With the liberation of Serbia from Turkish rule, and especially from the middle of the 19th century, more and more Czechs came to our region. They settle all over Serbia and with new occupations and skills contribute, like few newcomers, to industrial, sports and cultural development.
One of the first significant Czech newcomers, Dr. Herman August Meinert, contributed to the suppression of epidemics such as plague and cholera, and was the first head of the military health department of the Principality of Serbia. Also worth mentioning are the Czech architects Stojan Titelbach, Jan Dubovi, Jan Nevole or František Nekvasil, whose daughter Milada is married to the Slovak painter educated in Prague and the founder of the First Serbian Drawing and Painting School Kiril Kutlik. The Bajloni family, painters such as František Malog, as well as numerous musicians who were active in almost all places in Serbia - to mention only Josif Pokorny and Jan Buchtela - are of Czech origin. Finally, one of Ilija Garašanin's closest collaborators was the great pan-Slavist and military strategist František Aleksandar Zach.
Czech activities in Serbia were accompanied by the establishment of various associations, the most widespread of which was the Sokol movement, as well as a school. In recent times, an important role in culture was played by the writer Jara Ribnikar, as well as the painter and copyist Zdenka Živković, who is responsible for copying and preserving a huge number of Serbian medieval frescoes. Members of the Czech nationality accepted the new homeland, often the Orthodox faith, and in difficult war times were in the front lines.
In the history of architecture in Serbia, as well as in Novi Sad artistic circles, the name of Miroslav Krejčik was mentioned, but not much more than that. Although he was known as a successful architect, little is known about his design work. His name can be found in the aviation history of the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although he never flew as part of a military formation. The only area in which his activities can be documented is his membership in the 1300 Corporal Company, and the memory of those days is evoked through Krejcik's activities in the First World War Volunteer Association, as well as his promotion to higher ranks in the military reserve. Also, data on decorations testify to war merits, but these have not been physically preserved either.
This is how we come to the story of a brawler without a job, a pilot without an airplane, in which a series of details nevertheless testify to a dynamic and rich life. Finally, important for getting to know the fate of members of the Czech nationality in our region.
Father Jaroslav (1864–1927), a woodcarver, belongs to the generation of newcomers whose craft and artistic skills were welcomed in Belgrade. Until the Balkan wars, he also ran the Serbian woodcarving school, which his son Miroslav also attended at the same time as the gymnasium. Miroslav Krejčik interrupted his technical studies in Prague due to the outbreak of the First World War.
In September 1914, he joined the legendary group of 1300 corporals. As a member of the infantry regiment "Car Lazar" (Kruševački), he participated in many difficult battles. Commanding a company, he was wounded in an assault and then arrived in Corfu via Albania. For his heroic demeanor in battles, he was awarded the Miloš Obilić Gold Medal for Courage, the Order of the White Eagle IV degree, as well as the Albanian Monument.
...Milo Milunović, portrait of Miroslav Krejčik
In June 1917, he traveled on the steamship "Pompea" for pilot training in France, in the town of Crotois. He did not participate in air military operations due to an injury during a training flight. In France, as a scholarship holder of the Serbian government, he continued his studies at the prestigious High School of Architecture and specialized in interior architecture. In addition to important French architects, the lectures were also held by great connoisseurs of Byzantine art, Charles Diehl and Gabriel Mieu. After completing his studies, he stayed in Paris until 1925. There is no doubt that he also moved in the circles of students from these regions, as evidenced by his portrait, the work of Milo Milunović, judging by the style of performance painted no later than 1919, when Milunović's painting becomes less expressive and closer to neoclassicism.
Krejčik's stay and work in Paris was marked by the design of the SHS Kingdom pavilion for the "International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Art" in 1925. "The pavilion project of our young talented architect Miroslav Krejčik was accepted and thus our pavilion will be a work of modern, completely modern architecture. The decorative side of the pavilion was entrusted to our young decorative painter Dušan Janković, who has perhaps the most talent and originality among Yugoslav decorative artists. And what will be in it? We'll see in April... And this attempt at the exhibition will be of interest for later work on building our common style. Indeed, just as this exhibition should be a stimulus for new art in the world, so let this pavilion be a stimulus for our new architecture", wrote "Ilustrovani list" about it in early 1925.
Krejčik complemented the cubic structure with clear lines, which imitates the architecture of Macedonia, with a porch with carved columns that are reminiscent of folk architecture in Šumadija, and with the appearance of the entrance, he interpreted the architecture of Dubrovnik and Bosnia. The exterior of the building reflects the style of Balkan architecture, and the interior was illuminated with zenith lighting (glass roof), to allow free walls in the interior.
The problem arose when the Organizing Committee of the Exhibition rejected the project for the Pavilion. "With Plečnik and Meštrović, we could represent ourselves in Paris in a way that would be not only European, but also originally Yugoslav," commented Kosta Strajnić at the time. At the last minute, the pavilion was built according to the project of the Croatian architect Stjepan Hribar, and Krejčik participated in the realization of the exhibition, as an assistant to the main organizer Branko Tanazević.
