The Banovina Palace (Serbo-Croatian: Бановинска палата, Banovinska palata, Hungarian: Báni palota, Romanian: Palatul Băniei, Slovak: Bánovinský palác, Rusyn: Бановинска палата) in Novi Sad, capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia, is a representative complex consisting of two buildings.
[3] The buildings, designed by Dragiša Brašovan, were constructed between 1936 and 1940 in modernist style (with art deco and stripped classicism elements) for the administrative needs of the Danube Banovina.
On 23 August 1030, despite Dragiša Brašovan's work doing poorly in that competition, due to a series of circumstances, he was ultimately entrusted to create a new project and to realize it.
[8] Despite the buildings still under construction, their completion was promoted to be finished for 1 December 1938, for the 20th anniversary of the formation and unification of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
[7][5] After the Second World War, until the mid-1950s, it was the headquarters of the National Assembly of Vojvodina (proclaimed by the Yugoslav Constitution of 31 January 1946).
This effort was done by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad (Serbian: Завод за заштиту споменика културе Града Новог Сада, Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Grada Novog Sada) and the Faculty of Technical Sciences from the University of Novi Sad.
The renovation included the reconstruction of damaged or missing parts on the 10,700 square meters of the façade, cleaning the 670 square meters of entrance stone stairs and fence walls, the restoration of decorative elements, as well as placing anti-graffiti protection.
[9][10][11] Renovation and restoration of the Banski dvor building was done by the end of December 2020, costing nearly 29 million Serbian dinars, with the overall costs for renovating the entire Banovina Palace complex ending up being 59 million Serbian dinars.
[19] Permit for finishing the garage's surface area, along with Banovina park and surrounding streets was given to Suuniko Solutions from Veternik in April 2024.
Above the representative entrance facing Mihajla Pupina Boulevard, there are medallions with resemblance to Peter I of Serbia, Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Stepa Stepanović, Živojin Mišić, Radomir Putnik and Petar Bojović, all done by local sculpture Károly Baranyi.
[4] Due to the buildings design resembling a large ship with a sail mast, the Banovina was also called the White Cruiser (Serbo-Croatian: Бела крстарица, Bela krstarica).
[5] It was built as a residence for Bans of Danube Banovina, and today it contains the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.