Banovina Palace
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Building in Vojvodina, Serbia

The Banovina Palace (Serbo-Croatian: Бановинска палата, Banovinska palata, Hungarian: Báni palota, Romanian: Palatul Băniei, Slovak: Bánovinský palác, Rusyn: Бановинска палата) in Novi Sad, capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia, is a representative complex consisting of two buildings. The larger Banovina serves as the seat of the Government of Vojvodina, while the smaller Banski dvor serves as the seat of the Assembly of Vojvodina.[3] The buildings, designed by Dragiša Brašovan, were constructed between 1936 and 1940 in modernist style (with art deco and stripped classicism elements) for the administrative needs of the Danube Banovina.[4][5]

Banovina Palace complex is located in the Stari Grad neighborhood of Novi Sad, east of the City Assembly of Novi Sad and north of Isidora Sekulić Gymnasium. The larger Banovina building entrances are towards Mihajla Pupina Boulevard, Žarka Zrenjanina street and Banovina pass, also cornering Jovana Đorđevića street at its the eastern end. The smaller Banski dvor, or Većnica building is located south of Banovina, separated by the Banovina Pass thats connected to Žarka Zrenjanina and Jovana Đorđevića streets. Southern entrance of the building connects to the Vladike Platona street.

Banovina park (Serbian: Бановински парк, Banovinski park) is located at the southwestern end of the complex, with a public parking garage underneath it. The statue of Vasa Stajić, placed on 23 October 2011.[6]

It was originally built as the administrative centre of the Danube Banovina.[3] The building has a closed elongated horseshoe-shaped base. The semi-circular part of the building is located on the western side, while on the opposite eastern side, there is a tower with a square base. The building consists of a basement, ground floor, and two floors. It is 180 meters long, 44 meters wide, and around 20 meters high, except for the tower, which is 42 meters high.[7][5] It is covered with white Brač island marble from the Pučišća quarry, while the interior is covered with carrara marble. Above the representative entrance facing Mihajla Pupina Boulevard, there are medallions with resemblance to Peter I of Serbia, Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Stepa Stepanović, Živojin Mišić, Radomir Putnik and Petar Bojović, all done by local sculpture Károly Baranyi.[4] Due to the buildings design resembling a large ship with a sail mast, the Banovina was also called the White Cruiser (Serbo-Croatian: Бела крстарица, Bela krstarica).[8][5]

The building consists of a total of 569 rooms and a reception hall at the center of the building, Most of the rooms on the building's 5 floors are office spaces, arranged continuously along the external façade, accessible with wide corridors oriented towards the four inner courtyards.[5]

It was built as a residence for Bans of Danube Banovina, and today it contains the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The building is of a crustal base, a dimension of 57.5 to 100 meters. It's got a basement, ground floor, floor and an attic. The building has 147 rooms and an assembly hall.[8][5]

Plans for the construction of the Banovina Palace complex in Novi Sad started immediately after the creation of the Danube Banovina administrative region on 3 October 1929.[3] During 1930, a Yugoslav architectural competition, ratified by the first Danube Ban Daka Popović, was held for the conceptual solution of the building, which will house the administration, the great hall and the ban's residence. On 23 August 1030, despite Dragiša Brašovan's work doing poorly in that competition, due to a series of circumstances, he was ultimately entrusted to create a new project and to realize it. The conceptual plans were finished in October 1935. The architecture of the palace was meant to symbolize the economic strength and prosperity of the Danube Banovina. The cost of the construction, funded by Yugoslav Royal Banking Administration, was 58 million Yugoslav dinars, double of the previously planned budget.[8][5]

The construction started in 1936. The construction of the palace complex was done by the construction company of the architect Milan Sekulić. Over 700 builders were tasked in the construction of the Banovina and Banski dvor, of which more than 200 were qualified workers and craftsmen. During the construction of the buildings, citizens showed great interest, while newspapers regularly followed individual stages of construction.[8][5]

