176 years of the Post of Serbia – historical and technological development in Belgrade and Serbia

Ljiljana Đorđević, curator of PTT Museum, will hold a lecture and presentation titled “176 years of the Post of Serbia – historical and technological development in Belgrade and Serbia“ on March 7 2016, at 18.00 hrs, in the Residence of Princess Ljubica, 8 Kneza Sime Markovića St, as pat of the Belgrade history lovers Panel, organized by Belgrade City Museum.
People have always had natural aspiration to connect with each other, to master space and time and thus improve the quality of life. The exchange of information, i.e. high and constant level of communication was necessary for such a purpose; their improvement brought a progress in culture and society as a whole.
The Post and postal services have been and remain one of the main intermediaries in the process of communication around the world.
Post of Serbia developed together with the development of the state of Serbia; the development of the Post depended on increase in population and literacy, and proper and effective functioning of a young state depended on the fast and accurate postal traffic.
In the 19th century, after gaining partial autonomy, Serbia began opening and developing all institutions necessary for the functioning of a state - schools, hospitals, printing houses, and among them, a postal institution, as equally important.
During those first decades, and later, Post of Serbia has contributed significantly to the industrialization and modernization of our country – by introducing telegraphic traffic in 1855, public postal transport for passengers in carriages in 1866 and by starting the public telephone traffic in 1899. Many decades have passed since the frits menzulans and post offices in 1840, that were predecessors of today’s modern buildings, and from the purchase of horses for mail transfer, through the introduction of coaches, then rail, marine, automobile and air transport, and Post of Serbia has always been in line with modern trends which involved fast, accurate and efficient service.
Since 1865 and its first purposely built post office building (next to Batal Mosque), Post of Serbia has built buildings that helped with their shape, size and space organization in increasing the productivity of postal, telegraphic and telephone services. Today, many of those buildings are cultural goods under state protection.
We will follow economic and cultural development of society and state through the story of the Post of Serbia, and also learn how the Post of Serbia has affected personal and social life of individuals by introducing new technologies.