СРБИЈА   SRBIJA	SERBIA
округ: Град Београд – okrug: Grad Beograd	district: City of Belgrade

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Belgrade, the capital of the Republic of Serbia, is situated at an elevation of 351 m where the river Sava flows into the Danube. The city of Belgrade has a population of 1,15 million (2011). Belgrade has a special administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council: the 11 urban municipalities Čukarica, Novi Beograd, Palilula, Rakovica, Savski Venac, Stari Grad (Old Town), Surčin, Voždovac, Vračar, Zemun and Zvezdara, and the 6 suburban municipalities Barajewo, Grocka, Lazarevac, Mladenovac, Obrenovac and Sopot. Belgrade covers 3.6% of Serbia's territory, and 22.5% of the country's population lives in the city.

In the last centuries BC, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe, the Singi. After the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city and named it Singidūn. (dūn, fortress). In 34–33 BC the Romans took Belgrade and named it romanized Singidunum in the 1st century AD, and by the mid-2nd century, the city was proclaimed a 'municipium' by the Roman authorities, evolving into a full fledged 'colonia', the highest city class, by the end of the century. In 395 AD, the site passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. Across the Sava from Singidunum was the Celtic city of Taurunum (Zemun); the two were connected with a bridge throughout Roman and Byzantine times. In 442, the area was ravaged by Attila the Hun. In 471, it was taken by Theodoric the Great, who continued into Greece. As the Ostrogoths left for Italy, the Gepids took over the city. In 539 it was retaken by the Byzantines. In 577, some 100,000 Slavs poured into Thrace and Illyricum, pillaging cities and settling down. The Avars conquered the whole region by 582. Around 878 the first record of the name Beligrad appeared, during the rule of Bulgarian Knyaz (Prince) Boris I. For about four centuries, the city remained a battleground between the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, Serbia and the Bulgarian Empire. Stefan Dragutin (r.1276–1282), received Belgrade from his father-in-law, Stephen V of Hungary in 1284; it served as the capital of the Kingdom of Syrmia, and Dragutin is regarded as the first Serbian king to rule over Belgrade. Following the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 and the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Serbian Empire began to crumble as the Ottoman Empire conquered its southern territory. The north resisted through the Serbian Despotate, which had Belgrade as its capital. In 1521, the fort was finally captured by Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent and his 250,000 soldiers. Belgrade was made the seat of the district (Sanjak), becoming the second largest Ottoman town in Europe at over 100,000 people, surpassed only by Constantinople. Occupied by the Habsburgs three times (1688–1690, 1717–1739, 1789–1791), Belgrade was quickly recaptured each time by the Ottomans. During the First Serbian Uprising, the Serbian revolutionaries held the city from 1807 until 1813, when it was retaken by the Ottomans. After the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815, Serbia reached semi-independence, which was formally recognized by the Porte in 1830. In 1841 the Serbian capital was moved from Kragujevac to Belgrade. With the Principality's full independence in 1878, and its transformation into the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882, Belgrade once again became a key city in the Balkans, and developed rapidly. After World Waar I, Belgrade became the capital of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. During World War II Belgrade was heavily bombed in 1941. On 29 November 1945, Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade (later to be renamed to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 7 April 1963). During the post-war period, Belgrade grew rapidly as the capital of the renewed Yugoslavia, developing as a major industrial centre. In 1999, during the Kosovo War, NATO bombings caused substantial damage to the city.

The National Theatre (Народно позориште (Narodno pozorište)) [left, no. 2773: top picture] was founded in 1869. One year before, the Serbian National Theatre of Novi Sad (then the capital of Serbian culture in Austria-Hungary) had performed in Belgrade (then the capital of the Principality of Serbia). Prince Mihailo Obrenović III of Serbia, impressed by the performances he experienced, invited Jovan Đorđević (the founder of the Novi Sad Serbian National Theatre) to found a similar institution in Serbia. Having accepted, Jovan Đorđević came to Belgrade with half of his company of actors and founded the National Theatre in Belgrade, seven years after having founded the Novi Sad theatre. The theatre was built in 1869 by the architect Aleksandar Bugarski on the site of the former Turkish Stambol Gate and had a total of 993 seats. The building was a typical theatre building at the time and was particularly reminiscent of La Scala, Milan, with regard to its Renaissance conception and the decorative finish (this building is depicted on glass no. 2773). Destroyed by cannon fire in 1914, it was rebuilt in 1922 in Historicist style by Josip Bukavac. The new theatre was severely damaged by bombs in 1941. Later, reconstructions completely changed the original appearance. Between 1986 and 1989 major reconstruction works restored the original appearance of 1922. In addition, an annex was built towards Braće Jugovića Street. Besides for theatrical purposes, the hall has been used for charity balls and concerts during the 19th century. The Great Constitutional Assembly adopted the famous 1888 Constitution in this building.

