Sima Andrejević Igumanov

From personal sorrow to national happiness

Sima Andrejević Igumanov, a native of Prizren, was one of the greatest Serbian merchants and benefactors of the 19th century. He made his fortune in the tobacco trade in Russia, but his life was marked by great personal tragedy: he lost his wife and all his children early.

Left alone, he decided to adopt all the young people of his region. He understood that education was the only path to the survival of the Serbian people under Ottoman rule. In 1871 he founded the famous Prizren Seminary, which became the spiritual and national centre of the Serbs in Old Serbia.

Igumanov Palace

To secure permanent funding for the school in Prizren, he built a monumental palace on Terazije in Belgrade. For decades, the income from renting out this building ("Igumanov Palace") paid for the schooling of generations of teachers and priests who preserved the Serbian name in Kosovo and Metohija.