The Museum of Vuk and Dositej, a memorial museum, is dedicated to the two great giants of Serbian culture, the Enlightenment and the first Serbian Minister of Education Dosite Obradovic and the reformer of the Serbian language, the creator of the Serbian literary language, Vuk Karadzic.
Older and richer is Vuk's collection. It was established at the end of the 19th century, when Vuk's daughter, Mina Karadzic-Vukomanovic, donated his legacy to the Kingdom of Serbia. This collection was the first of the collections of the National Museum, whose professional catalog was printed in its entirety. The description of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's item was published in 1900, after Mihajlo Valtrović professionally processed the material handed over to the National Museum. Vuk's legacy was exhibited at the National Museum within the Vuk Memorial Room and later within the Historical Department of the Museum. Part of the Vuk's legacy, especially furniture, disappeared or destroyed in 1915, when the building of the National Museum, as well as in the time of occupation, was hit during the Austrian bombardment of Belgrade. The collection includes the personal and family objects of Vuk Karadzic, portraits and art heritage, the first editions of his books and numerous archival materials.
Unlike Vuk's legacy, there are no personal items of Dositej Obradovic because they were destroyed in the fire in 1813. Therefore, a part of the museum collection that relates to it is mainly based on visual artwork, archival material, Dositejevih prepiski and books, among which are the first editions of his works.
Vuk's collection was separated from the National Museum Fund and was associated with the small inheritance of Dositej Obradovic in 1949, when a special museum was set up - the Museum of Vuk and Dositej, opened on February 28, 1949. He was assigned a building where for a time was a Great School, considering that Dositej Obradovic was one of her designers, while Vuk Karadzic was one of the first twenty students.
The museum building located in one of the oldest parts of Belgrade, together with the Bajrakli mosque and Šeih-Mustafa turbet, is an architectural testimony of the long-standing presence of Turkish rule in Belgrade. The museum is located in the oldest preserved residential building in Belgrade, which was erected in the first half of the 18th century, probably for the Belgrade defterdar (Turkish treasury manager). Architectural is a classic example of the Balkan style house - rectangular base, with erkeries in the exterior and the oriental split of the house and divanchamps in the interior. The house was very luxurious at the time and is one of the rare floor houses on Zejrek, as this part of the city was called in Turkish times. The courtyard of the house was once surrounded by a high wall, and today only its part is preserved, near the entrance gate. The house changed the purpose and the owners several times, and between 1809 and 1813, it was built by the Great School founded by Dositej Obradovic. This school represented the first higher educational institution in Serbia, which will later be developed into a university. Significant conservation and restoration works on this building were completed in 1948 and the original appearance was restored.
