The
Monument to the Unknown Hero ( / Spomenik Neznanom junaku) is located atop
Mt. AvalaAvala is the mountain overlooking the city of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is situated in the south-eastern corner of the city and provides a great panoramic view to Belgrade, Vojvodina and Šumadija, as the surrounding area on all sides is mostly a lowlands...
in
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
, south-east of the capital,
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
, and was designed by the
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
n sculptor
Ivan MeštrovićIvan Meštrović was a Croatian sculptor born in Vrpolje, Croatia...
.
Memorial was built on the location of Žrnov fortress.
The construction of this monument was ordered by
King Alexander I of YugoslaviaAlexander I Karađorđević was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:Alexander Karađorđević was born in Cetinje in Principality of Montenegro in December 1888...
, to commemorate the victims of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. Marked only by the dates 1912-1918, the monument also commemorates those lost in the
Balkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913. The First Balkan War broke out on 8 October 1912 when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia , having large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman sovereignty, attacked the Ottoman Empire, terminating its five-century...
(1912-1913).
In order to show his support for Yugoslav unity, the King ordered that this monument include
caryatidA caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese...
s representing all the nations over which he governed following the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. They represent Serb women from
ŠumadijaŠumadija is a geographical region in Serbia. The area was heavily forested, hence the name . The city of Kragujevac is the center of the region, and the administrative center of the Šumadijski okrug in Central Serbia.-Borders:Šumadija is located between rivers Sava and Danube in the north, river...
(Šumadinka),
VojvodinaThe Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province in Serbia, containing about 27% of its total population according to the 2002 Census. It is located in the northern part of the country, in the Pannonian plain of Central Europe...
(Panonka),
MontenegroMontenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
(Crnogorka) and
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
(Kosovka); Croat women from
DalmatiaDalmatia , is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and is situated in modern Croatia. It spreads between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor, in Montenegro, in the southeast...
(Dalmatinka) and
ZagorjeHrvatsko zagorje is a historic region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...
(Zagorka); one Slovene and one
MacedonianThe Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs are a South Slavic people who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language...
woman.
See also
- Serbian Campaign (World War I)
The Serbian Campaign was fought from August 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia at the outset of First World War, until the end of the war in 1918...
- History of Serbia
The origins of the history of today's Serbia lie in the Slavic settlement on the Balkans, on the territories ruled by the Byzantine Empire, between 6th and 8th centuries...
- Monument of Culture of Great Importance