Saint Sava Temple

The most prominent Serbian architects participated in the second competition with the memorial temple of Saint Sava in Vračar, announced in 1926, among whom Milan Zloković and the Russian architect Andrej Vasiljevič Papkov performed with a joint competition work, which, according to the jury, was the redemption prize. The competition notice was looking for a monumental temple in the Serbian-Byzantine style from the time of Prince Lazar, which could accommodate six thousand believers. Their solution of the temple with a base in the form of an inscribed concise cross has been noticed in architectural historiography by a unique, organically conceived, shaped treatment based on the gradation of semicircular volumes and surfaces in combination with several hemispheres and a central dome. An expressionist effect was achieved on such a diverse composition with a touch of visionary aspirations in which the original approach and modernized stylization can be distinguished. Zloković believed that the Church of Saint Sava, as a single artistic whole, should be conceived freely and without restrictions, “through the prism of the modern understanding of art and life”, because only in that way would it represent “a true expression of people’s gratitude to its first educator”.