Belgrade City Museum

The idea of founding a city museum in Belgrade dates back to 1894, when the Municipality of Belgrade was offered to buy a collection of antiquities and weapons of Samuilo Stevanović.

By Museums of Serbia

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia

Belgrade City Museum (2019) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The decision to form a municipal museum was made only in 1903, at an extraordinary session of the Municipal Board on October 15. In the meantime, the initial fund of the museum consisted of Stevanović's collection and the collection of plans and drawings of Belgrade from 1521–1789, which the Municipality bought from the Munich antiquarian Rosenthal in 1902.

Belgrade City Museum (2019) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Since its founding, the Museum encountered problems when it comes to location. In the beginning, the Museum was placed in the municipal premises at 1 Uzun Mirkova Street. In 1929, a joint institution called the Municipal Library and Museum was founded, which relocated several times until it finally moved to the building at 1 Zmaj Jovina Street, which these institutions still share today.

Belgrade City Museum (2019) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The institutions were officially separated in 1940, and the Museum was named Belgrade City Museum after the Second World War. Due to the lack of space, the last permanent exhibition of the Museum was closed in 1960. Although there were many initiatives for a permanent solution for housing the Belgrade City Museum, including two competitions for the construction of a new building (1954 and 1976), they did not come to fruition.

Belgrade City Museum (2019) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

In 2006, the buildings of the former Military Academy was given to the Museum upon the agreement between the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia. Built in 1899 on the design of architect Dimitrije T. Leko, it is located on the block between Birčaninova, Resavska and Nemanjina streets, at 40b Resavska Street. The design for the reconstruction of this building and its conversion into the Belgrade City Museum was selected in a competition in 2016.

Belgrade City Museum, Belgrade City Museum, 2019, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Belgrade City Museum, Belgrade City Museum, 2019, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Belgrade City Museum, Belgrade City Museum, 2019, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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The Belgrade City Museum is of a complex type, with territorial jurisdiction over the entire territory of Belgrade. The museum's fund contains over 130,000 items that testify to the capital’s development from prehistory to modern times. The items are divided into three departments–archaeology, history and the history of culture and arts. The collections of the Department of Archaeology cover Belgrade’s archaeology from prehistory to the Ottoman conquest of Belgrade, with a separate collection of the Archaeological Site of Vinča and the Cabinet of Coins and Medals. The items in the Department of History cover the capital’s history from 1521 to the present day. The Department of History of Culture and Arts is not strictly chronologically determined, and it contains collections of fine and applied arts, architecture and urbanism, as well as a collection of the history of literature and culture.

Vinča Figurines from Stubline (Neolithic, cc. 4500 B.C.) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Prehistory collection

An absolutely unique discovery in European prehistory, a group of 43 figurines with miniature tools/weapons was found next to the oven in a house. There are 42 figurines of almost identical cylindrical shape with an accentuated nose. Their height varies from 2 to 6 cm. Only one figurine is somewhat larger and more detailed. This group find is usually interpreted as a representation of household members or community from Stubline, a hint of social stratification and hierarchy of the cult group.

This is a completely unknown iconographic pattern and totally schematic (abstract) figurine appearance are atypical for the Vinča culture, which indicates that it may represent a group of foreigners. It is quite certain that these figurines were left next to the oven as an act of marking the event of house abandonment. The fact that all prominent European archaeologists have included them in more than 20 scientific papers speaks of the importance of these figurines on a global scale. 

Bronze Age Depot From Jakovo (Bronze Age, cc. 1200 B.C.) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The practice of hiding, storing or ritually depositing different types of bronze objects is a trans-European phenomenon present during the third and second millennium B.C. in the area of ​​today's Belgrade. There are various explanations for the reasons for laying a large number of objects, usually in a vessel or directly in a hole dug in the ground. Some interpretations state that they are hidden storages, ritual gifts, or some kind of foundation deposits.

Today we present you a depot from Jakovo where a large number of bronze objects were found, complete and broken spears, sickles, knives, daggers, razors, bracelets… A bronze pectoral stands out among the discovered objects, which probably served as a kind of parade decoration worn on the chest of a prominent member of the Late Bronze Age community cc. 1200 B.C. who lived in the area of ​​today's Jakovo.

Celtic Scissors (Iron Age, cc. 100 B.C) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The oldest scissors kept in the Belgrade City Museum belong to the Celtic communities that lived in the area of today's Karaburma. Not unlike today's scissors, they had numerous purposes, and it is thought that some of the scissors from the graves on Karburma and Rospi Ćuprija could have been deadly weapons.

