Zemun Gymnasium

The Zemun Gymnasium (Serbian: Земунска гимназија / Zemunska gimnazija) is one of the most prominent gymnasium in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in Belgrade’s Zemun municipality. Founded in 1858, it is Serbia's fift oldest gymnasium, after those in Sremski Karlovci (founded in 1791), Novi Sad (founded in 1810), Kragujevac (founded in 1833) and Šabac (founded in 1837) .

History

The Gymnasium was founded on September 23, 1858. It initially had only one grade and just 21 students. Zemun was then a part of the Austrian Empire that was to become Austria-Hungary, and the language of instruction was German. By 1872 the Gymnasium had four grades.

In 1883 it was decided that Serbian should be the language of instruction, and a year later, on the orders of the Government, girls were restricted to the first grade leading to the Gymnasium being solely for boys by 1887.

Due to the turbulent World War I events, the Gymnasium experienced a multitude of problems, and did not start functioning normally again until 1925. At that time it was also, once again, open for girls.

Today's Gymnasium has existed since 1958, after a merger with two smaller mixed schools created in 1946 after the liberation of Serbia & Yugoslavia from the Nazis by the Communist Partisans and the Red Army. In 2008, the gymnasium will celebrate its 150th anniversary.

The building

The Gymnasium building is located in Zemun’s Town Park (Serbian Cyrillic: Градски парк), nestled...
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