Exhibition of flags from Great War opens at Military Museum

BELGRADE - An exhibition titled Regimental and Volunteer Flags From the Great War, authored by Andjelija Radovic, opened at the Military Museum in Belgrade on Friday.

The exhibition was opened on the Day of the Military Museum, commemorating August 22, 1878, when Prince Milan Obrenovic established the institution by a decree.

The exhibition, which includes about twenty flags, as well as documents and medals from the period, was opened by Assistant Minister of Defence for Human Resources Milos Jankovic, who noted the significance of the Military Museum for preserving the Serbian history and tradition.

By decrees on flags, issued shortly before the Balkan Wars - in 1906 and 1908 - new military flags were designed for Serbian regiments, along with Serbian tricolours featuring the coat-of-arms of the Kingdom of Serbia embroidered in silver.

In 1911, King Peter Karadjordjevic I and Minister of Military Affairs Stepa Stepanovic ceremonially handed 51 military flags to the regiments in Belgrade's Banjica district on two occasions, the author of the exhibition notes in the catalogue.

The Military Museum, situated in the Belgrade Fortress, is located in a building originally erected for the Military Geographic Institute in 1924.

The building, which was ceded to the museum in 1956, represents a symbol of Kalemegdan.

The first exhibition at the museum was opened in 1904 to commemorate the centenary of the First Serbian Uprising, and the museum was subsequently also featured at the Balkan States Exhibition in London in 1907.

The museum building was destroyed in World War I and a large part of the evacuated collections was later obliterated or seized.

In 1934, King Alexander...