Jovan Valenta (1826 – 7 June 1887) was a doctor of medicine and surgeon in Smederevo and Belgrade, manager of a hospital in Palilula, and part-time professor of hygiene.
Three years later he moved to the Principality of Serbia, where he stopped using the Czech name "Jan" and adopted the Serbian name "Jovan".
[5] In 1868, Valenta joined Dr. Achim Medovich and other colleagues in seeking to establish the Serbian Medical Society, finally succeeding in 1872; only five of the 15 doctors at the founding meeting were Serbs.
He was a delegate from Serbia to the III International Congress of Doctors in Vienna, held in 1873, and was twice elected to the Serbian parliament.
Valenta went to Pirot in December 1882,[7] by order of King Milan Obrenović, where he worked as a district doctor and also as the director of the hospital until his retirement in 1886.