Serbian Cultural Garden

Address:
780 Martin Luther King Blvd.
Dedication Date:
2008

History & Design:

The Serbian Garden was dedicated on October 5, 2008, and features a central plaza terrace, which includes a symbolic cube of a Serbian crest and a raised circular concrete seating area inscribed with the motto, “Only Unity Saves the Serbs.”  A pebble mosaic path surrounds the cube.  It is a reproduction of mosaics found at the Hilandar Monastery in Greece and at the Patriarchate of Pec and Zica Monasteries in Serbia.  A bronze icon of St. Sava, patron saint of the Serbian people, was dedicated in the garden’s central terrace on September 9, 2009.

Statuary/Busts/Reliefs/Monuments:

A trail meanders south from the plaza, parallel to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and ends at another plaza. This part of the garden has busts depicting Serbian icons, including inventor, engineer and genius Nikola Tesla;  Mileva Marić, brilliant physicist and mathematician and wife of Albert Einstein; Novak Djoković a great tennis player and humanitarian; Jovan Dučić, renowned poet, academic diplomat and patriot; and Desanka Maksimovich, Serbian poet and writer and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The garden includes other busts featuring notables such as King Peter I, liberator of the Serbian people; Mihajlo Pupin, extraordinary scientist; poet Petar Petrović Njegoš, an Orthodox Prince-Bishop and ruler of Montenegro; Stevan Mokranjac, composer; Vuk Karadžić, author of the first Serbian dictionary and chronicler of Serbian folklore; Milutin Milanković, a world renowned Serbian scientist; and Nadežda Petrović, most important female Serbian painter of the 20th century.

In 2022, a memorial plaque was dedicated in honor of George Victor Voinovich, who was born of Serbian and Slovenian descent.  Mr. Voinovich spent more than 46 years in public service—first as assistant attorney general of Ohio in 1963, mayor of Cleveland, governor of Ohio from 1991 to 1998 and as the senior U.S. senator from Ohio.

Additional Information:

Originally, the republics of Serbia and Croatia were joined with Slovenia in the 1932 Yugoslav Garden. After the 1991 breakup of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Garden was rededicated to Slovenia. The bust of Njegos, which had been in the original garden, was moved to the newly dedicated Serbian Garden in 2008.

Map: