Zepter Office Building

About Zepter Office Building

By the ULTIMATE Belgrade Editorial Team

The Belgrade headquarters of Zepter, the international company founded by Serbian businessman Philip Zepter, on Kralja Petra Street in the old town, often described as the architectural symbol of Belgrade in the 1990s.

The back story

Philip Zepter, born Milan Janković in Serbia, founded his company in Austria in 1986, selling high-quality cookware and later medical and wellness products in dozens of countries. In the 1990s, as Yugoslavia broke apart and building almost stopped in Belgrade, he commissioned a headquarters in the heart of the old town, on Kralja Petra Street among some of the city’s most elegant early 20th-century buildings.

The building

Designed by Vasilije Milunović and Branislav Mitrović of the Mitarh studio, with interiors by Dušan Tešić, it was completed in 1997. Its monumental double facade of marble, glass and metal was designed to sit alongside the ornate older buildings around it, picking up their rhythm and height, while its polished steel echoes Zepter’s own products. On the courtyard side an atrium summer garden opens the building to light. In a decade of war and sanctions it was one of the few new buildings of quality in the city, which is why it became a symbol of 1990s Belgrade.

In a decade of war and sanctions it was one of the few new buildings of quality in the city.

The Zepter Museum

Nearby at Knez Mihailova 42, the Zepter Museum, founded by Madlena Zepter in 2010 as the first private art museum in Serbia, shows Serbian art from the second half of the 20th century to today in a former bank building in the Berlin Secession style. The Zepters also founded the Madlenianum Opera and Theatre in Zemun.

Today

Combine the building with the museum on a walk along Kralja Petra and Knez Mihailova.

The building in depth

From the Architectuul architecture database.

Listings, fees and opening hours change, so please contact Zepter Office Building directly before you visit.