Money, N_7138, Belgrade City Museum, IV century B.C., From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Money, N_7138, Belgrade City Museum, IV century B.C., From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Coins and medals  The tetradrachm of the city of Athens is the oldest money found in the area of the city of Belgrade. This type of tetradrachm had been minted in 393 B.C. and throughout the 4th century and belongs to the coins minted in the old style. The finding is associated with the presence of the Celts, i.e. Scordisci in the area between the Sava and the Danube and their contact with the Hellenic world in the south. The obverse shows the head of the goddess of wisdom and protector of the city of Athens. The reverse depicts an owl – the symbol of the goddess Athena and the letters ΑΘΕ. Behind the owl is a crescent and an olive branch.

Money, N_2437, Belgrade City Museum, 283/285, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Money, N_2437, Belgrade City Museum, 283/285, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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This extremely rare gold coin of the Emperor Julian of Pannonia (283-285) was discovered in a garden in Novi Banovci. Julian of Pannonia, the usurping emperor, ruled the province of Pannonia, which housed the Siscia mint (now the city of Sisak). Aureus originates from the only issue of gold money of this emperor, minted in Sisak. The obverse depicts the bust of the Emperor and the inscription IMP C IVLIANVS P F AVG. On the reverse we see a woman with a bag in her right hand and a horn of plenty in her left hand - the personification of Libertas and the inscription LIBERTAS PVBLICA.

Cross for Loyalty, Belgrade City Museum, 1858, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Cross for Loyalty, Belgrade City Museum, 1858, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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The Cross for Loyalty, a medal Miloš Obrenović had commissioned on the occasion of St. Andrew's Assembly held in Belgrade in the period from December 11, 1858 to January 31, 1859. It is considered one of the rarest Serbian medals. The cross is made of gold in a Viennese jewelry workshop, as evidenced by the AA stamps. The dimensions of the cross are 45 x 55 mm and the weight is 13.50 g. The cross bears the text M. O. I / SV. ANDR. SKUPŠTINA / 1858 on one side, and ZA / PRIVRŽENOSTЬ / X on the other. This first gold medal of the renewed Serbia was awarded to clergymen, Assembly participants  in Kragujevac during the People’s Assembly held on Nativity from September 10 to 24, 1859.

Bust of emperor Macrinus (Roman period, 217 AD) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Antique collection

Emperor Macrinus (Imp. Caesar Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus) is known as the first Roman emperor to come from a cavalry class. His short reign, which lasted only 14 months, from April 217 to June 8, 218, was marked by conflicts with the Senate and the removal of the governors of the border provinces, especially those who supported his predecessor on the throne, Caracalla.

Bust of emperor Macrinus (Roman period, 217 AD) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Such policy was not common until then, and the Senate and the new emperor Elagabalus took revenge by declaring him an enemy of the Roman state and carrying out damnatio memoriae over him; all his portraits were destroyed and his name erased from the inscriptions and papyrus. His image was removed even from the money, which is why this portrait is extremely rare.

Gold jewellery (second half of the 3rd century A.D.) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

A pair of earrings with fossil bone beads, a ring with two-layer agate with intaglio representation of god Mars and a necklace consisting of a two-part clasp and nine beads: eight gold and one green amazonite - microcline; discovered as a inventory of Grave 13 at 47 Majke Jevrosime Street where a female individual was interred at the end of the 3rd century.

In addition to their beauty, these exceptional specimens of Roman jewelry speak in many ways about the inhabitants of Singidunum, a Roman city built on the site of modern Belgrade. Researchers agree that in the Roman times jewelry was worn partly for decoration, partly because of the magical and healing power attributed to noble materials, but most interestingly, to highlight the culture and education of its owner.

Gold jewellery (second half of the 3rd century A.D.) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The most interesting object is the ring with an intaglio with the image of the god Mars as the winner carrying a trophy (Victor Tropaeophoros) is engraved with exceptional precision. The god Mars was synonymous with war, battle, and the fortunes of war, and is somewhat unusual as an element in the inventory of a woman’s grave. However, this motif was often used on imperial coins, and as a certain type of propaganda, it could easily be connected with internal and external threats to the Roman Empire.

Wall painting with compositions of birds and floral motifs, Belgrade City Museum, Roman period, mid-2nd – mid-3rd century A.D., From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Wall painting with compositions of birds and floral motifs, Belgrade City Museum, Roman period, mid-2nd – mid-3rd century A.D., From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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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 color 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.

