School of Njegoš

The Church of the Holy Ascension of the Lord in Topla (the Church of the Holy Savior) was consecrated in 1713 after the completion of its construction. A school was born from this cathedral, which had its peak under the leadership of the hieromonk of Savina Josif Tropović, and this school raised a great Peter II Petrović NJegoš. In 1813, somewhat symbolically the same year when Petar II Petrović NJegoš was born, Hieromonk Josif Tropović of Savina, restored the work of the Topal school at the Cathedral Church of St. Saviour, which in the archive material was called "enlightened school", now better known to us as the building "NJegoša škola" ", which, according to the inventory and account books from that period, existed even before 1788. The importance of the work of this school was certainly known at that time, when Saint Petar Cetinje, as archbishop, entrusted the education of his nephew, Petar II Petrović NJegoš, the future Metropolitan of Montenegro, to the exemplary teacher and hieromonk Josif Tropović, the then parish priest of Topalj and a monk. Savinsky. Under the guidance of his first teacher, Njegoš acquired basic knowledge of the Italian language, mathematics, Church Slavonic, and church singing. The first schools founded by NJegoš in the 1930s in Cetinje and in Dobrski Selo were probably modeled after the one he attended, right here in Topla. Historically and culturally, the importance of the restoration of this unique building "Njegoš's School" is extremely great, and the work on its restoration, restoration, as well as equipping it with a collection of objects directly related to Peter II Petrović Njegoš, is the first step towards its revaluation as a cultural asset. and part of the cultural heritage of general interest, and opening its doors to all visitors to the city of Herceg Novi as a new tourist destination.

The display of the exhibition objects of the renovated building and museum of Njegoš's school is related to the history of the school at the church of St. Spasa, as well as for the personality of Josif Tropović, with an emphasis on the period in which NJegoš attended school in Topla. Considering the subject matter, all the exhibited material is limited in time to the end of the 18th century, up to the first decades of the 19th century. The exhibition also includes a certain number of objects as well as other material - various documents and visual representations - icons, chronology, psalter and Octoich, which were basic textbooks at the time and were used by Hieromonk Josif Tropović. The project "300 years since the founding of the Topal Community, the project of the Archpriestial Protopresbytery of Herzegovinian Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral, carried out in cooperation and with the support of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, on restoration and conservation works on the restoration of the temples of the Ascension of the Lord and St. George on Topla, the temple of St. Archangel Mihaila on Herceg Stjepan Square, as well as the building "Jesus' School" in Topla, is a project started in 2018 on the eve of the central commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Topal community, as the forerunner of today's municipal administration, specifically the Municipality of Herceg Novi. At the time when the city of Herceg Novi was under the Republic of Venice, the Topal community was of exceptional importance for the population of Herceg Novi, as it had autonomy in the area of ​​administration, as well as certain competences in the resolution of property-legal disputes. Of particular importance for the formation of the national consciousness of the people of Novalja was the right to use their alphabet and language in everyday communication. The seat of this administration was at the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, and it consisted of three buildings that shared a common yard - one of them was a building where "judges" (so-called judges) and people's representatives or deputies met, as well as the house where the "captain" and "chancellor" of the Community performed their functions. Exactly one of these two buildings served as the "city parliament" at that time. All documents brought by the administration of the Topalj community bore the seal of the temple of the Ascension of the Lord (Holy Salvation). The third building was the building of Josif Tropović's school (Njego's school).

Address: Njegoševa 136, Herceg Novi