Alphonse de Lamartine | Origin of Street Names

Alphonse de Lamartine (1790 - 1869) was a French poet, writer, traveler, politician, and diplomat, recognized as one of the founders of Romanticism in European literature. However, in the Serbian nation, he will be remembered as the man who first informed Europe about the existence of a horrifying monument in which thousands of severed Serbian heads were bricked in - The Skull Tower.

Born towards the end of the 18th century in a French aristocratic family, Lamartine was raised in the spirit of monarchy but would change his beliefs during his future public and political career and become a prominent liberal and republican.

He announced that he would also become one of the greatest French poets already at the age of 30 with the publication of what would turn out to be a masterpiece of French literature, "Les Méditations Poétiques." This collection of 24 poems, including the cult autobiographical work "Le Lac" ("The Lake"), would revolutionize European poetry and open the doors to great literary success.

 Over the next three decades, Alphonse de Lamartine would be at the peak of his literary fame, engaging in both writing and politics.

A liberal and pacifist by conviction, Lamartine advocated for democracy, the abolition of slavery, and everyone's right to work. He spent years on diplomatic missions in Italy and the Middle East, served as a member of parliament, and reached the pinnacle of his political career with a brief tenure as the head of the government of the Second French Republic.

He is also credited with establishing the distinctive republican "tricolor" flag as the official symbol of France. However, his moderate stance during turbulent times led to a debacle in the presidential elections of 1848, after which he withdrew from politics and dedicated himself fully to writing.

As a great traveler, during one of his many returns from the Middle East, Lamartine passed through Serbia and Niš in 1833, documenting a horrific sight at the entrance to the city - a bizarre monument made of human skulls, now known as the Skull Tower.

In his book "Journey to the East," in the section titled "Notes on Serbia," Lamartine vividly describes the horrifying realization that the monument next to the former Constantinople road consists of as many as 15,000 Serbian skulls, the victims of the Battle of Čegar in 1809. Through this travelogue, the modern world learned about an event that had occurred 24 years earlier.

Among other things, he famously said about this monument: "Let the Serbs preserve this monument! It will teach their children the value of independence for a nation, showing them the price their fathers paid."

After his political career ended, burdened with accumulated debts, Alphonse de Lamartine was forced to write for money. Writing popular novels for the masses significantly diminished the reputation of the once renowned writer. He spent the last 20 years of his life humiliated, in poverty, relying on social assistance from a regime he despised.

Nevertheless, his early works have retained high literary value and continue to be regarded as some of the greatest in French and European poetry to this day.

Symbolically, the name of Alphonse de Lamartine graces streets in Belgrade, Niš, Kruševac, Požarevac, and Vranje, and his busts can be found in Karađorđe Park and Zemun Park in Belgrade.