Vršac City Museum

About the “Concordia”

The “Concordia” building, named after Roman goddess of Concord, is the central object of the City Museum Vršac. The building was constructed in the year 1847 as per architect Franz Brandeis’ plans. The building commissioner and investor was the First Joint Stock Cooperative of Artisans of Vršac that decided to open a hotel within the premises.

As early as 1852 the building was bought by the Municipality in order to accommodate a Lower Gymnasium (Podrealka). The building was altered and expanded in 1884, again in accordance to Franz Brandeis’ project, when it finally got the current aspect: a single-storey public building in the Modern Classicism style.

Shared history of the Museum and “Concordia” begins in 1894, the year when Museum got to use two quarters in the building. The first Museum exhibition in 1896 was held precisely in the “Concordia”.

The “Concordia” building has a status of a cultural monument of great importance as per Immovable Cultural Heritage classification. Thus, during the 2010-2012 reconstruction, it was mandatory to follow certain principles of renovation, those that wouldn’t allow any alterations to the exterior façade, but it had to be authentically restored.

The reconstruction and adaptation plan implied the modernization and adaptation of the object for its modern-day use, as well as the preservation of its original architectural features as much as possible. Such a stance to “Concordia” was necessary not only due to the fact it’s an immovable cultural asset, but also due to the idea that a building itself should take part of the museum’s collection.

The interior layout was partially altered so it could completely adapt to the modern Museology principles. The loft, that prior to the object reconstruction hadn’t been used, was completely renovated and adapted to office space for employees.

It should be noted that the City Museum Vršac is one of the four oldest museums of the former Yugoslavia territory. As per Central Institute for Conservation data, it is a museum that possesses the largest collection of prehistoric archeology. It is so called “complex” type of museum, meaning it represents all departments (archeology, ethnology, history, arts, science), while its collection today counts almost 300.000 objects.

(Based on the text by mr Ivana Pantović, museum advisor in Vršac City Museum)

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The Reconstruction Project

Complete reconstruction of “Concordia” was finished in 2012, thanks to the project “Home of Longevity for Cultural Treasury of Banat” that was accomplished in the period from 2010 untill 2012, through the Program of Cross-border Co-operation between Romania and Serbia. The total worth of the project was 999.925 euros, of which 85% (849.936 euros) was contributed by EU, and 15% (149.988 euros) by Vršac Municipality.

Vršac Municipality was the project owner, and National Museum of Banat in Timișoara the head partner.

Apart from the “Concordia” building adaptation, as part of the same project “The Regional Centre for Banat Heritage – Concordia” was funded by the EU means. The regional centre is defined as “umbrella institution” whose goal is to coordinate the development of common strategy of research, preservation and presentation of the cultural heritage of Banat as geographical region.

The regional centre has international character, since in its work are included experts researching the cultural heritage of the Banat region, whether its Hungarian, Romanian or Serbian part.

In 2018 the Formation of the Regional Centre for Banat Heritage was stated by EU as good practice example in the area of cultural heritage safeguard and promotion, as one of eight cross-border co-operation projects realized since 2007.

(Based on the text by mr Ivana Pantović, museum advisor in Vršac City Museum)

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