The quest for the national identity of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: From the Vidovdan temple to st Sava's church

• Main Authors: Stojanović Marko, Stanojev Ivan
• Format: Article
• Language: srp
• Published: Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture grada Beograda 2016-01-01
• Series: Nasleđe
• Subjects: temple/church; Vidovdan (St Vitus Day); St Sava; identity; nation
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1450-605X/2016/1450-605X1617087S.pdf

The paper discusses the quest for the national identity of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia in the field of religious/memorial architecture. It compares the concept of the Vidovdan (St Vitus Day) Temple authored by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović and the design for the Church of St Sava by the architects Bogdan Nestorović and Aleksandar Deroko, and examines their underlying ideas as well as the factors leading to their (not) being realised. The comparison of these two completely different architectural approaches to visual expression provides the opportunity to shed light on the attempts to construct a unified national identity of the interwar country.