History of Supurovic family
At the end of the 18th century the Ottoman Empire started to show the first visible signs of collapse. The Habsburgs and their allies forced the Turks to abandon some border regions; therefore, these territories were emptied and needed to be resettled by a new population. This started a huge wave of migrations; especially from rocky parts of Montenegro to Western Serbia.
Dating back to 1770
In 1770, Vilotije Milatovic arrived with three sons from mountain region of Piva (Montenegro) to a fertile village of Svojdrug (Later named Rogačica) near the Rogačica River, the affluent of great Drina River. Bajina Bašta and Užice (Roman name of the city: Capedunum ) were the nearby towns (Serbia).
These parts of Western Serbia are famous for its plum brandy manufacturing and the great ancestor of Supurovic family had a chance to get familiar with this tradition.
It was hard in the beginning, but his sons helped him a lot during this adjusting period. They had struggled a lot, but managed to stand on their feet. The nature here was much friendlier and the local inhabitants accepted them and showed them the local crafts and skills. They had mastered this new knowledge and they were encouraged to plant their very first plum orchard. Their new households seem even more promising when they started manufacturing their own brandy.
1745 – 1825
Milos Vilotijevic – Supur was Vilotije’ oldest son and already married when he came here. He also learned this important craft and followed his father’s footprints. He spread the household, he continued manufacturing brandy and started a family line named after him. Thanks to his four sons, he was able to plant few more orchards and to make their life quite bearable. They were very persistent an hard-working people.
1805 – 1862
Petar Supurovic obtained a prosperous household which enabled him to become even more successful than his father. He was one of the wealthiest men in Rogačica. He was very skillful, so he improved all aspects of their brandy manufacturing. The number of the orchards also increased and he started trading with his neighbours in this little village. His three children had a good teacher, and much better starting positions.
1845 – 1924
Aksentije Supurovic was Petar’ younger son who kept his ambitions alive, operative, promising and well-going. He was well known as a respectable and loving figure-resopceful, friendly and generous. He maintained a good family name because he carried on with their work. He became an owner of the biggest part of his father’s will and obtained into social life of Rogačica and these activities helped him confirming his good reputation.
1879 – 1914
Stevan Supurovic was the oldest son of Aksentije’s five children and he was preparing to go on with his ancestor’s work, but, unfortunately, he lost his life very early, at the age of 35, during the Great War I, in 1914. He died in a battle with Austrro-Hungarian empire on mount Vucevo, near river Drina. His wife Julka couldn’t overcome this tragedy and she died the same year very young, leaving their four sons without so needed love and support of their parents. They became orphans. Nor his father nor they had a chance neither to obtain nor to improve the brandy story.
Stevan has had four sons ( Andjelko, Desimir, Novak). All these boys become orphans, which lost their parents in 1914. during the Great War I. His grandfather Aksentije take care of them, and kept all of them growing and continuing life.
1907 – 1983
Desimir Supurovic was only seven years old when he lost both of his parents ( Stevan and Julka ), so he faced many difficulties and struggled a lot during all his life. He tried to recover the brandy manufacture, but that wasn’t an easy task to do because of his misfortunes. Besides taking care of his five children was a challenging enough in given circumstances.
As a boy and an orphan, he managed to survive the First World War, and later as an adult, he was captured as a soldier at the beginning of the Second World War. Having escaped from the military camp, he secretly comes home, and with his family, survives very meagerly. After the war, he was involved in the hard physical work of the new communist government, working on many construction sites around ex. Yugoslavia.
Desimir has two daughters (Sofija and Dana) and three sons ( Radovan, Slavoljub, and Radenko)
1937 –
Radovan Supurovic is Desimir’s oldest son, but he had chosen a different profession and life style, so he didn’t take part into this family tradition. Modernisation and urbanisation of Former communist Yugoslavia influenced people’s lives and habits encouraging them to forget the old ways, including the good side of this story. The village just doesn’t seem so attractive any more. Radovan has two sons ( Dusan and Aleksandar) and even though he isn’t very interested in the family manufacturing, he is proud of his son who manages to balance between the ancient tradition and modern ways.
1970 –
Dusan Supurovic, oldest Radovan’ son finds and uses the old recepies, but he is saving them in a new recipe book. He is a successful electrical engineer in electronic and telecommunication business, and his knowledge, visions and experience have helped him create innovative solutions.
As modern technologies affect all aspect of our lives, Dusan found innovative way and result to be quite helpful in keeping tradition active and well presented today.
His ancestors came to an idea to abandon the lands of their ancestors in a search for better life conditions, they followed their hopes and dreams and set themselves off into the unknown. But, no matter where they were, they still had each other and their family legacy. They embraced the new, but they didn’t abandon the good old things. Their huge experience had taught their children to be both brave and prudent.
Dusan has two daughters (Milica and Ana) and two sons ( Jovan and Aleksa)
Dusan came to an idea to offer us this wisdom-moderation as a key to success, a source of pleasure, and become an integral part of our modern lifestyle, while promoting old Serbian tradition: Elixir and Pleasure.
Pleasure is an Elixir only when it isn’t taken for granted.
