By: Jasmina Trajkov, museum advisor
Saša Rakezić alias Aleksandar Zograf, our well-known comic author, with whom the Regional Museum cooperated last year, donated us a valuable picture postcard that will significantly enrich the museum’s collection. It is a item from the end of the first decade of the last century, by the Belgrade publishers Rajković and Ćuković, on which the motif is a memorial fountain and part of the park in Aračlijski potok.
Aračlijski potok was once the estate of Atanasije Ivanović–Tasa Aračlija (1799–1896), one of the most significant figures of Jagodina’s past. He was the head of Prince Miloš Obrenović’s personal bodyguard, and then a tax collector. His wife Sofija, with whom he had a daughter Jelena and sons Petar and Stevan, grew up with the daughters of Jevrem Obrenović, the brother of Prince Miloš, and received an excellent upbringing and education with them. She married Tasa on the recommendation of Jevrem Obrenović himself.
In 1902, Tasa’s son Stevan Ivanović donated the family estate on Đurđeva brdo to the municipality of Jagodina in memory of his family. As a sign of gratitude, the municipality erected a memorial fountain in 1904 with a memorial inscription mentioning members of the Ivanović family and thanking the donor. Also, the municipality undertook to arrange a park here and to officially name it “Aračlijski potok” in memory of the former owner. A summer house and a tavern were also built here.
The postcard that the Museum received as a gift was issued shortly after the park was decorated and is a valuable document about the appearance of this popular picnic spot for the people of Jagodina and a place that all tourists and guests of our city must visit.
We would like to express our warmest thanks to Mr. Rakezić for his cooperation so far and for this significant gift.
