Description

This informative tour gives you an insight in the most interesting aspects of the communist period during and after World War II, the formation of former Yugoslavia, Yugoslav president Tito’s life, Non-aligned movement,’ Youth relay baton’, Tito’s death, and the subsequent conflicts of the nineties brought about by the dissolution of the Yugoslav state, as well as the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia and the political and social transition at the turn of the 21st century.

The main destination on the tour is the Museum of Yugoslav History the collection of which contains more than 200,000 items illustrating Yugoslav history of the 20th century. The museum consists of three units. One of them is the museum ‘May 25th’ which was opened to the public on May 25th 1962, on Tito’s 70th birthday as it was a gift from the city of Belgrade to Tito. Tito’s birthday was celebrated throughout the state as Youth Day from 1957 and was every year marked by a display of the physical and intellectual accomplishments of young Yugoslavs and a national rally which would finish by the presentation of a baton to Tito. The batons collected over the years feature as part of a permanent exhibition which is the most distinguishing characteristic of this museum.

Another part is the House of Flowers built in 1975 as a winter garden comprising work and leisure premises for President Tito. After his death in 1980 his remains were buried in the central flower garden. Tito’s thomb along with the rest of his memorial centre preserve the memory of the late President and an extensive collection of Tito’s treasures, presents, personal objects, documents and various items from the Yugoslav era.