Draft:Jovan Petrovic Kovac

Jovan Petrović-Kovač also known as Petronijević Kovač and Jovan Kovač (Svojnovo, Ottoman Empire, 1772 - Zemun, Austrian Empire, 11 July (Julian Calendar) or 23 July (Gregorian Calendar) 1837) was the most famous gunsmith in the First Serbian Uprising. His son is Živko Petrović (1806-1868) was a well-known academic artist whose work can be found in Zemun Art Museum, the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Archangel Michael and Gabriel in Batajnica, and other places.

Biography

Jovan Petrović was born in the second half of the 18th century, in 1772, in the village of Svojnovo, in Jagodina Nahija (now Paraćin municipality). After his father's death and his mother's remarriage, he went to Srem, near the Koča Anđelković region. He was 15 years old then. In August 1788, he was accepted into Colonel Mihailo Mihaljević's Serbian Free Corps, not as a soldier but a gunsmith apprentice. There he studied and plied his trade in the Serbian Free Corps, in which he enrolled in order to help fight against the occupiers of his ancestral lands.

During the time of Kočina krajina, Jovan Petrović participated in all conflicts and distinguished himself by his bravery. In the famous attack on Belgrade's Donji Grad, under the command of Radič Petrović, Jovan rescued the commander in 1790, when he himself was wounded. Colonel Mihailo Mihaljevic (1748-1794) awarded Jovan a gold medal for bravery. Jovan was one of the most famous gunsmiths in Serbian history. He started working as a blacksmith in the Kočina Krajina, in the Serbische Freikorps's gunsmith and shoemaker's chamber. He resigned from the freikorps in October 1790 and in the same month he came to Jagodina to visit his family.

The Austrian led special military operation into Ottoman-occupied territories was Koča Anđelković's idea to recover Serbian lands that were lost to the Turks in the latter half of the 15th-century. The Austro-Serbian attempt was foiled by the Turks in the end, but it gave rise with the election of Karađorđe as commander-in-chief of an upcoming uprising.

Later Jovan Petrović went on to settle in Zemun where he continued to perfect his craftsmanship. In 1798, Jovan Petrović opened a blacksmith and shoemaker's shop, but he also dealt with livestock, caring for them whenever they got ill. Therefore, he was counted among the first practitioners of veterinary medicine in Serbia.

Jovan began working with local forges in what was then the Austrian Empire learning casting methods during the time of Koča Anđelković's rebellion and the time he spent in the Serbian Free Corps. How good a gunsmith Jovan Petrović became was evidenced by the fact that during the first arrival of a steamship in Zemun, he was the only one capable of repairing the ship's hull. Jovan soon brought the the new technology to Karađorđe's Serbia, where guns and cannons of varying calibre were cast in local forges for use in Serbian fortifications. In 1807 Karađorđe reestablished the long-dormant Serbian cannon industry to meet the demands of the Serbian Revolution. Jovan Petrović headed the new ordnance foundry called Topolivnica, built in Kragujevac.

Jovan moved to Karađorđe's Serbia and made himself available to the insurgents. When Karađorđe had Topolivnica built in Kragujevac in 1807, Jovan repaired weapons, mended others, forged and reinforced cherrywood cannons and cast new, metal ones. Later, he also went on to forge and mount the first church bells in Belgrade. He was extremely successful and became widely known as a master of his craft.

No one called him anything other than Jovan Kovač, "Jovan the Gunsmith". In one suit, the rooks began to give way. The leader Karađorđe immediately sent for Kovač to attend to them. Jovan Petronijević mastered the cannons risking his life, and Karađorđe scolded him "for being reckless with his life when knowing that he's still needed".

The collapse of the uprising in 1813 took Kovač across the Sava to Zemun, to his old workshop. During the time of Prince Miloš Obrenović, Jovan maintained ties with the Serbia, often crossing the river for business, especially around Belgrade.

He also made crosses and bells for churches, as well as other more delicate products.

On Bela nedelja, 1830, for the first time in a long time, the Cathedral bell rang over Belgrade. The bells were cast and installed by Jovan Petronijević. When they told him that at that sound the Turks could shoot from the fortress, because the Orthodox have been forbidden to use bells since Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, in 1521, Jovan replied: "It's mine to ring and let the pasha shoot if he is shot!"

In the same year, this skilled craftsman created the official Serbian coat of arms and presented it to the prince of the autonomous principality of Serbia. Jovan refused the award, replying that "He is doing favours for the Family and the Fatherland, and that the greatest reward for him is that the Most High allowed him to experience it more honourably."

Prince Miloš Obrenović ordered Jovan Petronijević to list and inspect cultural monuments with Dimitrije Davidović. He reluctantly accepted it, because he was a great lover of books, a "people's enlightener", a regular subscriber of Serbian books, the owner of a large home library and a benefactor of the Slavonic Serbian Library of Zemun, founded in 1825.

He was in contact with many public workers in Serbia and Serbs in Austria, namely Vuk Karadžić, Metropolitan Stefan Stratimirović, bookseller Gligorije Vozarović and others.

Until the end of his life, Jovan Petrović stayed in Zemun, occasionally crossing the Sava on business. He died on 11 July 1837 in his house in Zemun.

In his native Svojnovo, the villagers later erected a monument in his likeness.

Recognition and Contribution

In 1810, Karađorđe thanked him for everything he had done for Serbia, especially for his great merits in the crucial Battle of Mišar. Just as he helped in war by supplying weapons, so in peacetime he provided all the help that was needed for the cultural development of the country. Jovan Petrović was interested in political and national affairs. He had many friends among Serbian politicians and cultural workers. Among others, he was also a great friend of Vuk Karadžić. His family preserved a library of Serbian books, several paintings and Karađorđe's saber.

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-ec/%D0%88%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B_%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%87