During the construction of the Palace it was decided that the building would deviate from its the 1935 plans in several ways. The building would cover its façade with marble and other stones, instead of the previously planned clinker bricks. It is unknown what type of brick and color of brick would have been used for the construction. The plans also intended to have an installed clock with zodiac signs on the Banovina tower, along with additional statues adorning the sides of the Banovina façade.[9] Despite the buildings still under construction, their completion was promoted to be finished for 1 December 1938, for the 20th anniversary of the formation and unification of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The Banovina ultimately completed in late 1939, while Banski dvor in early 1940.[8][5]

Until the Second World War the building had stylized national coats of arms of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at the northern entrances to the building.[9] Between 1939 and 1941 the building complex served its original purpose as the administrative center of the Danube Banovina. During the war, the building complex was the headquarters of the Hungarian Military Administration in Bačka of General Bela Novaković and the Hungarian internal armed forces.[3] The Hungarians also removed and destroyed the relief on top of the northern entrance of the Banovina palace. Replicas of these reliefs were made and placed back in 2010.[8][5]

After the Second World War, until the mid-1950s, it was the headquarters of the National Assembly of Vojvodina (proclaimed by the Yugoslav Constitution of 31 January 1946). It also housed the military club of the Yugoslav National Army, where various cultural manifestations were held.[3]

In 2019, 80 years since the construction of the Banovina Palace complex, the façade of the Banovina building was renovated and restored. This effort was done by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad (Serbian: Завод за заштиту споменика културе Града Новог Сада, Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Grada Novog Sada) and the Faculty of Technical Sciences from the University of Novi Sad. The renovation included the reconstruction of damaged or missing parts on the 10,700 square meters of the façade, cleaning the 670 square meters of entrance stone stairs and fence walls, the restoration of decorative elements, as well as placing anti-graffiti protection. The initial budget for the renovation, funded by the Government of Vojvodina, was 27,6 million Serbian dinars, but it ended up costing over 30 million Serbian dinars. The renovation started at the end of May and was finished by the start of December of the same year.[10][11][12] Renovation and restoration of the Banski dvor building was done by the end of December 2020, costing nearly 29 million Serbian dinars, with the overall costs for renovating the entire Banovina Palace complex ending up being 59 million Serbian dinars.[13]

On 14 June 2022, construction started on the public underground parking garage at the location of the Banovina park. Designed by Inobačka d.o.o, who also along with Austrian Breiteneder immobilien parking are responsible for the garage's construction. Initial plans intended the garage to have 207 parking space on two levels, but the plan was altered to have 167 due to public outcry to preserve the old trees in the Banovina park.[2] Construction was initially set to be completed by 25 December 2023, but it was pushed back to late 2024.[14][15] There were several controversies surrounding the construction of the underground garage.[16][17] During the construction, the Banski dvor building was damaged due to construction tremors that effected the buildings foundations, resulting in cracks forming on the inner and outer walls, as well as damage to water and sewage pipes. Parts of the building were off limits until the damage was repaired.[18] The garage was also publicly criticized for its location and distance from the Banovina Palace cultural landmarks, with the garage's plans and construction not following the guidelines from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad that were done in 2009 and 2021.[19] Design for the surface level of the garage has been noticeably altered from the initial plans done by Inobačka d.o.o and Breiteneder immobilien parking after the permit for the original plan was rejected in March 2024.[20] Permit for finishing the garage's surface area, along with Banovina park and surrounding streets was given to Suuniko Solutions from Veternik in April 2024.[21] Construction of the garage was completed in May 2024 and is planned to be opened for use by mid July 2024.[22][23] Work on the Banovina park and the surrounding street infrastructure started in June 2024.[24]

Banovina and Banski dvor, 1941

Banovina, 1942

Banovina reception hall, 1942

Banovina during the day, May 2005

Banovina at night, February 2011

Banski dvor southern entrance, February 2011

Banovina's Brač marble details, April 2011

Banovina southern entrance, May 2011

Banovina in the evening, June 2011

Statue of Vasa Stajić in Banovina park, March 2012

Banovina complex, March 2014

Banovina pass, May 2020

Banski dvor northern entrance, May 2020

Banovina northern entrance, May 2022

Banovina western entrance, September 2022

Banovina tower, September 2022

Banovina complex, September 2022

Banovina complex, September 2022