History

Located about ten kilometers from Topola, in the Village of Goroviči, the residence of Milutin Georgijević was built in 1839, as indicated by the year carved into the pillow of the building's porch. It belonged to Milutin Georgijević – Žabarac, a merchant, leader of Lepnica, head of the Kragujevac district, and a state advisor to Prince Miloš Obrenović (Serbian Knez Miloš Obrenović). When Milutin Georgijević became the captain of the Lepnica district in 1839, he began constructing a large residence, which was purposefully built for the needs of district leadership. The construction of the residence took one year, and today it represents one of the largest and most beautiful preserved buildings of our national architecture from the first half of the 19th century.

General Information about the building

The building is constructed with a bondruk wooden structure, with stone cladding on both sides of the outer walls, and brick cladding of old format on the interior walls. The total thickness of the outer walls is between 55-65 cm, and the interior walls are 30 cm thick. All walls are brick-built and finished with lime plaster, with decorative details on the exterior above the windows and doors.

At the rear, the building features a spacious porch supported by profiled oak columns with pillow-like bases. The windows are double-winged, with characteristic wooden grilles, ‘toplijaš’. All the doors in the house are decorated with geometric ornamentation. The roof is multi-sloped with a steep pitch, covered with tiles. The rafters are treated and richly ornamented with geometric designs.

Among the distinctive interior details are the brick ovens, as well as three hearths, two of which are located in the ‘house’, positioned opposite each other.

The residence of Milutin Georgijević was declared a cultural monument by the Institute for the Protection and Scientific Study of Cultural Monuments in Belgrade under decision number 865/53 on March 5, 1948.

Condition of the Building Before the Works

The building was in very poor condition, especially in terms of its structural integrity. All the exterior walls were visibly cracked, particularly at the corners, and had lost their vertical alignment. Due to this, the current owner of the building created a concrete ring around the entire structure, a base about 50 cm above the ground, with a thickness of about 8 cm, in the 1990s. However, even this concrete ring was cracked, especially at the corners.

The porch was in extremely poor condition. One corner column with a base was missing, part of the foundation wall had collapsed, and the columns and foundation beams had shifted out of alignment.

The roof structure was in relatively good condition, but due to the outer walls, which were mostly out of alignment, there was separation of the wooden structure, compromising the roof itself. Due to leaks, some wooden beams in the roof and intermediate floor structure had started to rot. It was also noted that the ceiling beams in the central room, ‘house’, had sagged due to the large length of the beams.

All the windows and doors, except for one door on the porch, were in relatively good condition and could be retained with necessary conservation and restoration work.

The wooden ceilings in the porch and the ‘house’ were in visibly poor condition, as were the floorboards, which were completely rotted. Wooden ceilings in other rooms were also in relatively poor condition. Instead of the former brick floor in the porch and central ‘house’, a concrete floor was found.

Works on the Konak

At the end of 2020, works began on the renovation of the konak. Due to the large scope of work and investment, they were divided into three phases, all of which were funded by the Ministry of Culture and Information through the competition for co-financing/financing works in the field of immovable cultural assets, recognizing the great value of this vernacular building.

Phase I of the works began at the end of 2020 and was completed in mid-2021. These works included the reconstruction of the entire building. The parts of the foundation above the ground that were in poor condition were replaced, while the foundations on the northern sides of two rooms were completely replaced from the ground up. Additionally, the remaining foundation strips of the exterior walls were raised.

Phase II of the works began in mid-2021 and was completed in mid-2022. It included works on the renovation and conservation of the porch,
all wooden windows and doors, replacement of the wooden ceiling on the porch, and works on the facade of the building.
In this phase, certain partition walls (on the porch and interior) were renovated, i.e., rebuilt, which could not be renovated in Phase I due to lack of funds.
The deteriorated plaster was removed from the walls of the porch that were not rebuilt, and then the walls were plastered with lime mortar.

On the porch, all the deteriorated parts of the columns were replaced with new ones, and the missing columns and pads were made based on the original design. The very worn-out wooden railing was replaced with a new one, made in accordance with the original. The subsequently installed small gate on the porch was also replaced, following the pattern of gates from that period. The ceiling of the porch was completely replaced, as it was unusable due to leaks. All the windows and doors were restored, as well as the heating elements, and the heavily damaged parts were replaced.

Phase III, the final phase of the works, began at the end of November 2022 and was completed at the end of December 2023, while the acceptance of the works was carried out in 2024.

In this final phase, the deteriorated plaster was removed from all the interior walls and ceiling of one room.

The walls were re-plastered with lime mortar. All the floors were replaced with new ones, as the wooden floors made of pine boards were in very poor condition.

The brick floors on the porch, ‘house’, and partially at the entrances to two rooms from the porch were mostly removed and replaced with concrete, but now they have been restored to their original condition. All the ceilings were replaced with wooden or plastered surfaces, entirely in accordance with the original, except for the small room with the jars, where the original ceiling was preserved with the replacement of the most damaged part. All the walls and plastered ceiling were lime-washed.

This phase completed the necessary works to preserve the building and present it adequately, with the possibility of use. This has preserved one of the most beautiful and largest examples of vernacular architecture in the Šumadija region.