Toma Vanđel

Tobacco merchant and benefactor

Toma Vanđel (1834-1906) was a wealthy tobacco merchant and a prominent benefactor. Although he withdrew from business towards the end of his life, Toma Vanđel possessed considerable wealth. To the Serbian church in Thessaloniki he bequeathed 1000 dinars in gold, and he assigned the larger part of his property to the Serbian Trade Society for the establishment of the Toma Vanđel Fund. Its purpose was to finance the schooling of poor Serbian and Greek trade apprentices from Macedonia.

The fund was given a considerable 40,000 dinars to manage, as well as the building of the "Bulevar" Hotel. This edifice was in fact a block of buildings between Makedonska, Francuska and Braće Jugovića streets. The fund, intended for the needs of Belgrade's trade youth, was very profitable. Every year its income was used to provide clothing and footwear for, and to finance the schooling of, between 40 and 60 poor pupils. Like other endowments, this Fund was abolished after the Second World War, and its property was nationalised.

Monument at Čukur Fountain

Although Toma’s endowment has been permanently dissolved, and the building on the corner of Makedonska and Braće Jugovića bears not even a plaque dedicated to the great benefactor, one place in Belgrade preserves his memory. It is the monument to the events at Čukur Fountain on the corner of Dobračina and Jovanova streets, with Toma’s name carved for eternity on its pedestal. Among his other acts of charity, Vanđel greatly wished to mark the site of the suffering of 1862.

To that end he left in his will 100 ducats in gold, worth 12,000 dinars at the time, for a monument to the defenders of Belgrade to be erected in the space between the “Bulevar” and the National Theatre. The condition was that the monument be made by a Serbian sculptor. After numerous complications, today’s monument was unveiled in 1931; its sculpture, the “Boy with the Broken Jug”, was made by Simeon Roksandić.