The Serbian House was ceremonially opened by Committee Chairman Aleksandar Cotric and the Deputy Director of the Government’s Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Aleksandar Vlajkovic.
“We are opening a venue which will host exhibits, concerts, literary meetings, lectures, theatre productions, film screenings, performances of cultural-art societies, promotions of books and magazines, authors and performers from Serbia, the Czech Republic and other countries. The existence of the Serbian House in Prague, the heart of the Czech Republic and central Europe is very important for the Serbian diaspora living in the area. This institution will help maintain their identity, strengthen ties with the mother state and deepen the friendly relations and partnership between Serbia and the Czech Republic, as well as the appropriate presentation of scientific, cultural, educational, economic, tourist, sporting and other achievements of the Serbian people in the Czech Republic and the mother state”, said Aleksandar Cotric, Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.
Saying that we have had “enough of being represented by others in a less than truthful manner, that it is time to show ourselves for who we are before Europe and the world, and we are a people of a vast and rich culture reaching deep into the past”, Cotric reminded of the numerous important Serbs who have lived, attended school and worked in Prague, like the language reformer Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, scientist Nikola Tesla, painters Milan Konjovic, Stojan Aralica, Jovan Bijelic and directors Emir Kusturica, Goran Markovic, Goran Paskaljevic, Srdjan Karanovic, Slobodan Sijan and others.
Dijana Vukomanovic, member of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, presented the President of the Serbian Association St. Sava, Branka Kubes, who was responsible for securing the premises from the City of Prague and opening the Serbian House, with the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Serbia. Businessman Petar Marjanovic received the same recognition for his many years of humanitarian work, as well as his credits in having the Czech Government present Belgrade with about a dozen of buses and trams for the needs of city transport.
Cotric thanked the City of Prague, the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic for “supporting the activities of the Serbian community in the country and for having officially recognised the Serbian people’s status of national minority, despite its scant numbers and the fact that it is not autochthonous”. The Czech Republic is home to about three thousand Serbs who started to settle there in more considerable numbers in the early 1990s.
The ceremonial opening of the Serbian House was attended, among others, by the Serbian Ambassador to Prague, Maja Mitrovic, officials of the Czech Ministry of Culture and the City of Prague, the director of the film “Stolen Kosovo”, Vaclav Dvorak, and other renowned persons from the public, political and cultural life of Prague, as well as representatives of the Serbian community in the Czech Republic.
The Serbian House in Prague is a representative five-storey building in the centre of the city, covering an area of more than 1,400 square meters, which will house the Serbian Cultural Information Centre, the headquarters of St. Sava association and the offices of the magazine of the Serbian minority in the Czech Republic, “Serbian Word”. The Serbian House will contain a library, record library and collection of Serbian documentary and feature films and series.