The First Town Hospital (Serbian: Прва варошка болница, Prva varoška bolnica) was built in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia in 1868.

The construction was initiated by the ruling prince Mihailo Obrenović as the first building in Belgrade built purposely to serve as a hospital.

In the vicinity of the building are several other healthcare institutes, the Jevremovac botanical garden and the neighborhood of Kopitareva Gradina.

In order to kick-start the project, the prince personally donated his own lot, which he previously purchased from Đorđe Cenić, the Minister of Justice, for the location of the hospital.

It is not clear whether this was concerning the leftovers of the materials remaining after the construction was finished, or he planned to build a larger edifice but stopped it at this point giving precedence to the hospital.

Especially successful was the early 1865 ball organized by Princess Julia Obrenović, Prince Mihailo's wife.

[1][8] Further need for money prompted the continuous donations, so with the help of the royal family, state government and the municipal administration, in total 21,000 ducats were collected, which was the final price of the entire project.

The building of the National Theatre in Belgrade, another massive project which was constructed at the same time, cost 12,000 ducats.

[1] The cornerstone was ceremonially laid on 30 June 1865 in the presence of the Prince, municipality aldermen, townsfolk and distinguished citizens.

The style is pure and simple, regarding both the façade, with its modest decorative plastic, and the design of the interior, without any ornaments, including the visible structural elements on the ceiling and on the architraves.

Upper part of this protrusion forms the transformation of the cornice into the triangularly shaped gable with the small Romanticist clock tower on the top of the building.

[1] During the construction, modern technical designs for the ventilation, heating of the patient rooms and providing cold and hot water.

The methods of professor Bem were applied and the ventilation was set up through the pipes, built into the walls, that bring air to the door frame when the windows were closed.

Instead of a small furnaces with the fans, the Belgrade hospital was equipped with the large ones, which had several disadvantages: they were less energy efficient, occupied more space and reduced the amount of light in the patients rooms.

In 1887, Lazarević rented the building across the hospital, owned by artisan Hadži-Nikolić, and founded the Department for healing the old.

[10] Soon after German surgeon Ernst von Bergmann introduced the heat sterilization of the medical instrument, the equipment was obtained by the hospital.

[1] Some of the most important names in Serbian medicine operated and treated patients here: Vladan Đorđević, Laza Lazarević, Vojislav Subotić, Đorđe Nešić.