After having completed his studies and training in architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Valtrović first applied his profession in the construction industry and then became a professor of science and technical subjects at Belgrade's Grandes écoles in 1875.

[7] From the beginning, he devoted a significant part of his teaching activity to the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, emphasizing the importance of the arts in the history of mankind.

The stress, however, was placed upon the educational importance of classical antiquity and its aesthetic and ethical values for a modern established state and its cultural development, based on its historical character.

Valtrović's program was influenced by his training, as well as the role models of German universities, where the study of classics was held to be the essential component of higher education.

In 1901, Valtrović's former teaching post was established for the first trained archeologist, Miloje Vasić, who received his Ph.D. in 1898 from his mentor Adolf Furtwangler at the University of Munich.