Оil lamps of different shapes, Belgrade City Museum, Roman period, 1st – 4th century AD, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Oil lamps with workshop seals, firmalampen, Belgrade City Museum, Roman period, 1st – middle of 3rd century AD, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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The Belgrade City Museum collection holds over 600 oil lamps (lucernae) from the Roman period, discovered by chance or during archaeological research. Unlike the archaeological layers of the pre-Roman Singidunum, where the lamps are almost unknown, the Roman ones were always present in households and public spaces, but also during funeral rituals, which unequivocally indicate the acceptance of the Roman way of life in the province of Upper Moesia from mid-1st century. Almost all types of oil lamps known in the area of the Roman Empire were in use in Singidunum, but some specimens represent a rarity. Ceramic, bronze and glass lamps were made in molds. A small hole on the upper surface of the disc was used to add oil, while the wick came out of a larger hole on the nose of the oil lamp. Lamps sometimes had several wick holes to produce more light.

Oil lamp in the shape of feet with sandals (Roman period; second half of 1st - middle of the 2nd century AD) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

In addition to their practical purpose to illuminate the rooms at night, Roman lamps were often decorated with scenes from mythology, which is why they are interpreted as a mirror of the religious beliefs of the owners. Lamps in the shape of feet are especially interesting, which are rare. The lamps modelled in this way are associated with Serapis, the god of healing, and they probably served, among other purposes, to bring happiness to the owner, to protect his health and the health of his family, and to protect the home from worries and diseases.

Jewellery Casting Moulds (First half of the 7th century) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Middle Ages Collection

One of the earliest Slavic settlements was discovered at the confluence of the river Bolečica and the Danube, in the vicinity of Ritopek and the former ancient settlement of Tricornium. In this open-type village, there were half-buried residential houses built of stone, mud and wood, and some of them had ceramic or metallurgical kilns. A kiln of one of the settlement’s log houses held stone molds for casting jewelry: rings, chain rings, parts of necklaces and ball-shaped earrings.

Along with these two molds, pieces of stone already prepared for making other molds were found on the floor in front of the stone kiln, among the fragments of Slavic vessels and pieces of metal slag. These are the oldest reliable confirmations on the territory of Belgrade of Slavic goldsmiths and their workshops for casting jewelry made of non-ferrous metals.

Cup, MGB (14th – 15th century) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The bottom of the cup of a flower-shaped recipient holds a circular medallion with a cast motif of an eight-pointed blossoming cross. The massive handle is decorated with a carved vine and with a globular pellet at the junction with the rim. The cup is exceptional in that there are no analogies in the Serbian medieval heritage, in the superbly executed combination of eastern forms and pottery ornaments of the early Middle Ages, and the skills of Byzantine stonecutters and goldsmiths of 10th – 12th centuries.

Church Lintel with the Founder's Inscription of Despot Stefan Lazarević (Cc. 1410) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

A part of the founder's inscription remained on the preserved fragment of the lintel, in three rows. The writing is in Serbian ekavian, in the Cyrillic script. In addition to ordinary ligatures, the inscription also contains a rare method of abbreviation and linkage, which achieved special monogram solutions. The letters are shaped with a chisel, with a decoration distinctive for pen and paper, rather than carving in a hard material.

Kosovo Maiden (1919) by Belgrade City Museum and Uroš PredićMuseums of Serbia

Fine Arts before 1950 collection

The painting Kosovo Maiden by Uroš Predić, inspired by the Serbian Epic Poem of the same title, was commissioned by the Circle of Serbian Sisters. The painting presents a Kosovo Maiden that "heals the wounds of the fatally injured Orlović Pavle". After the Battle of Kosovo, she was to become the wife of Toplica Milan. After the hero lost his life in battle, the Kosovo Maiden became a grieving fiancée, who wanders the battlefield in search of a fiancé and at the same time nurtures and helps the survivors.

The painting was created during the First World War, based on a drawing from 1914, so it can be interpreted as a universal scene of suffering that follows the story of all large War conflicts, while the characters of the Kosovo Maiden and Pavle Orlović symbolize the Serbian people and their suffering in the War.

Ecce Homo, Belgrade City Museum, Toma Rosandić, 1915, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Ecce Homo, Belgrade City Museum, Toma Rosandić, 1915, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Ecce Homo, Belgrade City Museum, Toma Rosandić, 1915, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Ecce homo is one of the most successful sculptures by Toma Rosandić (1878–1958), a famous sculptor, professor, founder and the first rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. An elongated, ascetic figure of Christ is presented, with his hands tied behind his back, just before the suffering on the cross. The gaunt, thin figure of Christ exudes at the same time torment and calmness, but also a distinct spiritual strength that transcends the material.  Ecce homo is one of the artist's works created during the First World War and is related to the theme of war suffering.

