Wall painting with compositions of birds and floral motifs

Remains of wall paintings, executed in the fresco technique, with compositions of birds and floral motifs that decorated the interior of Roman apartment blocks discovered in Tadeuša Košćuška Street. Bird representations are a common motif in ancient wall paintings, where they are mostly displayed in their natural environment of forests or gardens. Although these are very summarily preserved remains of ancient frescoes, which, at first glance, can hardly impress the observer with their quality and content, we should not lose sight of the fact that this is the oldest painting ever discovered in Belgrade. Among the fragmented finds, the following images stand out: a green bird made with seemingly careless and simple, but skilful strokes of the painter; and a representation of a grey bird, which could be a species of wild pigeon, turtle dove, or Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), distinguished by the pale grey colour of its feathers and the black transverse stripe on its neck. This is also one of the first performances of this bird on our territory, a bird that still inhabits the city of Belgrade and its surroundings. Beside the decorative role, these images can also have a deeper meaning, since they symbolically represent the eternal and pure souls of the dead in a heavenly environment of abundance and lush vegetation.