Anchoring Points

ARCHIVE OF THE SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS IN SREMSKI KARLOVCI
Modern Age Memorabilia
Just as Dubrovnik, Chilandar and Constantinople archives are for Middle Ages, this Archive in Sremski Karlovci is one of the pillars of Serbian modern age history. Managed by exquisite historian and writer Žarko Dimić, PhD, it keeps the archive of patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević, archives of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, Magistrate, Gymnasium, most part of documents of the Diocese of Dalmatia… as well as many private legacies. It is defending us from our own oblivion. The great endeavor of organizing and digitalization of this voluminous material, consisting of more than three million documents, 48 funds and numerous smaller collections, is currently in progress

By: Zorica Todorović Mirković
Photo: Branislav Lučić

In the wonderful building of the ”St. Arsenije of Srem” Seminary on Branko Radičević Square stands the Archive of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Sremski Karlovci. At first glance, the visitor is struck by the appearance of three hundred square meters of the Archive, with flickering lights, gray, and in a bad condition. The gloomy picture soon disappears, overshadowed by the richness of the most important Serbian treasury of modern age documents. The archive stores more than three million documents, disposes with 48 funds and numerous valuable collections. Since recently, it also includes the Audio-Visual Archive with a Digitalization Center.
– When observing the value and importance of archives in the Serbian nation and Serbian history, two are certainly most important: the Archive of Dubrovnik, with a legacy of Serbian medieval history, and the first modern age archive, here in Sremski Karlovci, founded by Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević in 1690, immediately after the Great Migration of Serbs – says Žarko Dimić, PhD, director of the SANU Archive in Sremski Karlovci, for National Review.
Serbs who have arrived with Čarnojević were greeted by their fellow countrymen; they accepted them and found a common language. They soon became engaged in commerce and trade, but, at the same time, most of them were soldiers of Austro-Hungary.
Patriarch Čarnojević was a wise man and he had his own archive in which he kept his diplomatic correspondence with the Austrian emperor, the Catholic Church and representatives of Hungarian aristocracy, Venetians, Russians… This archive with medieval decrees, brought across the Sava and the Danube, considered the beginning of the Archive in Sremski Karlovci, originates from that period.

CONCEPTIONS AND SUFFERINGS

On the break of centuries, a modern age archive was created. From the Middle Ages and from ”Turkish times”. Serbs transferred to the Habsburg Monarchy, to modern age. Unfortunately, most of the brought medieval decrees were robbed and disappeared in time. A small part of them is kept in the Serbian Patriarchy in Belgrade, including the Privilege granted to Serbs by Emperor Leopold I.
The heart of the Archive is in Sremski Karlovci – documents about the political, religious, cultural and artistic life of Serbian people in the Habsburg Monarchy. This town was the capital of the Serbian nation in an immense Catholic state. Each document about the life of Serbs from that period was carefully archived and stored, but not preserved. The Archive had suffered great damage several times, the severest during the World War II occupation and Croatian terror. The Croatian Ustashas took one of the richest and most important Serbian libraries, the Metropolitanate-Patriarchy library, from the Patriarchy Palace to Zagreb. A part of what hadn’t been destroyed was returned to Belgrade after the war.
In order to prevent the destruction which continued under the communist regime after the war, a group of self-aware people from Karlovci asked the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade for help, which resulted in placing the Archive in Sremski Karlovci under state protection. Almost at the same time, in 1949, the Serbian Orthodox Church Synod gave SANU to manage and use the church archive material. The eighth decade of that valuable cooperation between the Church and the Academy is currently in progress.
This Serbian treasury of history, we can openly say, is also important for neighboring countries and nations. It stores data about the Romanian Orthodox Church, Romanian, Hungarian, Croatian and other nations. There is a fund dedicated to the Serbian national movement and revolution from 1848–1849. It keeps the Magistrate and City archives, archive of the Gymnasium, several private archives (most of them belonging to rich and famous lawyer families), as well as the Archive of the Consistory.

ARCHIVES, CORNERSTONES OF NATIONS

The Archive in Sremski Karlovci stores a large collection of letters of craftsmen and craftsmen assistants, a guild collection depicting the local development of crafts in the XVIII and XIX centuries. The collection includes about two hundred documents. Craftsmen and their assistants traveled throughout the Habsburg Monarchy and Central Europe, where they sent letters from, small works of art with beautiful etchings and vedutas of cities they visited.
A valuable collection of decrees from the Karlovci Archive was gone for a long time; it was brought back from Vienna thanks to Dejan Medaković, academician, and Slavko Gavrilović, who returned part of the stolen treasure.
– We trust that European countries will find strength and return the material taken from here, that they will return what doesn’t belong to them – says Žarko Dimić, PhD. – Digitalization systems can resolve that problem to mutual satisfaction, because the archive material will be accessible to everyone. And it is important to return the original documents to Serbia, where they initially belong.
We cannot find answers to many crucial questions without good archives, which gives particular significance to such institutions. The survival and lasting of a nation, its history, cannot be credible without proof to support it. Just imagine how much more complete our knowledge about golden Serbian medieval times would be if archives from that period were preserved! They were destroyed by invaders, later occupiers, probably also in mutual fights, so Serbian historiography studying the Middle Ages can today rely on several points only: the Archive in Dubrovnik, Turkish archives in Istanbul, Chilandar and a few more monasteries.
It's different with modern age history. Historians who follow events from, let’s say Metropolitan Pavle Nenadović, Stefan Stratimirović, to Patriarch Georgije Branković and Lukijan Bogdanović, have proof about how the people fought for every day, for life, for survival. What problems Serbian people faced, what they ate, how they obtained means of living. In one period, in the 1750s, Serbs were among the richest people in the new monarchy they found themselves in. (...)
That is what archives speak about. That is why they are cornerstones of every nation. The SANU Archive in Sremski Karlovci is also a guard of valuable material, priceless treasure, especially today, in a time of rewriting history in accordance with political power centers’ agendas.
– That is why I invest effort in publishing, digitalizing, preserving as much as possible – emphasizes Mr. Dimić. – Paper has an expiration date, and even micro-films, which we used before, are also subject to perishing and must be renewed. Now we have the possibility to preserve archive material in a contemporary and safe way, in digital form. The record from the May Assembly in Sremski Karlovci, when Serbs proclaimed Serbian Vojvodina inside of Austro-Hungary in 1848, is one of the 55.000 documents we have digitalized up to now.