The Virgin of the Passion (end 15th century) by Belgrade City Museum, Photographer: Vladimir Marković and Andreas Ritzos or his followersMuseums of Serbia

The icon of the Virgin of the Passion is attributed to Andreas Ritzos, a leading figure of Cretan art of the second half of the 15th century. It is performed with a flawless technique in the spirit of the Byzantine classicist tradition, it has a refined color and exudes restrained tenderness expressed in the touching relationship between mother and child.

Dawn Above Belgrade (1972) by Belgrade City Museum and Petar LubardaMuseums of Serbia

Fine Arts after 1950 collection

The artwork Dawn over Belgrade belongs to the late phase of Petar Lubarda's work (1907-1974), when he achieved associations of landscape scenes and hints at the contours of some mythological figures in a special way, in this case the silhouette of Pegasus in flight over Belgrade, which almost exceeds the format of the background the artist used to show all the power of his painting expression.

Diffraction (1964) by Belgrade City Museum and Lazar VozarevićMuseums of Serbia

The artwork Diffraction belongs to the late phase of Lazar Vozarević's work (1925-1968), where he gave rise to a special artistic poetics through various modifications and syntheses, introducing symbolic indications related to the tradition of medieval art into the material of Art Informel paintings. By including new materials and ways of shaping the canvas, Vozarević strived for a symbiosis of the spiritual roots of the Byzantine world with modern plastic procedures.

Small Torso (1960) by Belgrade City Museum and Olga JančićMuseums of Serbia

The sculpture Small Torso by Olga Jančić (1929-2012) was made of marble, in the form of round, smooth masses, simplified forms of accentuated sensuality, reduced to the most important elements of the human torso. The most common themes of Olga Jančić's sculptural poetics, as the artist herself pointed out, were related to "human life, nature, some manifestations of life in nature ..."

Katarina Konstantinović's medallion (1865) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

Applied Arts and Ethnology

The medallion was made at the request of Prince Mihailo Obrenović and was a gift to Katarina Konstantinović. It was made in the "technique of piercing" and is adorned with rich floral ornaments with numerous diamonds. Symbols of faith, hope and love are represented by a sapphire cross, an emerald lantern and a ruby heart. The background of the medallion is closed with full brushed glass with a place for a photo.

King Milan Obrenović’s Tie Pin (second half of the 19th century) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The pin belonged to King Milan Obrenović. It was made of a bullet used in the attempted assassination of King Milan in 1882 at the Saborna church. Ilka’s assassination is just one of four unsuccessful assassinations of King Milan Obrenović. Jelena-Ilka Marković,  the widow of Colonel Jevrem Marković, who was shot in the Topola Rebellion, was indignant because of her husband’s death and tried to assassinate King Milan. King Milan ordered that a decorative piece, a tie pin, richly decorated, be made from that bullet.

Serbian Civic Costume (mid-19th century) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The Serbian women's civic costume started to take form in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and is classified as a "fixed" costume. Its elements are a long dress, the so-called "fistan", cut at the waist and cut close to the torso, a silk belt “bajader” and a scarf crossed over the chest. “Libade”, a jacket tailored to the body with bell-shaped sleeves, was always worn over the fistan. They used to be decorated with fine fur, and that was called “škurteljka”.

Master plan of Belgrade (1923/1924) by Belgrade City Museum and Expert Commission led by Đorđe Pavlović KovaljevskiMuseums of Serbia

Urban Planning and Architecture

An Expert commission, led by architect Dragutin Đorđević, whose task was to collect data, write program and organize an international competition for the first Master Plan of Belgrade (MPB), was formed in 1919. The competition was implemented in 1922, and the jury considered 22 submitted works, which were sent from different European cities, such as Vienna, Zurich, Prague, Berlin, Paris or Budapest. It was concluded that none of them solves all the problems identified within the program, so the first prize was not awarded.

That same year, a new Expert Commission was formed, whose task was to draft the MPB using the best solutions for the works submitted to the competition. The activities of the Commission were managed by the architect Đorđe Pavlović Kovaljevski. The plan was completed in July 1923, and it was adopted by the Belgrade Municipality that same year, and in July 1924 by the Ministry of Construction. The plan was made in the scale of 1:4.000, and a copy from the fund of Belgrade City Museum, along with a copy from the Urban Institute of Belgrade, is, as far as is known, the only one preserved.

