape of a ship, with a cabin and a flat roof, like a deck. Mojović pointed out that Zloković worked at the hotel “Žiča”between 1929-1931. when he was 32 years old. After that, he gave a short lecture to the audience about the biography of Milan Zloković, which was followed by a presentation of his most significant achievements in architecture.
At the end of the protocol, Suzana Novčić, museum advisor of the National Museum Kraljevo and the author of the exhibition, in her address to the audience, emphasized that the name of the exhibition “Beneath the Cold Linden Trees, Near the Fast Ibar River” was actually taken from the title of an article about Banja from the newspaper “Pravda” from 1933 , as well as that the Mataruška Banja deserved such an exhibition. She thanked all the collaborators from Mataruška Banja who helped her in the realization of the project, including Radomir Jakšić, a young historian who is also the co-author of the text in the catalogue. The concept of the exhibition includes a wide framework in which the themes of Mataruška Banja urbanism and the architecture of spa bathrooms, hotels and villas, the themes of sanatoriums and health institutions are dealt with, but it visually evokes the culture of living, clothing, as well as scenes of rest and recreation. At the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties, the Spa experienced devastation, like few places in Serbia, from which it never left, despite the fact that, in addition to the healing water, it is also an aerial Spa, thanks to the proximity of the mountains, and that it is located in an extremely convenient place in terms of communications. That is why it is extremely important that the institution as the National Museum Kraljevo preserves the history and heritage of Mataruška Banja.