Old Podgorica: An open city of artists and bohemians

Back in the 1970s, the director of the Titograd Municipal Department told me that the residents of new buildings gave him more trouble with the cleanliness of the city than the residents of Staro Varoš, where the conditions for maintaining cleanliness were incomparably worse than those in new apartment blocks. Clearly; a world of urban mentality lives in Staro Varoš.

A famous Montenegrin architect warned Svetlana Kana Radevic, that there are many people who are meeting the city for the first time and have a hard time fitting in.

- However, not much is done in the city to accept and integrate them. The city structure must pulsate. It makes us happy or unhappy. We should not design cities where joy cannot move in! - said Kana.

And joy has long since moved into Podgorica's Stara Varoš...

Birziminijum, Ribnica, Podgorica, Titograd, Podgorica... And no one knows how it will continue.

Cities are born, grow and die, just like people. But, as the prominent Montenegrin writer said, Cedo Vuković, there are cities that do not die. They find within themselves the strength to survive wars and earthquakes, fires and the devastating blows of time, capable of renewal.

So is this city, on Ribnica and Morača, through which space and time are interwoven; it grew up on the canvas of a genius Petar Lubarda, from Roman chariots to modern buildings.

They wrote about Podgorica Evliya Çelebi, Simo Matavulj, Pavle Rovinski, Gavro Vuković, Đurđe Bošković, Pavle Mijović, Andrija Lainović, Ilija Zlatičanin...

By Ilija Zlatičanin, the city raised Haji Pasha, who was in a daze with the prince Markus from Momišić.

In the book "The Saga of Podgorica", Svetozar Piletić It reminds us of a folk legend that Markuš told Hadži-Paša to take a rooster, let it fly, and build a city where the rooster rested. The Paša listened to him, and the rooster rested at the mouth of the Ribnica and Morača rivers, and there the city was built...

Zlatičanin notes that “the place that stretches from Ribnica to the east of Podgorica is called Drpi. This name is lost when it comes to Dječević Before you reach the Đečević house, you will be met by a lonely Turkish house Hadži-Useinović", whose gate is from the corral on the Drpi hill, and whose house is under the hill."

The city grew. The high school officially began operating almost one hundred and twenty-five years ago, on September 29, 1907.

In the book "The Left Bank" Milan A. Raičević notes that the first graduates were Rade Cetkovic, Dusan Vlahovic, Masan Bulatovic, Mileta Maslovaric, Novak Boskovic, Radosav Dragovic, Vido Jablan, Milo Popovic, Bozo Vukmirovic, Miljan Vujisic, Svetozar Vojvodic, Mihailo Radovic, Scepan Arsovic, Novak Vuletic, Vladimir Mikic, Milisav Vucinic, Milosav Vasovic, Ljubomir Mijovic, Simo Perovic, Stevan Gosovic, Petar Martinovic, Djordje Brajovic and Aleksa Vugdelic.

The high school was also enthusiastically talked about by its professor. Cedomir Pejovic Pejkan (Do you remember Pejkan, always with a bow tie?).

As high school students, we also gathered at the barbershop of a Starovarošanin. Branko Mirković, a wonderful man, who loved football, socializing with Budža Vukotić, former football player of "Budućnost", youth representative of Yugoslavia.

- What makes this city beautiful is certainly its openness and warmth towards people - said my friend, journalist and poet Ratko Vujosevic.

We would often stop by Kuče, Ratko's hometown of Oravo, where his parents raised us. Radosav i The child welcomed with joy.

They would stop by, sometimes, at the old woman's inn. Release, across from the Osmanagić Mosque, where the bohemians of the Old Town gathered over a glass of brandy.

And Ratko Vujošević, a poet with a rich vocabulary, spoke in his iconic "Orevuar Montenegro". (MountainnEgro, tragic mountain, star in the black night breathed in... Montenegro, light, history...)

...White pants, white shirt. White pictures... Cvetko Lainović.

- For Cvetko, it can be said that even the crows are white to him. He does not float down the current of thought, because he cannot stand the spirit of stereotypes and the blindness of commonplaces - he said Prof. Dr. Ratko Božović, an excellent sociologist of culture.

I have in my hand the book “Colors of the Night”, with the dedication: “To Slobodan Vuković, as a sign of friendship - his professor Cvetko. April 1989.”

In the fall of 1957, at the Titograd “Slobodan Škerović” Gymnasium, I was taught drawing by the then twenty-three-year-old Cvetko, a painter, writer, and aphorist, born in Podgorica on April 6, 1931. (I am writing this in April. Please note: Cvetko was born in April, gave me books as gifts in April, died in April...).

He loved his native Podgorica, so he reacted vigorously to the collapse of the Old Town, said Cvetko's friend since the age of seven, a journalistic bard. Husein Ceno TuzovićCeno remembered that Cvetko was ahead of everyone in everything; the best student at the Podgorica Gymnasium.

For Cvetko, painting is a "divine thing." He used to say that a good painting is its own author. It paints itself, says Cvetko. It frames itself. It hangs itself on the wall...

From an early age, he was fond of drawing characters. His friends would force him to draw them, and he, as he told me, would just try to "guess" them.

- Although some classify me as an expressionist, I would rather call myself a portraitist, because my psychological expressionist paintings (the "Drunkards" and "Madonnas" series) are actually portraits that I made while remembering certain characters - Cvetko, from Staro Podgorica, told me.

