SERBIAN MEDICAL SOCIETY’S MUSEUM OF SERBIAN MEDICINE

Abstract

The tradition of collecting objects related to medicine and health care in Serbia is 162 years old. It began in 1844 with the founding of the Museum of Rarities at the Military Hospital in Belgrade. 1872 saw the foundation of the first Serbian professional association, Serbian Medical Society, initiated by a young physician Vladan Đorđević. The Society’s collection dates from the same year, and mainly consisted of pathoanatomical macroscopic preparations, looked after by Dr Josif Pančić, a naturalist of European reputation. The Serbian Medical Society’s Museum of Serbian Medicine was founded on 6 November 1955, within the Department of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy, chaired by an eminent historian of medicine, Professor Vladimir Stanojević. This standing exhibition had the aim to present the development of Serbian medicine from the Middle Ages to the end of the Second World War. Since 1989, Serbian Medical Society and its Museum have moved to the building of the First City Hospital, a beautiful Belgrade building of the 19th century built between 1865 and 1868.