Tito’s Legacy: Surveying the Yugoslav Leader’s Real Estate

Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito used many residences and holiday homes during the long period of his rule from 1944 until his death in 1980.

The Communist president enjoyed a luxury lifestyle while in office, and when he died, his possessions were estimated to be worth dozens of millions of euros. The issue of who should inherit his assets resulted in a legal dispute which continues to this day.

Some of Tito's properties have since been sold off or rented out, but others are still popular attractions for Yugo-nostalgic tourists, like the House of Flowers in Belgrade, where he is buried, or his villa in his home village of Kumrovec in Croatia, where his birthday is celebrated by his admirers each year.

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Villa Mir in Belgrade, which was built for Tito in 1979, depicted in the Josip Broz Tito Memorial Centre catalogue. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Pinki.

After World War II and the liberation of Belgrade, Tito moved to the Serbian capital and lived in a villa at 15 Uzicka Street in the upmarket Dedinje district of the city.

During WWII, the villa, which was built in 1934, had been used by German commanders until it was occupied by the Yugoslav Partisans. The commander of the Partisan forces, Peko Dapcevic, led the final operation for the liberation of Belgrade from the villa. From 1946 until 1979, it became Tito's home.

Tito also lived at some point after the war in the Beli Dvor (White Palace), the property of the former royal family of Yugoslavia, which was completed in 1937. When he came to Belgrade, he brought his long-standing personal assistant and allegedly greatest love, Davorjanka Paunovic. She died in 1946 and was buried within the palace complex.

The complex is now...