Reference Type:  Journal Article
Author: Milankov, Vladimir
Year: 2006
Title: Sava Arsic, gradonarecnik aradski
Translated Title: [Sava Arsic, primarul Aradului — Sava Arsic, The Mayor of Arad /Arsics Sava, Arad polgármestere]
Journal: Temišvarski zbornik
Volume: 4/2006
Pages: 63-77
Language: Serbian
Keywords: Serbian, political science, history, biography
Abstract: (ENG) Arad was not such an attractive place when — at the beginning of the 19th century — its Mayor Sava Arsiã married for the second time. He was 16 years older than his beautiful wife Eustahija, the widow Radovanoviã, the first Serbian female writer. He was born on May 5, and was baptized twenty days later, on May 25, 1760. His parents, Petar and Alka, the citizens of Arad, also had a younger son Gavrilo and three younger daughters: Eufemija, Eutanazija and Julijana. Sava went to an elementary school in Arad, then his father sent him to Szeged, to learn the tailor's craft and Hungarian language, because there were few Hungarians in Arad at the time, so that language was almost impossible to hear. While staying with his master craftsman, the young apprentice also learnt Latin grammar — from an instructor who came to the house and gave additional classes to the master's sons — so Sava returned to Arad both as a skilled craftsman and a learned young man. He married a Terezia and with her got a daughter Marija on May 3, 1782. Sava soon began to stand out among his cocitizens as a benefactor, too. In 1791, during the completion of the construction of the Arad Church of Saint John the Forerunner — which served as a cathedral temple — he gave his own transportation, wine and food, and he himself endeavoured day and night to achieve full completion of the “edifice" till the feast day Dormition of the Theotokos. He was a close friend with many respectable families, including also the family of Georgije Jankoviã, whose son, Gavra, the future great benefactor of The Serbian National Theatre, was baptized by his daughter Marija on April 11, 1793. Thus he inspired affinity and confidence among his co-citizens, who entrusted him the most responsible positions in the town. In his Diary, in 1796, Tekelija mentioned him as a town captain who commanded 50 uniformed men, then he was a senator,
and several years later he would be elected the Mayor. He married Eustahija about 1809; since it was her third marriage, she knew that she would not have any offspring, but they had something else in common — they both liked books and appreciated education of the people. This helped Uroš Nestoroviã when he, in 1812, was completing the preparations for the opening of the Wallachian Teaching College in Arad. Then the Mayor Arsic gave his house called Košutina Glava (A Female Deer's Head) to locate the school there; he paid for its adaptation with his own money, also bought some school furniture and provided wood for heating in the coming winter. Moreover, he divided 24 acres of his arable land among the six town teachers, regardless of their religious and national affiliation, to make their life easier, so that they did not have to think at least about their daily bread. Soon it became obviuos that Košutina Glava was inadequate, so Sava Arsiã rented a more suitable building and paid for it the annual rent of 500 florins with his own money. Because of these merits, Uroš Nestoroviã appointed him the local director of the Romanian Teacher-Training School and a member of the administration of the School funds, whereas the Emperor Franz I granted him «the Hungarian nobility». In 1815, Arad was affected by a great flood which brought many troubles to the Mayor. Water flowed everywhere on the ground — wrote Tekelija. Numerous poor people houses fell down and numerous citizens were left without any property. Arsiã unselfishly helped them, searched for them and saved them, brought them to his home and gave them everything necessary there; he used boats to bring food to others, who were
fighting the flood water which surrounded them, risking his own life. He did not stop caring about them till the water withdrew and they were safe... One year before this flood, Eustahija published her first book, and a year after the disaster she would publish the second. The married couple now spent most of their free time reading or helping Serbian writers. From mid-August 1813, two students of law —Davidoviã and Frušiã — began to publish Novine Serbske (Serbian Newspapers)inVienna, which the writers saw as the ideal way to advertize their books. They published
advertisements in which they announced the printing of their works and called those who were interested to apply to the collectors of subscriptions. Noble Sava Arsiã — the Arad Mayor — was almost always among those who collected subscriptions. In that way, he also helped Vuk Karadÿiã, Jovan Beriã, Stefan Ÿivkoviã and many others to sell out their books as soon and as easily as possible. Because of such attitude to domestic writers, Pantelejmon Mihajloviã dedicated to him the translation of his Encyclopedia or Short Description of All Sciences, in which he called the Mayor of the town onthe Mure¤ the patron and supporter of the Serbian literature. However, in his private business, noble Sava Arsiã was careless. Already in 1812, he bought «20
halovs of Ausbruch (wine) at 200 f. in banknotes» from the Arad episcope Pavle Avakumoviã, but didn't pay them during his life; so his widow Eustahija inherited the debt of 4000 florins and «dragged» it till the end of the third decade of the 19th century. He did not make his own testament properly either, but left room for his younger sisters to challenge it at court. As an aristocrat, he had the right not to pay taxes, but he did not use that right during his lifetime, so his widow had to win that privilege. Sava Arsiã died in Arad, on March 27, 1824. He was buried in the family tomb,
in the church-yard of the Tekelija's church, next to his father and the parents of his wife Eustahija, the first Serbian female writer.
URL: http://www.maticasrpska.org.rs/stariSajt/casopisi/temisvarski_zbornik_4.pdf