And on his next book, “The Remains of Thoughts,” the dedication reads: “To Slobodan, my dear student - Cvetko. April 2002.”

The Old Town inspired painters, Velibor Bucka Radonjić, Zuvdija Hodžić, Dragoljub Bata Brajović, who often painted the mills of Ribnica.

From the late spring of 1979, Filip Jankovic i Ljubo Brajovic They created a series of paintings of the Old Town, painting the same motif, but each in their own way, from their own angle; resembling some artistic tandem not very common in our country.

Stara Varoš gave birth to noble, witty, cheerful people, as well as top-notch football players. It was a time when “Budućnost” was at the top of Yugoslav football, alongside the big four, “Partizan”, “Hajduk”, “Crvena zvezda”, and “Dinamo”.

Playing football in the neighborhoods of Starovar, the people of Brijeg, Tećija, Dračani, Satkulani hardened themselves, and then went to “Budućnost” by list.

The saying goes: "From the corner of Bijelić to Rog Ćerić". And on Brijeg Morača, who else will go to Ćerići, Catch, the speed of the killer blow; Gano, a virtuoso with the ball, a successful coach after finishing his playing career.

And only brothers Mirocević, Janko i Thin. One of the best Montenegrin footballers of all time, Tonko Miročević, played equally well in both heat and rain, finishing a very successful career in the English "Sheffield", the oldest football club in the world... Well, Miso Folić... An entire "starry flock" of Stari Varoš football masters.

“Budućnost” had intellectual footballers; Vucina Vasovic graduated from the Faculty of Law, received a doctorate and became a university professor. British center-half, Eng. Misko Popovic, was also a professor of descriptive geometry at the Technical High School, and Lazo Radovic, law graduate, After completing a brilliant football career, he became a successful representative of "Philips".

- Vučina and Lazo could have gotten from goal to goal in a match, with the ball, playing with their heads! - the Briječanin told me Ratko Rogošić.

Top football players were craftsmen from Starovar, an upholsterer Chaplain Mustagrudić and a tailor Peko Methadzovic.

I always remember a true anecdote from those times: before the match with Dinamo Zagreb, the then coach of Budućnost Vojin Bozovic Skoba, extremely responsible for many of the club's successes, talks to the players for a long time about the high qualities of "Dinamo".

- And do they fly, Vojin?! – Peko Methadžović interrupted him.

- Don't fly, Peko!

- Well, we can run to them too!

“Budućnost” then defeated “Dinamo”.

I Old Town resident Vojo Gardašević He was a great football player. “Budućnost” allowed its prominent football players to become coaches at the club after their playing careers ended. Unfortunately, Vojo Gardašević did not get such a chance.

However, he had a successful coaching career abroad. He was also the coach of the Iraqi national football team...

With the songs, "Sejdefu majka budila", "Šetajući pokraj Ljubovići", "Oj vesela veselilice", "Milica, jedna u majke"... the legendary old town was gilded Ksenija Cicvaric.

At the mention of Ksenija, I remembered; in the mid-seventies, a Montenegrin evening in the Belgrade restaurant “Skadarlija”. Montenegrin men and women got drunk. Ksenija Cicvarić sings. I was sitting with my colleagues and, as usually happens when the journalistic fraternity meets, we chatted, drank a little, not noticing that Ksenija sang the song “Milica, jedna u majke”.

At some point I went to Ksenija and asked her to sing "Milica".

- I sang it, sang it, son! - said Ksenija, gently stroking my face.

It seems to me that I can still feel her warm palm.

I passed through the old town square Dukes Bećir-beg Osmanagić, next to the Clock Tower, where my former interlocutors, the sculptor, were born Risto Stijović, filmmaker Nikola Popovic, painter Vojo Stanić.

To get to Vojo's birthplace, one had to go through Volat. And in Ristova's attic, there were a lot of tools and old weapons. His ancestors were involved in gunsmithing; they made Montenegrin suits. Risto observed everything and, as he told me, it aroused in him a sense of beauty.

- Today, when I'm older, I simply get emotional when I see patterns on a gusla, on a distaff, when I see embroidery, it excites me - Risto Stijović told me. From the streets of Starovar, he went to the great Paris, which accepted him as an artist...

Son of the famous Podgorica choirmaster Alekse Ivanovic, a Prague student, Cvjetko Ivanovic, composer and conductor, founded the Radio-Television Titograd Symphony Orchestra.

For a long time, it was believed, perhaps maliciously, that Montenegrins did not have sufficient predispositions for musical art!

But it's not like that.

- Even at the beginning of the 19th century, there was music and musicians in Podgorica and Montenegro. Several of my colleagues and I are searching for musical antiques. I find particular satisfaction in this work, especially since we are proving to many that their ideas about this type of activity in Montenegro are pure prejudice that borders on the kind of ignorance from which certain antagonisms arise - Cvjetko told me.

He visionarily advocated for the formation of a music academy in Montenegro, from which, he says, an Opera could one day emerge, without which one cannot speak of the fullness of musical breathing and existence...

And next to Volat, the Tuzović bakery; in it Notification, sister of my friend, journalist, history professor, football lover, good man, Husein Cena Tuzović.

We worked together for several years.

- Slobodan Vuković and I have never had a fight! - Ceno said.

With the departure of Cenov, it seemed as if the spirit of old Podgorica had also departed.