A visit to the National Museum in Belgrade

Visiting museums is like traveling through time. Sometimes it takes you to the recent past and sometimes even to the Paleolithic and Neolithic.

I had guests from Greece, and as my isolation due to the Covid infection ended, I was happy to walk around the city with them. At the end of the walk, they expressed their wish to visit the National Museum located on Republic Square in Belgrade. When you find yourself in this square, you cannot fail to notice this imposing building.

My friends were curious so we went inside. At the entrance to the museum, on the left and right, there are sculptures of half-naked women representing the mothers, wives and sisters of heroes who died in battles in the late Middle Ages.

Then we came across a female statue called "Remembering".

On the ground floor, within the atrium, the National Museum's archaeological collections from the Paleolithic to ancient Greek and Roman culture and art are presented. Sometimes concerts or other cultural events are held here.

Here we saw a lot of interesting objects that were used in the daily life of peaceful people who lived in the Paleolithic and Neolithic. The Neolithic community of Vinča, settled in Vinča near Belgrade, on the banks of the Danube, lived a peaceful life from their work. Based on the objects they made from stone, it was a very advanced community.

The figures they made also indicate a peaceful period without confilcts.

The Bronze Age of the second half of the second millennium BC brought different types of jewelry that are very attractive even today. I was particularly interested in amber jewelry. Amber artefacts occured in the Central Balkans in the Middle Bronze Age. Amber in the prehistoric Balkans was a sign of social prestige.

My friends found items from ancient Greece interesting. I have never seen before the golden masks that were placed on the face and feet of Greek rulers during the posthumous act.

And the tableware for tribal aristocracy of the 6th century BC looked very classy.

We saw a lot of exhibited Hellenistic and Roman sculptures, created in the period between the 2nd century BC and 4th century AD. They were used for various purposes and they include idealised depictions of deities, but also scenes from everyday life.

The floor mosaic from the Roman Christian building from the 4th century is also very interesting. The creativity of people who lived so long ago is amazing.

My friends looked at each object for a long time and carefully, and my son and I went up to the second floor, where the objects of the Middle Ages were displayed. Unlike the peaceful prehistoric period, the Middle Ages were marked by many bloody battles, so on this floor you could see mostly artworks related to some battles and weapons. But there was also jewelry that also seemed more aggressive and striking than jewelry in the prehistoric period.

We saw various decorative elements as well as dishes and a large church bell.

And finally, the last floor where the art of the new century in my country, Serbia, was presented. On this floor we saw a sculpture of the favorite historical figure of the Serbian people, Vuk Karadzic. Thanks to this man, Serbia got its own alphabet of 30 letters called "azbuka".

We saw a lot of new age visual art. Of everything we saw, the portraits of ladies who look very classy and feminine left the strongest impression on me... Times change, so unfortunately the concept of femininity and beauty changes, but in my opinion the lady in the picture below is example of true female beauty. And I will end my article with her.

Thank you very much for reading.

The images and article are original and mine. The article was previously published on Hive, by me.