Attending the inauguration ceremony were members of parliament Anja Šimpraga, Ivana Kekin, Damir Bakić and Milorad Pupovac, as well as an envoy for Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
MP Pupovac, who is the president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), said the centre was dedicated to Josif Runjanin, who first performed the subsequent national and state anthem "Our beautiful homeland" in a house that was located several hundred metres from the cultural centre and today was called the House of the National Anthem.
"Josif Runjanin and the Glina of his time in Antun Mihanović's poem Our Beautiful Homeland and in other songs that in those 100 exceptional freedom-seeking years were sung together by many Croats and Serbs, were a unique expression of a common idea and songs of freedom," he added.
Even though this idea is unknown to many and even alien to some, Pupovac said, they have decided to preserve it in the name of the new Serb cultural centre.
Pupovac stressed that the building housing the cultural centre, damaged in the 2020 earthquake, was renovated thanks to the Croatian government.
The new Serb cultural centre is also dedicated to mathematicians Đuro and Svetozar Kurepa, the Micić brothers, founders of the avant-garde art movement Zenitism, sculptor Simeon Roksandić, and members of the World War II People's Liberation Movement from the region of Banija.
The building housing the "Josif Runjanin" Serb Cultural Centre in Glina was built in the late 19th century by Fran Detoni, who opened a savings bank and a bakery there. The building was later bought by Ilija Letić, who in May 1941 became a victim of anti-Serb pogroms, with two of his baker apprentices, Pupovac said.
The centre will be a meeting place for Serb institutions from the areas of Glina and Banija, a place of education, notably in mathematics, as well as a place of cultural creation, research and collection of archive material. It will be a place for socialising and a good meal, notably bread and bakery products, which has been the tradition of the building housing the centre since its construction, said Pupovac.
Attending today's ceremony were also residents of Glina and Banija, Serbian Orthodox Church bishops Gerasim and Heruvim, Metropolitan Nikodim, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's envoy Veran Matić.
The ceremony also marked the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Serb cultural society "Prosvjeta", which was founded in Glina.