View of the First Block during construction (1960/1963) by Belgrade City Museum and Milan (Miša) PavlovićMuseums of Serbia

The First and Second residential blocks of New Belgrade are the first residential blocks of the new city on the left bank of the Sava river, the formation and construction of which began after the Second World War. The general lack of housing, one of the biggest problems in post-war Belgrade, required speed in construction and cheaper processes. Therefore, an experimental construction site was organized for the construction of these blocks. On it, in order to accelerate construction, but also due to the weaker bearing capacity of the terrain, it was made a skeletal system developed at the Institute for Material Testing of Serbia was applied, under the leadership of Branko Žeželj.

Building of New Belgrade (1960/1963) by Belgrade City Museum and Milan (Miša) PavlovićMuseums of Serbia

The system consisted of prefabricated pre-stressed concrete slabs, dimensions 4.20 x 4.20 meters, which were assembled on the construction site itself, and which can be seen on the present photography, in the foreground. The design team of these blocks, built from 1959 to 1963, consisted of architects and engineers Branko Petričić, Tihomir Ivanović, Dušan Milenković and Branko Žeželj. There are five types of buildings in them, divided into residential towers with emphasized verticality and residential buildings where the horizontality dominates. Ten types of apartments have been conceived, with an area of about 15 m2 per one inhabitant.

University Children's Hospital in Belgrade, Belgrade City Museum, Milan Zloković, 1932/1933, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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University Children's Hospital in Belgrade, Belgrade City Museum, Milan Zloković, 1932/1933, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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University Children's Hospital in Belgrade, Belgrade City Museum, Milan Zloković, 1932/1933, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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The University Children's Hospital in Tiršova Street in Belgrade was designed by the architect Milan Zloković, one of the most prominent representatives of modern architecture in Serbia. It is one of the most significant works of this architect and Serbian modern architecture in general. It was built from 1936 to 1940, but, due to damage during the Second World War, it began operating at full capacity only in 1947. Its construction is also important in the social sense, if we keep in mind that the premises of the children's hospital were originally located in inadequate barracks. The clinic is designed as a multi-storey building with characteristic elements of modernist architecture, such as free organization of the base, facade without ornamentation, flat roof, as well as roof terraces, which, together with other terraces, had functional significance and were intended for patient’s sunbathing and their connection with nature.

Letter of Andrija Vuković to the Prefect of the Belgrade Municipality, Belgrade City Museum, Andrija Vuković, 1854, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Letter of Andrija Vuković to the Prefect of the Belgrade Municipality, Belgrade City Museum, Andrija Vuković, 1854, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Letter of Andrija Vuković to the Prefect of the Belgrade Municipality, Belgrade City Museum, Andrija Vuković, 1854, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Prince Miloš Obrenović, after coming to power and after starting the works on the construction of public buildings, was very quickly encountered with the lack of educated architects and engineers in Serbia. That is why in the first decades after the Second Serbian Uprising, they generally came to Serbia from other countries, primarily Slavic. Among them were Czechs, Slovaks, as well as Serbs who were born and educated abroad. That was also the case with graduate engineer Andrija Vuković. In 1854, he sent a letter from Buda to the Prefect of Belgrade, Magazinović, in which he inquired about the status of his appointment as an engineer in Belgrade. We know that the answer to the letter was positive based on the fact that Vuković came to Belgrade and worked as a town engineer from 1862 to 1865, after which he was transferred to the Ministry of Construction.

Turkish Conquest of Belgrade (1522) by Belgrade City Museum and Hans Sebald BehamMuseums of Serbia

History Collection

The woodcut depicts the moment when, on August 8, 1521, the janissaries under the command of Piri-pasha launched an attack to the Lower Town. It was made in the workshop of Wolfgang Rech. This popular woodcut significantly influenced the later graphic images of Belgrade.

Kriechisch Wyssenburg (1550) by Belgrade City Museum and Jakob ClauserMuseums of Serbia

The woodcut is part of the fourth edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, printed in Basel in 1550. It depicts the 1456 unsuccessful Turkish siege of Belgrade led by Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. Between 1544 and 1628, Münster's Cosmographia had 46 editions in German, Latin, French, Italian, English and Czech. This first comprehensive scientific description of the world in German, a type of guide through history, geography, astronomy, natural sciences and folklore, was so popular in German states that, in addition to the Bible, it has long been the most widely read work.

