An ornate Secession-style bank building rises to a triangular pediment with a round medallion window and iron finials along the roofline, its upper floor balconies carried on carved figures. A frieze across the facade reads Državna Hipotekarna Banka, with Glavna Filijala across the band below, and a banner hangs from one balcony rail. A small knot of pedestrians, including children, stands on the stone-paved street in front of the entrance.
About this place
The Novi Sad Savings Bank was founded in 1864 and is reckoned the oldest financial institution in Serbia; it became Novosadska banka, which joined the Erste group in 2005. Its house stood on the main square, called Franz Joseph Square under Austria-Hungary and Trg slobode today, next door to the Grand Hotel, and postcards sold the pair together under a double caption, Takarékpénztár és Grand Hotel in Hungarian and Sparkasse und Grand Hotel in German. The building was an eclectic palace with a giant order of columns running through the upper floors and a pedimented centre pierced by a round window, its own name cut across the entablature in Hungarian as Újvidéki Takarékpénztár, with shops at street level. György Molnár, who designed the Town Hall and the Catholic church on the same square, was elected the bank's general director in 1876; who designed its building is not recorded here.
On the card
ДРЖАВНА ХИПОТЕКАРНА БАНКА / ГЛАВНА ФИЛИЈАЛА
- Date
- 1930s
- Coordinates
- 45.25534, 19.84465
- Source
- Public online source
- Licence
- Public domain
- Size
- 440 × 719 px
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