Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj

Гимназија "Јован Јовановић Змај" Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Grammar School
Address
Zlatne Grede 4 Novi Sad Vojvodina, Serbia
Information
Type	Public
Established	1810
Enrollment	approx. 1,200
Yearbook	"Izveštaj Gimnazije Jovan Jovanović Zmaj"
Website	www.jjzmaj.edu.rs

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Grammar School (Serbian: Гимназија "Јован Јовановић Змај" or Gimnazija "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj") is a high school in Novi Sad, Serbia. It is named after Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, a Serb poet. It was founded in 1810 by a donation of a wealthy merchant Sava Vuković from Novi Sad.

The school was rebuilt in the 20th century, using the donations of baron Miloš Bajić who gave 20,000 forints.

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj High School in Novi Sad is one of the oldest cultural and educational institutions in Serbia. Through its three-century long existence it has become a proud treasurer of memories of educational development in our country.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century while Napoleon’s cannons were changing the political map of Europe, and Karadjordje’s rebels were fighting for Serbian independence, a prominent merchant from Novi Sad Sava Vuković of Beregsova, was thinking of leaving something permanent to remind his people of himself. On St. Sava’s Day 1810, blind and seriously ill, Vukovic donated 20 000 forints for foundation of a Serbian grammar school in Novi Sad.

However the story of secondary education in Novi Sad does not start with this generous gesture. Back in 1731, at the same spot where the modern building of the school stands, the bishop of Bačka Visaion Pavlović founded a school whose name was “Latino-Slavic Nativity of the Mother of God School”. Bishop Pavlović and the council of the Serbian Orthodox Church were deeply aware of the fact that only a good education in Latin can provide better future for Serbian people in Habsburg Monarchy. Among the best-known students of this school there were Joakim Vujić and Lukijan Mušicki, and the best-known teacher was Zaharije Orfelin. This school continued its work till 1789 when the Serbs from Novi Sad led by promises and reforms of the emperor Joseph II abolished this educational institution in order to make a grammar school for all religions in Novi Sad. For this noble purpose they gave the building and the whole inventory of the school. A fast crash of Joseph’s reforms, showed all the haste and imprudence of this gesture, since instead of the state grammar school for all religions in the orthodox part of Novi Sad, a Roman Catholic school was founded.

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