DOCUMENTS FOR GETTING SERIOUS

The Archive also stores proof about the life and work of many famous people who are part of this important city. One of them is Zaharije Orfelin, owner for the first copperplate workshop and first printing house, where forms and documents for the church were printed. As secretary of Metropolitan Nenadović, he kept his books and accounting records. We can see, for example, the price of rent of the Kovilj Marsh for hunting and fishing purposes, or for cutting wood…
Orfelin left a trace both as writer and poet. He is author of the book Experienced Cellar Owner, richly illustrated and important in Serbian winegrowing even today.
The Archive depots keep the entire history of Sremski Karlovci, including the first censuses. This is where the history of Fruška Gora monasteries is stored, with corrected and amended geographic maps, their land estates enlisted… Many archives were saved from Serbian monasteries and churches in Croatia. Transferred to this Archive, those documents were undisputable proof which forced Croatians to return the robbed Serbian land estates.
There was a risk of Croatia appropriating the bermet brand, aromatized sweet wine from Karlovci, however the Archive keeps proof about the origins of this famous wine, which thwarted their intentions. Žarko Dimić, PhD, director of the Archive, tireless researcher of history, found a valuable document which resolved the unknown about who brought ausbruch to Karlovci, a wine with a particular aroma, even more famous than bermet. Thanks to a travelogue written by Carlo Rimi (or Rumi), director of the Gymnasium at the time of Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović, it was discovered that ausbruch was produced in the Metropolitanate Palace. In the Viennese newspaper from 1825, Rimi writes that his Viennese friends asked him to bring ausbruch from Karlovci, but that he cannot satisfy their request. He does not how and where to find that wine. It is not produced by civilians, he said, it is only kept in the Metropolitanate Palace.
Following the trace, a document was found testifying that ausbruch, aristocratic golden-yellow wine, was first produced in the Metropolitanate Palace by Slovakian aristocrat Pavle Benicky, secretary of the Metropolitanate. A very reputable man, expert in viticulture and wine production. He kept the recipe with great care, but our people, with their famous wits, managed to uncover the secret. A few years later, many families from Karlovci were, besides bermet, producing ausbruch as well.These wines, sweet as honey, gained worldwide reputation and found their place in imperial palaces. Today they are the trademark of Karlovci vineyards and winegrowers, who produce them each under their own name and additionally refine them according to their own ”secret recipe”.
This is just a small part of proof that the SANU Archive in Sremski Karlovci is an enormous treasury of testimonies and documents, without which it would be difficult to understand Serbian modern age history and our contemporary times.

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Patriarch
Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević was fully aware of the importance of archives and preserving documents. In order not to miss anything, the Patriarch hired two archivists in Karlovci – one kept his correspondence in German and the other in Serbian language. Already during negotiations about the Peace of Karlovci, he found Vladimir Bogdanović Voznitsin, representative of Russian Tzar Peter the Great. The imperial emissary had contacts with Serbs at the time, and even tried to promote their interests. Traces about it are also kept in the Patriarch’s archive.

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Traces
We can find much about many activities of famous people from documents kept in the Karlovci Archive, such as metropolitans or famous Zaharije Orfelin (1726–1785). ”Documents include texts written by people of different vocations, in Serbian (and its older versions), German, Latin, Russo-Slavonic, Hungarian, Romanian and other European languages. The writings include pleas, complaints, reports, memos, records, agreements, wills, censuses…”

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Continuity
The communist authorities which came after the Croatian occupation in World War II, continued destroying the spaces and material of the Archive. They burned valuable documents and used them as fuel. The destruction was stopped by a few professors from Karlovci, Kosta Petrović and Miki Jakovljević. Together with a small group of people from Karlovci, they saved what had remained.

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Signatures
Depots of the Archive store the biggest collection of signatures. Signatures of Mary Therese, the most powerful woman of the Habsburg Dynasty, were eternalized in decrees about founding guilds. Besides them, an extraordinary collection of imperial decrees is kept here. Signatures of all Austrian emperors, all metropolitans and patriarchs of Karlovci, as well as a decree signed by Russian Empress Katarina the Great, are archived here.