Quiet, shady street with lots of greenery and only a few houses, no different from dozens of similar ones in the Belgrade neighborhood of Voždovac… At number 25 there is a small ground floor house with a cracked facade and a dilapidated roof with missing tiles testifies to remembering better days .
The modest plaque on the wall of this building is the only reminder that Milunka Savić spent her peacetime days here - a Serbian heroine of the Balkans and the First World War, a sergeant in the Second Regiment of the Serbian Army "Knjaz Mihailo" and a woman with the most decorations in the history of war.
If, by any chance, someone wanted to visit the house where "Serbian Jovanka Orleanka", the famous warrior Milunka Savić, spent her old age, she would have to work hard.
Officially, the house is located in Voždovac, in the street that bears her name. In reality, it is only a few hundred meters long alley with a dozen houses to which there is no signpost, and which the residents of this Belgrade neighborhood have a hard time finding.
The scene shown at 25 Milunka Savić Street is even sadder.
An old, dilapidated house with a cracked facade and windows through which drafts blow, almost collapsed. Behind it, you can see a larger, unfinished house in which the current owners of the building live. To them, Milunka Savić's old house serves as a kind of passage to a new, added work.
Milunka Savić, “grandmother-killer”
There are those on the street who still remember Milunka. They say she loved children and many spent her childhood in her house listening to war adventures. She told them about the war, the battles, how it was when they discovered in the army that she was a woman… she also showed them the scars from the wounds she received in battles and the medals awarded to her for bravery… They say she was a real "grandmother-killer" ”Who walked along the alley with her hands on her back and a military step and whom everyone loved.
However, this Serbian heroine also had her "suitcase of sorrow". She lived in great misery and poverty. After the war, like thousands of other veterans, Milunka was forgotten by the state for which she fought and to which she brought freedom.
Milunka bought a house in Voždovac from the money she earned working as a cleaner in a state-owned company. She lived there with one daughter and three adopted ones, one of whom was severely disabled. Neighbors remember that she had a yard full of flowers and that everything, though poor, was always tidy and tidy.
During the time of Mayor Branko Pešić, Milunka Savić received a one-bedroom apartment in the settlement of Braće Jerković. Not even a year later, after three strokes, she died in that apartment on October 5, 1973.
The family house in the street named after Milunka Savić was sold by her daughters in 1974. They say they were told the road would pass there. The house is now privately owned. A memorial plaque was erected in the early 1990s, but the building is not under any state protection.
After rumors appeared in the media that the current owner planned to demolish the house because it was in poor condition, and he did not have the funds to renovate it, information arrived from the city administration that Belgrade, in cooperation with the republican authorities, would renovate Milunka Savić's house.
After that, the leaders of Belgrade promised, this building will be a memorial to the life and merits of the greatest Serbian heroine.
Milunka Savić was a Serbian heroine of the Balkans and the First World War, who was called "Serbian Jovanka Orleanka" by the French because of her immense courage.
She received many decorations, including two French orders of the Legion of Honor and the "Milos Obilic" medal. To this day, she remains the only woman in the world to be awarded the French Order of the Cross of War with a golden palm tree.
She died on October 5, 1973, and her remains were transferred from the family tomb in the Alley of the Greats only 40 years after her death - on November 10, 2013.
A great and brave woman. I don't think there are any more, and I hope I'm wrong.