Spirta House, Belgrade

The Spirta House (Serbian: Спиртина кућа / Spirtina kuća) is a building located in Zemun, Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Built in 1855, today is the location of the Zemun Home Museum (Serbian: Завичајни музеј Земуна, romanized: Zavičajni muzej Zemuna).

[3] They lived in the village of Katranisa (today Pyrgoi) in modern Western Macedonia region of Greece and emigrated north of the Sava and Danube rivers, into the Austria, in 1739.

They settled in Zemun in the late 18th century and, pursuing several successful business enterprises, soon became a well known and a wealthy family.

Their importance was confirmed by the charter of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I by which he bestowed the noble title and the coat of arms to Pavle Georgije Spirta in 1856.

Dimitrije Spirta, who built the house, lived in it only for a short while, before moving to Pančevo, where he died in 1885, and was buried in the Vojlovica Monastery.

The construction was funded by Dimitrije Spirta and the house was projected by the Austrian architect Heinrich von Ferstel.

By its architectural characteristics it stood out from the other houses in Zemun, and the lush interior testified of the social position of the owners, soon to be enhanced by the Spirta family's noble title.

Decorative wallpapers, stylistic ceilings, ceramic stoves, fireplaces and luxurious stylish inlaid parquet stood out.

[4] Though the hallway paintings are usually referred to as icons, they are actually made in the a secco technique, where pigments of color are applied onto a dry plaster.

[12] One of the suggestions was that new parquet should be made, while the old one will be exhibited in some museum and the other ideas included sending it abroad for renovation or inviting the foreign experts to fix it here.

The behaton (plasticized concrete) slabs which formed the pathways in the yard were removed, and replaced witch bricks, which were the original material used for plating the paths when the house was built.

[14] Due to the groundwater which constantly moisturizes the façade, entry into the museum (einfahrt) is also repaired, so as the walls covered with a secco paintings.