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“When I came, I found the most beautiful place of old, The too large a city
of Belgrade, Which was devastated and forlorn by the circumstances.
I raised it and dedicated it to the Most Holy Virgin.”
 

Despot Stefan Lazarević (1377-1427)
Warrior and poet, first made Belgrade the capital
of all Serbian countries. He became Prince when he
was 12 after his father Prince Lazar was killed in the
Battle of Kosovo.
Apart from being one of the most educated people
of his age (he encouraged the development of
architecture and arts), he was also distinguished for
his bravery in the battles near Rovin, Nikopolje and
Angora.
He was the most eminent of 24 knights of the Order
of the Dragon and received Belgrade as a gift from
Hungary.
Besides Constantinople, Belgrade is the only city
dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin.
 

Milutin Milanković (1879-1958)

linking variations in the Earth’s orbit to long-term climate
changes. This theory is known as Milankovitch cycles.

Milunka Savić (1888-1973)
A woman with the greatest number of medals awarded
in the history of warfare. She was wounded nine times.
An impeccable marksman, she could hit anything with
a hand grenade. When her brother received call-up
papers for mobilisation in the war between Serbia and
Bulgaria in 1913, she put on men’s clothes and joined
the Serb Army to replace him. She received her first
medal and the rank of Corporal in the battle of
Bregalnica. During the battle, she was wounded and it
was only then, when she was received in hospital, that
it was discovered she was a woman. During the WWI,
she was awarded her first Karađorđe Star with Swords

after the battle of Kolubara when she single-handedly (!) captured 20
German soldiers. She was awarded her second Karađorđe Star with
Swords after the battle of Crna Reka in 1916 when she captured 23
Bulgarian soldiers single-handedly.
In Thessalonica, she hit a bottle of cognac at a 40 m distance with a hand
grenade for a bet with French General Maurice Sarrail. The remaining 19
bottles of 1880 cognac she shared among to the soldiers of her company.
She was awarded French Légion d’Honneur /Legion of Honour/ two times,
Russian Cross of St. George, English medal of the Most Distinguished
Order of St Michael, Serbian Miloš Obilić medal... She is the only woman
in the world awarded with French Croix de Guerre /War Cross/ with Gold
Palm. After the WWI, she refused the offer to move to France and be
granted French army pension. Instead, she choose to live in Belgrade,
but people soon forgot her merits. The rest of her life, she worked as
a cleaning lady.

Ivo Andrić (1892-1975)
Novelist and diplomat. His best known works include:
"The Bridge on the Drina", "Damned Yard", "The Days
of the Consuls" a.k.a. "Chronicles of Travnik". As a
diplomat, he was posted in Bucharest, Trieste, Graz,
Marseilles, Paris, Madrid, and his successful diplomatic
career was crowned with the position of Ambassador
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Berlin, to which he
was appointed in 1939. A day after Germany invaded
Yugoslavia in 1941, Andric left Berlin and throughout
the Second World War he lived in Belgrade in a
seclusion of a rented room, writing his most famous
novels. His works have been translated into more than

40 languages. He was decorated with Commander Cross with Star of
the Order of Polonia Restituta and French Legion of Honour (rank of
Grand Officer). In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Duško Popov (1912-1981)
A famous WWII spy and a model for Ian Fleming’s
James Bond 007. Charismatic, rich and well educated,
he had a penchant for fast cars and attractive women.
In 1940, he was recruited by his pre-war friend to
work for the Abwehr, German secret service, but he
promptly offered his services to the British as a double
agent. The Germans gave him code name Ivan, and
the British Tricycle, over his preference for three-in-
a-bed sex. The Germans had no clue that the spy
network created by their most reliable secret agent in
England was actually comprised of MI5 operatives who
fed them with false information. After England, Popov