It is not recorded when the house was built, but it is believed that it originates from the first half of the 17th century. French traveler Michel Quiclet visited Zemun in 1658, then part of the
Ottoman Empire. He mentions the house as the largest of three
khans in town. The house is also depicted on the 1663 military map of Zemun, made by the German cartographer Heinrich Ottendorf. House is mentioned in 1717, when
Prince Eugene of Savoy dwelled in it, preparing for the
siege of Belgrade. The object was later named the "Zartaken" and as such appeared on the oldest urban plan of Zemun from 1740. The plan numbered 550 objects in town, in 13 streets. During the 18th century, the ground floor was turned into kafana. The house was remodeled few times, the upper floor was formed around the open porch, and the floor annex was added above the northern part. All these changes happened before 1830. In the late 19th century, it was owned by Naum Nikolić, who then sold it to Todor Marić Gačula while in 1927 Marko Todorović Čanak bought the premises. It is not known when and how the kafana got its name. It was originally called only
Kod medveda ("Bear's"). The kafana was noted for its
cimer, a hanging tin plaque with an image of the standing bear. As the town's
house painters gathered in the kafana, celebrating their
guild's festivities, they often painted the
cimer, changing the color of the bear, into black, grey or white. As they mostly painted it in white, the locale became known as the "White Bear". Though named after the paint, white bear is Serbian name for
polar bear. Todorović, who was nicknamed Marko Medved after the kafana, owned the tavern until 1948 when the state nationalized it, leaving the Todorović family to live in the residential area on the first floor. Until the early 1960s, when it was closed, the tavern was quite popular. == Architecture ==