The University of Novi Sad was being caste in a special milieu built by generations of foremost intellectuals, as well as institutions of particular national significance, in the towns of Vojvodina with their duration being measured in centuries. In today's Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, and Serbia as a whole, the roots of higher education were laid around 1740, with the establishment of the seminary named "Collegium Vissariono-Pawlovicsianum Petrovaradinense" in Novi Sad. Among the most prominent forerunners of the University of Novi Sad were "Norma" - school for the education of Serbian teachers, founded in Sombor in 1778, and "Preparandija", a teachers' college founded in 1812 in Szentendre, whose seat moved to Sombor in 1816.