The Belgrade Four Gospels (1552) by Belgrade City MuseumMuseums of Serbia

The oldest Belgrade printing house was founded in mid-16th century by Prince Radiša Dmitrović. After his death, his endeavor was taken over by Trojan Gundulić from Dubrovnik. The Belgrade printing house was not founded under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in a monastery, but in the city, in a secular environment. The compositor was the hieromonk Mardarije from the monastery Mrkša’s Church. According to the allegations from the colophon, the Belgrade Four Gospels was finished on August 4, 1552.

It was also the only book printed in the Belgrade printing house. Belgrade was the only city on the Balkan Peninsula that had a printing house for books in the Serbo-Slavic language in the 16th century. The copy of The Belgrade Four Gospels from the  Belgrade City Museum contains a complete text on 211 pages, and is one of the best preserved copies. It is printed on paper, in folio format, in large Cyrillic letters in the Serbo-Slavic literary language, in a red and black print. It is bound in a leather binding with metal buttons. The cover is made in gold print.

La Fortezza e la Citta di Belgrado (1688) by Belgrade City Museum and Johann Baptist Gumpp, Michel WeningMuseums of Serbia

During the Habsburg siege of Belgrade in 1688, engineer Johann Baptist Gumpp made a large composition and a complete depiction of the then Belgrade on the orders of Maximilian II Emanuel, the Elector Prince of Bavaria. Its prospectus presents the course of the siege, the plan of the city and its surroundings, as well as the prospects of Belgrade. Gumpp's work was published in Munich by Michael Wening, a Bavarian court engraver. The copperplate consists of nine subsequently assembled sheets. This was a first detailed plan of Belgrade, incomparably more accurate than any previous one, surpassing in precision many others that will appear decades later.

Der Neueroffneten Ottomannischen Pforten Fortsetzung (1700) by Belgrade City Museum and Paul RycautMuseums of Serbia

The first German edition of the comprehensive two-volume history of the Ottoman Empire by the English diplomat Paul Rycaut. Rycaut’s history, in addition to English and German, was also printed in French, Italian and Dutch. In 1665, as the Secretary to the English ambassador in Constantinople, Rycaut travelled the Constantinople Road from Edirne to Belgrade.

Map of the Principality of Serbia (1845) by Belgrade City Museum and Jovan Bugarski, Anastas JovanovićMuseums of Serbia

The first geographical map of the Principality of Serbia. It was drawn in Belgrade in 1843 by engineer Jovan Bugarski. It was lithographed by Anastas Jovanović and published in Vienna in 1845. It was published in several variations, including in French language. It was the first Serbian geographical map that received general recognition from the then professional public, while many foreign compilers of maps of Serbia also referred to it. 

Permanent exhibition of the Memorial Museum of Ivo Andrić, Belgrade City Museum, Photographer: Vladimir Popović, 2008, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Russian Room, Belgrade City Museum, Photographer: Vladimir Marković, 20th century, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Princess Ljubica’s Residence, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia - Belgrade, Photographer: Pavle Marjanović, Hadži Nikola Pavlović, 1829-1838, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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The entrance hall interior, Belgrade City Museum, Vladimir Popović, 2017, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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Interior, Belgrade City Museum, Photographer: Vladimir Popović, 1930, From the collection of: Museums of Serbia
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In addition to the main collections, the Museum also has 28 legacies. The Museum is also responsible for 15 different buildings, of which 10 are museums. These museums are: the Museum of Ivo Andrić, the Museum of Jovan Cvijić, the Museum of Paja Jovanović, the Collection of Icons Sekulić, the Residence of Princess Ljubica, the Archaeological Site of Vinča, the Zemun Home Museum, the Museum of Mladenovac, the Museum of Toma Rosandić and the Museum of Banjica Concentration Camp. In addition to the mentioned departments, the Belgrade City Museum also has a Department for Protection, which includes the Documentation Centre, the Conservation Office and the Education Office.

Credits: Story

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia
Belgrade City Museum
The narration was provided by: Jelena Vasić- Senior Curator, Milorad Ignjatović- museum adviser, Nika Strugar- Senior Curator, Dragana Stojić- curator, Miloš Spasić- Senior Curator, Angelina Banković- senior curator, Nataša Popovska- museum adviser, Isidora Savić- curator, Predrag Đidić- curator, Vladimir Tomić- senior curator, Darko Ćirić- museum adviser, Silvija Krejaković- museum adviser, Goran Antonić- curator.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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