| 61 highly valued throughout their lives, both in their local environment and internationally, andwho are – according to all parameters – among the most respected intellectuals in the modern history of Serbia. Mika Alas lived at this address from birth to death. Initially schooled in Belgrade, hewent on to complete post-graduate studies of physics and mathematics in Paris. He then returned to the city of his birth andbecame a university professor, a founder of the Belgrade School of Mathematics, one of the country’s youngest academics, a travelwriter, tavernmusicianand famous angler. He was a man with a rich mind and rare modesty. Extremely highly appreciated in intellectual circles, he was also a favourite among the people of the “ordinary”world, especially the shermen with whom he spent his entire life. Živojin Perić was born in the area around Obrenovac and relocated to KosančićevVenac in1895, onlydepartingduringWorldWar II. He receivedhisPh.D. in law in Paris, then returned to Serbia and spent several decades working at theUniversity of Belgrade Faculty of Law, while he also lectured in international lawat the Hague Academy. His exceptional results in that domain also led to him receiving an honorary doctorate fromthe Faculty of Law in Lyon. One of Europe’s most respected legal professionals, he was an original, versatile and very productive thinker. Alongsidehis scienti c andeducational work, he also engaged actively in politics. Both of them spent a lot of time at their home inKosančićevVenac.Theyboth lived and worked there, and the Belgrade gossipers of the time said that half of Serbia’s intelligentsia lived in that house. Although the balcony is beautiful, the two of them certainly didn’t merely enjoy the viewinsilence. Butwecanonlyguesswhat they discussed. The house’s entrance hall contained statues of Napoleon and Pascal, so they almost certainly sometimes discussed the successes of the genius that was this military commander and famous ruler of France, andPascal’s gifts to theworld’s history of philosophy and science, as well as his famouswager relating to the existence of God... Did they also discuss Perić’s unshakeable principles that prevented him from engaging in the political life of the time? Probably. And was Alas’s then absolutely unacceptable love lifementioned in their conversations? Probablynot. However, I imagine that they discussed Perić’s homeland,whichhe loved in nitely,Mika’s travels, the events that shook the Serbia of the time, political crises, poverty, wars… If you pass Kosančićev Venac today, you won’t see these two professors walking or talking on the balcony, but you’ll certainly notice the tracks that they left there.You’ll alsosee the tracesof thewaves of Belgrade’s rivers and the lines that fuse themodernwith the traditional, east with west, the ordinary with the elite. So, be sure to pass by... Odavde je na reku svakodnevno gledao najpoznatiji profesor matematike Mika Alas From here Serbia’s most famous professor of mathematics, Mika Alas, watched the river pass every day
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzExMjc5