The Museum in Prijepolje, as a fortress of cultural and historical heritage, actively implements various projects that contribute to the preservation, presentation and improvement of the cultural treasures of this region.
Through exhibitions, educational programs, digitization, and contemporary interactive content, the Museum modernizes how the past is brought closer to fellow citizens and museum visitors.
European Heritage Days
The author’s project of the director of the Museum in Prijepolje, Slavoljub Pušica, on the occasion of the central event „European Heritage Days“ for 2009, presented the organization of significant exhibitions: the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, the Museum of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka, the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje, an exhibition of photographs of UNESCO sites in Southeast Europe, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Belgrade, an exhibition of ancient archaeological material from the Museum in Prijepolje, which on this occasion represents the Republic of Serbia, and an exhibition of the oldest photographs of Prijepolje and the Catholic Church from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, set up in the Catholic Church in Prijepolje.
The central event „European Heritage Days“ for Serbia was held from 11 to 13 September 2009 with the participation of the national museum institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, the ministers of culture of those countries, ambassadors of five European countries and a significant number of public and cultural workers from Zagreb, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Cetinje, Belgrade, Niš and other cities in Serbia.
For the first time in the museology of Serbia and the Western Balkans, six exhibitions were opened in one museum in one evening, which attracted special public attention.
Conservation of the Quran
In the immediate vicinity of the Mileševa Monastery, in the mosque in Hisardžik, for years there was an Islamic holy book – the Quran, over 300 years old.
This oldest Islamic holy book from these areas was about to be destroyed because of carelessness. Since it is a very valuable manuscript, it was essential to preserve it. With the enormous commitment of the former director of the Prijepolje Museum, Slavoljub Pušica, and with the consent of the Islamic Community of Prijepolje, the conservation of this valuable book was entrusted to the National Library of Serbia.
The complex and long-lasting conservation treatment was completed in 2006, when the Quran was exhibited in the Gallery of the Museum in Prijepolje, as the only exhibit at the „Exhibition of One Book“. The exhibition attracted enormous interest, and it was subsequently returned to the mosque in Hisardžik, where it is still kept as a valuable relic of the Islamic culture of Central Polimlje.
*The mosque in Hisardzik dates back to the 16th century and places and preserves a 400-year-old Quran. This Quran was long believed to be 300 years old because its first page reads “1,116 AH” (1,706 AD). Also, recent research by experts from the National Library in Belgrade has proven that this heritage is 400 years old.
Mileševo printing
On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Mileševo Printing House, the Museum organized an exhibition in November 1994 entitled „Mileševo Printing House 1544 – 1557“, authored by Katarina Mano-Zisi, an archeographer and advisor at the National Library of Serbia.
In the showcases of the Prijepolje Museum, twelve books were found that were printed in the Mileseva Printing Institution. They are located at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the National Library of Serbia, the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Matica Srpska in Novi Sad.
The exhibition was opened with a speech by Prof. Dr. Sreten Petković, and the program included actress Ljiljana Blagojević and the singing group „Zlatiborska vila“ from Užice. On the occasion of the significant anniversary of printing, a spiritual academy was held in the church of the Mileševa Monastery, the cradle of books and one of the oldest printing institutions in Serbia.
„The night between November 12th and 13th, 1994 in Prijepolje. After 450 years of this wonderful book, witnesses of our culture are returning to their city. I am happy and proud to spend hours with them and become part of beautiful history.“
*Program participant, actress Ljiljana Blagojević
wrote in the catalog attending the exhibition
„Mileševo Printing 1544 – 155“
Reconstruction of Jusović tower
In the territory of the Prijepolje municipality and the wider Middle Polimlje region, no other destroyed Islamic monuments have been identified.
Accordingly, in 1999, the Museum in Prijepolje raised the issue of protecting this monument, recognizing its significance for both Islamic culture and cultural heritage as a whole. After receiving confirmation from the Islamic community and the Kraljevo Monument Protection Institute, the Museum organized archaeological work on the tower.
These are the remains of a former residential and defensive tower, to which the legend is connected that three brothers built three towers, including the Jusović Tower. The building, which is only partially preserved, was built of shale in the lower zone and mudbrick in the upper zone.
Archaeological work at the Jusović Tower site was conducted in July 2006 under the leadership of Dr. Marko Popović. Following the completion of these excavations, an expert team was assembled, consisting of Dr. Marko Popović, architect Vesna Marinković from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Kraljevo, and Slavoljub Pušica, director of the Museum in Prijepolje. The team took on the task of developing the Conceptual Design, which would serve as the foundation for the Main Project aimed at the reconstruction of Jusović Tower. This initiative set the stage for the restoration and preservation of this significant monument of Islamic culture.
Pester Plateau monasticism
Cave churches and settlements represent a unique and important form of Serbian spiritual and monumental heritage of the Middle Ages, but also of later periods. Built-in difficult-to-access, rugged areas, remote from the world, and communication were not the subjects of scientific research until this project was launched in 2000.
The Museum in Prijepolje initiated the project in cooperation with the Institute of Balkanology and Archaeology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. This significant multi-year research was led by an expert team consisting of Dr. Danica Popović, author of the project, Dr. Marko Popović, research participant, and Slavoljub Pušica, organizer and participant of the research.
The research covered Upper Polimlje, the entire course of the River Lim from its source below mountain Prokletije in Montenegro, through the oldest Mileševo hermitages of Saint Sava in Middle Polimlje in Serbia, all the way to Lower Polimlje and the confluence of the river Lim with the Drina, in the territory of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During those ten years of research, hermitages mentioned in historical sources and those we found during terrain reconnaissance, whose existence was previously unknown, were reconnoitered and explored. It is important to emphasize that the Mileševo hermitages (religious retreat), the hermitages in Tifrano and Paklena, as well as the Dobruna hermitage, were conquered with the involvement of the greatest mountaineering, without whose help we would not have been able to obtain complete information on their internal architecture, furnishings, and appearance.
Some of the museum’s key projects are highlighted here. For more information, please visit the museum’s website.