A Serbian Cultural Centre was opened in Osijek on Friday as a result of the cooperation between the Serb National Council (SNV) and the Eparchy of Osjecko Polje and Baranja, with financial support from the government's office for human and national minority rights.

In the new facility, citizens of Serb nationality will be able to gather with their fellow residents and citizens of other nationalities, primarily Croatian, and share “everything that enriches and brings together, and where necessary, heals,” SNV president Milorad Pupovac said at the opening.

The Serbian Orthodox Church in the Municipality of Osijek provided the land, while the premises were renovated and equipped with financial support from the government’s office for human and national minority rights and will primarily operate with the government’s support.

“We are pleased to open the cultural centre in Osijek, a city that offers a new opportunity for new relationships among its citizens, a city that deserves to fully recover from war and politics, and to live as it knew how to live during various prosperous periods of its history,” Pupovac said.

The centre will contribute to the preservation of the Serb national identity, culture, tradition, language, and faith, said Zoran Milosevic, president of the Osijek-Baranja County Serb National Minority Council.

Osjecko Polje and Baranja Bishop Heruvim expressed hope the cultural centre would promote basic Christian values, which he said were always based on tolerance, respect for others and those who were different, and that it would complement the cultural landscape of Croatia.