Our traditional architecture unites olden forms of structures and styles, starting from the ancient Slavic heritage, through noble forms of the Byzantine and Serbian medieval architectonics, to the unavoidable Islamic influence. In spite of all these influences, the traditional architecture was the product of our national spirit, it had been shaped through the centuries by many generations of anonymous master-builders, who were adding their own ideas to the inherited. The artifacts of such spiritual creation that have been preserved belong mainly to the 18th and 19th centuries. This type of architecture is vanishing like the traces of many great cultures, which have reached our times only as ruins.
Way back in 1886, Stojan Novaković foreboded the miserable doom of our traditional architecture, stating that "the way of life of our ancestors" would disappear alongside with it. Jovan Cvijić, Branislav Kojić and Aleksandar Deroko tried to save everything that might be saved, each of them in his own way pointing out that this treasure of culture was unjustly neglected. Due to their efforts, certain structural and style forms and imaginative ambient complexes have been preserved, while many others sunk into oblivion and remained in a long-forgotten dream. The development of a modern city has finally destroyed this product of our national spirit.