Upon entering one of the rooms on the ground floor of Brković family’s house, one can get the impression of visiting a classy residence from the beginning of the XX century. What contributes to that feeling are family portraits and photographs on the walls, personal items and books with traces of close reading which are put on cabinet shelves, together with chests of drawers and a salon in the same style, whereas the piano, the cello, and the flutes with a music stand seem as if they were used a moment ago… This is the legacy of the Nastasijević family who – owing to their generosity – gave their belongings to Gornji Milanovac and that way became one of the town symbols, and especially the Museum of Rudnik and Takovo Region.

Nastasijević family left an indelible imprint on Serbian culture. Just like their ancestors who lived at the end of the XVIII and at the beginning of the XIX century, they will be remembered for their exquisite artistic talent, rich literary work as well as love towards everything national.

Their family background goes back to Pirot and Ohrid, and the period of time before Serbian uprising. Lazar Prizrenac was a coppersmith and the commanding officer of one of Karađorđe’s company in the First Serbian Uprising. His son, Tasa Lazarević, who was a zoographer, a carver and a builder famous for constructing churches, lived in Ohrid. When he came to Serbia ruled by prince Miloš Obrenović, he settled in the village of Brusnica, before the founding of the town of Gornji Milanovac. Tasa’s wife, Mihaila, was the daughter of Anđelko Đorđević from Ohrid, who was a builder, a zoographer and an icon-painter. She had two brothers, Spasoje and Nastas, who were both builders. Prince Miloš chose the most famous one of them – Nastas Đorđević who also lived in Serbia – to build The Church of the Holy Trinity in Gornji Milanovac.

After the death of Tasa Lazarević, Nastas started taking care of his sister by bringing Mihaila and his nephew Nikola to his home. He taught Nikola about building trade. The story about Nastasijević family started when Nikola took his uncle’s name to be his surname in token of gratitude. The story continued ennobling the family talent as well as love towards all types of art.

Nikola Nastasijević, an acknowledged builder of numerous edifices and a literature lover, played the flute and led companies in both wars against Turks. After the Bulgarian War during the rule of king Milan, he got medals for his military virtues, and the Order of the Takovo Cross for fighting in the war for liberation and independence in 1876-1878. His wife Milica, who was from an old-established family Jovanović from the village of Klatičevo near Gornji Milanovac, received her education at Katarina Milovuk Institute in Belgrade. All of Milica and Nikola Nastasijević’s seven children had university education and they all had talent for music. Even though they had some mutual interests, each of them had their own vocation. Živorad – the oldest brother – was an artist. Besides him, Momčilo – a poet and a writer, Svetomir – a composer and an architect, Slavomir – a writer of historical novels, as well as their three sisters (the oldest Natalija who was a philosopher, then Darinka who was a historian, and Slavka – a mathematician) all grew up in the renowned family. Slavka took care of the family legacy until her death, after which it was inherited by her brother Slavomir and his descendants. Following their wish, the valuable legacy of the family Nastasijević was given to the town of Gornji Milanovac as a present on 9 April 1983. The Nastasijević family lived in Gornji Milanovac in 7 Tanaska Rajića Street until 1920 (in the house demolished during the Second World War bombing). After that, they all moved to Belgrade, to 131 Ratarska Street (present-day 55 Kraljice Marije Street), and later on to 9 Molerova Street. In the cultural history of Serbia, the home of Nastasijević family in Belgrade will be remembered for chamber gatherings of intellectual and artistic élite between 1924 and 1938. These gatherings, together with a couple of similar Belgrade salons, represented some kind of capital’s cultural centre between the two wars. Just like his father, Momčilo played the flute, and later on the violin and the cello, and he encouraged his brothers to enhance their music skills. As a result, during Sunday afternoons in Nastasijević family’s salon, the four brothers performed Baroque music and compositions by classic composers from Vienna – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The presence of guests such as Isidora Sekulić, Miloš Crnjanski, Rastko Petrović, Stanislav Vinaver, Rade Drainac, Dimitrije Mitrinović, Dušan Matić, etc. explains the far-reaching significance of those gatherings for the future development of Serbian culture, which maybe the protagonists themselves were unaware of.