Archives of Serbian Orthodox Church or Stefaneum Palace - new headquarters of Constitutional Court of Serbia

Starting next year, the headquarters of the Constitutional Court of Serbia will be in Sremski Karlovci, and the available buildings for that purpose in that municipality in South Bačka are the Archives of Serbian Orthodox Church and Stefaneum Palace.

According to earlier announcements, the Constitutional Court of Serbia should be situated in the building of Magistracy, but complete municipal administration is now settled in that facility.

- Municipal organs use the building of Magistracy for three years now. That building was being adapted for that purpose for about 10 years, and I do not believe that the municipal administration would now agree to move to some other facility – Sava Stražmešterov, architect and adviser in the Provincial Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute, told "eKapija".

(Building of Magistracy)

He mentioned two buildings in Sremski Karlovci as possible new locations of the Constitutional Court of Serbia.

- The facility of the Archives of Serbian Orthodox Church is available. It has been used as the building of municipality since the World War II, with occasional pauses. The roof structure and the facade on that facility were refurbished two years ago, and the installations were supposed to be replaced, but it was impossible due to lack of funds – Stražmešterov explains.

He points out that, year and half ago, Serbian Academy of Science and Art was interested in renting that building, which is a protected monument of culture, and placing its archives in it.

(the Archives of Serbian Orthodox Church)

- We wanted to return the authentic function of the facility. All we needed to do was to have the walls built by the municipality for its own purposes torn down and the building would get its initial interior looks back. That building was designed by Vladimir Nikolić at the end of the 19th century and, unlike the other buildings from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in Sremski Karlovci, it does not have magnificient looks.

The other option for relocation of the Constitutional Court of Serbia from 24 Nemanjina Street is Stefaneum Palace, which was built in 1903 at the initiative of patriarch Georgije Branković and it had been used as students' dormitory prior to the World War II. That building was also designed by architect Vladimir Nikolić in neoclassicist style.

- For some time, Stefaneum was the headquarters of the Federal Mechanization Center, but it has not been used for years and it is in a very bad condition at the moment. Since that building has larger surface, it is, probably, more suitable for the Constitutional Court, but its reconstruction requires larger investments than the adaptation of the Archives – Stražmešterov points out.

(Stefaneum)

Relocation of the Constitutional Court from Belgrade is the first case of relocation of a republic institution from the capital city of our country.

The Constitutional Court shares its current premises, as well as the entrance, with other government organs. That institution, 45 years after its founding and expansion of duties, uses the same space as at the time when it was only an organ of the federal unit. The Constitutional Court of Serbia is one of few in the world without its own building. It shares the building with the Public Advocacy, offices of the ministries of education and health, and the Ministry of Justice until recently.

Relocation of the headquarters of the Constitutional Court of Serbia from Belgrade to Sremski Karlovci is stipulated by the changes and supplements to the Law on Constitutional Court, which will be forwarded to the Parliament for adoption by the end of October.