Branka Prpa

Branka Prpa, (born 1953 in Split, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a historian, author, and former director of Belgrade's Historical Archives (Istorijski arhiv Beograda). In 1972, against the wishes of her family, she left Split for Belgrade to study history at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. Soon, she got married, had a son, and remained living in the capital even after she graduated. In 1988, her book about Serbs in Dalmatia entitled Srpsko-dalmatinski magazin was published. Prpa, an ethnic Croat, is better known to the public as girlfriend of the slain Belgrade journalist and newspaper owner Slavko Ćuruvija with whom she lived in an unmarried union. Prpa was with her common-law spouse on the day of his murder in April 1999. They were walking hand in hand, about to enter the front door of their apartment building when they were approached from behind by unknown men who murdered Ćuruvija and pistol-whipped Branka Prpa, briefly knocking her unconscious.

Prpa has an adult son, dramaturgist Ivan Jovanović, from a previous marriage. She had no children with Ćuruvija.