The bottom picture on glass no. 2773 shows a view of King Milan Street (улица краља Милана, ulica kralja Milana), one of the main streets in the Serbian capital. It it located between the squares Terazije and Slavija. Numerous representative buildings are located in this street, such as the old and new palace, the former residences of the Serbian kings Milan I Obrenović and Aleksandar Karađorđević. Originally, the street had been named Kragujevči drum. On the city map of 1876 the part up to the intersection with Knez Miloša ulica is named Milana ulica, honouring Prince (later King) Milan Obrenović. At that time, Milana ulica also included Terazije. On maps of 1905 onwards, the name Milana ulica was extended until Slavija. After World War II, the street was renamed Bulevar Maršala Tita. In the early 1990s, the name Ulica srpskih vladara ('street of the Serbian rulers') was used. Today, the original name King Milan Street is used officially again.

The Old Palace (Стари Двор, Stari Dvor) [background], the Royal Palace of the Obrenović dynasty of Serbia, presently housing the City Assembly of Belgrade, is situated at the corner of Kralja Milana and Dragoslava Jovanovića streets. It was built between 1882 and 1884, according to the design of Aleksandar Bugarski, in the style of academism of the 19th century, with intention to surpass all existing residences of the Serbian rulers. The Palace was built when Serbia was proclaimed a kingdom; in that same building, King Milan abdicated in favor of his son, Aleksandar Obrenović, on 22 February 1889. Between 1903 and 1914, the Old Palace was the residence of the Karađorđević dynasty. In 1919 and 1920, meetings of the Provisional National Assembly took place there. Royal festivities and receptions of high foreign guests took place there until 1941. The Palace was damaged twice: during World War I and during the bombing of Belgrade, on 5 April 1941. The repair and re-arrangement of the Old Palace after World War II lasted until 1947. During that period, the architecture of the building was significantly changed. The two domes facing the garden were removed (the dome at the corner to Dragoslava Jovanovića street that can be seen on the picture on glass no. 2773 remained and still exists today), while the façade facing the present Bulevar kralja Aleksandra was completely changed. Since that time, the building housed the Presidium of the National Assembly, then the Federal Government, and, since 1961, the City Assembly of Belgrade.

The Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences (Српска краљевска академија, Srpska kraljevska akademija) was the successor to the Serbian Learned Society (Српско учено друштво, Srpsko učeno društvo) with which it merged in 1892 and accepted its members as its own either regular or honorary members, its tasks and its place in scientific and cultural life. The same had occurred several decades earlier when the Serbian Learned Society in 1864 took over the place and functions of the Society of Serbian Scholarship (Друштве Српска словесности, Društvo srpske slovesnosti), the first learned society in the Principality of Serbia, founded in 1841. The Neo-Baroque and Art-Nouveau building of the Academy depicted on glass no. 0000 [left] was designed by Dragutin Đorđević and Andra Stevanović. Construction began in 1914 but was interrupted by World War I. The object was finished in 1924, but due to high construction expenses, the Academy failed to move into its new building; instead of that, the entire object was rented. The Academy finally and officially moved into the building in 1952.
Glass no. 0000 is labeled in Serbian (Палата академије наука, Palata akademije nauka) and French (Belgrade Palais de l’Academie des Sciences).

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrad, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_in_Belgrade, http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/europe/yu_beograd_theatre.htm, http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/europe/yu_beograd_theatre_new.htm, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulica_Kralja_Milana, http://www.beograd.rs/cms/view.php?id=201331, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Academy_of_Sciences_and_Arts]