At the time of his return from Paris, Belgrade is the capital of a united state on the rise. In the general post-war euphoria, there is a noticeable desire for a city with still strong oriental traditions to grow into a modern metropolis, with new urban rappers, new residential areas with modern villas whose interiors are characterized by furniture and fabrics of appropriate design, and numerous works of art. Miroslav Krejčik responded to the demands of the new era by opening his own architectural Atelier Krejčik - an authorized company for the design and execution of all interior works of architecture, furniture and decoration. Since 1932, the studio was located at the location where Krejčik lived, at Kralja Zvonimir No. 27. "He furnished a large number of institutions and public spaces to order, showing a sense of beauty and functionality. He received several international awards for his works, with which he also appeared at rare domestic manifestations of applied art," we learn from family sources, while material traces are insignificant.
Although Krejcik's profession of "architect" was mentioned on almost every occasion, he is talked about in public mainly in terms of his military merits.
In Belgrade, until the beginning of the Second World War, he was a member of the reserve military staff. He is an active participant in the work of the Sokol Society, as well as the Association of Volunteers from the Wars of 1912–1918, where he was elected president in 1936. Together with other prominent figures (Đoka Jovanović, Živorad Nastasijević, Veljko Stanojević, Predrag Karalić and others) he was a member of the jury of the competition for erecting a monument in Skopje in honor of the fallen student-sergeants, when the work of the sculptor Petar Palavičini was chosen as the winning solution.
The beginning of the Second World War found him in the rank of reserve lieutenant colonel. He was captured as an officer of the Kingdom. He managed to escape to Switzerland, and then his journey took him to France, where he joined the Resistance Movement. Again without written sources, relying on the memory of the family, we learn that during his military activities, due to his red hair, he acquired the nickname Colonel Rouge, as well as the National Order of the Legion of Honor.
After the war, he moved to Sombor, the birthplace of his wife Olga, and began cooperation with the District National Theatre. The theater was opened on September 7, 1946 with a play Platon Krechet, by Aleksandar Kornejčuk, for which the scenography was created by Miroslav Krejčik and the painter Ivan Jakobčič. Also, on October 13, Krejcik appears as the set designer of the play Somewhere in Moscow Vladimir Z. Mas and Mihail Chervinski. For a time, he was also employed as the director of a construction company in Apatin, but he soon left the position, dissatisfied with the unprofessional workforce and the impossibility of procuring quality construction materials.
At the invitation of the Executive Council of Vojvodina, in 1950 he moved to Novi Sad, where he got accommodation in a shared apartment at Vase Stajića Street 1a. He is employed as a teacher at the School of Applied Arts, today's "Bogdan Šuput" School of Design. The proposal to name the school after the great Novi Sad painter Bogdan Suput came from Miroslav Krejčik. "Professor Miroslav Krejčik worked at the same school until his retirement in 1969. He taught ornamentation, theater painting, style furniture and interior architecture. He was the head of the theater department. He will be remembered as a great pedagogue, a tolerant and elegant gentleman, with fine manners, above all benevolent, kind and cheerful, an intellectual of European education, always ready to help and teach. He really tried to pass on his knowledge, great creative experience and views on art", wrote Vera Jovanović.
A short set design practice and later pedagogical work contributed to Krejčik appearing as the curator of the Yugoslav selection and the architect of the installation at the First Prague Quadrennial of Theater Design and Architecture in 1967, organized under the patronage of the Sterija Theatre. The exhibition at the Quadrennial included scenographic solutions, costume sketches and posters of theater performances from all the main theater stages in Yugoslavia, with 29 authors, among whom were the most important scenographic names. The quadrennial took place in a year when relations between Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic were still fragile after almost two decades of hiatus, so it is likely that Krejcik's Czech background and knowledge of the language, perhaps also connections from his studies, contributed to him being entrusted with this undertaking.
Also, in 1953, Miroslav Krejčik participated in the founding of the Association of Fine and Applied Artists of Serbia (ULUPUS), as well as in the establishment of the ULUPUS Branch for Vojvodina in May 1957, of which he was the first president. He was also involved in the design of smaller buildings in Novi Sad and its surroundings, but only two mountain lodges can be singled out as his work - on Zmajevac (1961) and Popovica (1968), as well as one vineyard cottage (1968). The blueprints for these buildings were preserved thanks to the architect Sava Forkapić, who, after Krejčik's death, literally picked them up from the garbage dump, as well as several personal items.
The research on Miroslav Krejčik as a descendant of Czech immigrants to Serbia, but also a respected member of society, in order to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, led to the creation of some kind of picture of his personality and activities, but with many gaps, especially when it comes to his professional involvement. There is hope that more details will be discovered over time that would fill the mentioned gaps and properly illuminate the personality and work of the architect Miroslav Krejčik.
