The 32nd Žica Spiritual Assembly “Transfiguration 2023” was officially opened in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Wednesday, August 16th, 2023, starting at 8 p.m. Nemanja Trifunović, curator of the National Museum Kraljevo, greeted the guests and audience as the master of ceremonies and gave the floor to Predrag Terzić, PhD, Mayor of Kraljevo.
Terzić referred to the importance of the event itself and its long duration, and expressed his satisfaction that Kraljevo is hosting an exhibition from the Museum of Herzegovina about the great poet and diplomat Jovan Dučić. He particularly emphasized the importance of the international scientific conference “Publications in the Development of Society and State III: Public Word and Public Condemnation” which the National Museum Kraljevo is organizing over the next two days, with the support of the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade and the Institute for Political Studies from Belgrade. In addition, the collection of papers from the first conference held within this unique three-year project will also be promoted within the event. He reminded the audience that these conferences, which have been organized for the third year already, were started thanks to the work of Slavko Maržik, who collected in four volumes all the articles from the Serbian press, related to Karanovac/Kraljevo, from its beginnings in 1835 to 1918. He also pointed out that he is personally very glad that Ljubivoje Ršumović, to whom many people attribute their upbringing, received the “Žiča Chrysobull” this year.
The exhibition “Jovan Dučić, to his Beloved Trebinje – The Trails of a Vision” from the Legacy of the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje was opened by Ivana Grujić, director of the Museum of Herzegovina. She pointed out that the cooperation between the two museums began in 2015 when the National Museum Kraljevo visited Trebinje with an exhibition about Queen Jelena of Anjou and that the exhibition about Jovan Dučić is one of the ways to return the visit. The great poet and donor of Trebinje had a vision of his city that he worked on. He erected the first monument to Njegoš in the Serbian cultural space, which was made by the sculptor Toma Rosandić, and the pedestal by the architect Dragiša Brašovan, who waived their fee. He also erected a monument to the liberators of Trebinje from 1918. He formed a city park and managed to build one of the three planned fountains, while by donating his famous collection of antiquities, primarily antique plastic, but also many other works, he unofficially founded a museum institution and was its first curator. The Museum of Herzegovina is still searching for his inventory book, which he kept meticulously, as well as for the entirety of his inspired vision of Trebinje as a world city.
Ivana Grujić ended her address with the words of King Alexander Karađorđević, written on the Golden Book presented to the city of Trebinje: “Trebinje gave birth to heroes, martyrs and poets, the three purest drops of human blood. That historic city has always been a small, but proud outpost of the Motherland and a valuable guardian of faith in our ideals and our thought”, adding that this exhibition shows one of the purest drops of blood of a man, such as Jovan Dučić, who with his gift ennobled his hometown and made it a city of culture and art. In the musical part of the program, the students at the Music School “Trebinje”, Teodora Kovačević and Marina Mučibabić, accompanied by professor Ivana Pešić performed.