Exhibition Serbia through Centuries opens

BELGRADE - An exhibition titled Serbia through Centuries opened on Wednesday at the Museum of Yugoslav History, on the occasion of the Serbian Statehood Day, which is marked on February 15.

Authors of the exhibition, curators Veselinka Kastratovic Ristic, Moma Cvijovic and Ana Panic selected 14 items salvaged from the former National Library of Serbia, which burned down during the Nazi bombing of 1941.

These exhibits tell tales of history, said State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture Dejan Ristic, such as the tale of the ship that carried the last Ottoman army commander out of Serbia.

The visitors will also have an opportunity to learn more about the Sinan Pasha's saber, military strategies of Serbian dukes, the Karadjordjevic dynasty's royal yacht, Serbian gold coins, the struggle for official recognition of the Serbian language as spoken by the people, commemorative stamps “with a defect” dedicated to King Aleksandar and many other stories.

Curator Cvijovic stressed the significance of the exhibited 1917 coin, honoring the unfortunate fate of the great Serbian poet Vladislav Petkovic Dis who lost his life during World War I on a ship taking him back to Serbia, which was sunk by German submarines near the Greek island of Corfu.

Also on display is a scale model of the Karadjordjevic dynasty's royal yacht, converted after World War II into an equally grandiose river ship Krajina, which was used by the lifelong president of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, as well as a scale model of the first Serbian steamer, Deligrad.

The exhibition is open through March 12, and aims to remind the public of some important and interesting facts from various moments in Serbian...