1550 SERBIA - Belgrade

1. Belgrade Fortress - Zindan Gate 2. The Church of Saint Sava
3. The Pobednik 4. The House of the National Assembly

Belgrade (White City), the capital and largest city of Serbia, located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans, has a long history, which started in the 6th millennium BC, with Vinča culture, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, the city being conquered by Celts, and then by the Romans. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, Frankish Empire, Bulgarian Empire and Kingdom of Hungary before it became the capital of Serbian king Stephen Dragutin (1282-1316).

0490 SERBIA (Belgrade) - Saint Mark's Church in Belgrade

Because of the growth of the city, it became necessary by the beginning of the 20th century to build a bigger church in the Belgrade quarter of Palilula, but the wars didn't allow this until 1930, when Petar and Branko Krstić designed the plans for a new church dedicated to Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark. This was built between 1931 and 1940, but was consecrated and opened for divine service only in 1948. The church was built in the spirit of Serbian medieval buildings, using as a model the endowment of King Milutin, Gračanica Monastery, located near Priština, one of the four churches and monasteries included in 2004 on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Medieval Monuments in Kosovo. The external walls are in two colors of natural materials in the Serbian-Byzantine building method. It has 62m long and 45m wide, and the height of the main cupola to the base of the cross is 60m.

0308 SERBIA - The flag of Serbia between 2004 and 2011

It fit very well, Ana, especially that I particularly like the flags which include coat of arms. Thanks a lot. A few words about the flag, as I use to do. Serbia as independent state in actual borders (including Kosovo, whose independence Serbia didn't recognize it) exist since 2006, when the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the last remnant of the Yugoslav federation, has ceased to exist. So the current symbols of Serbia were officialy adopted in 2010 after theirs approval by the Government. The designs were made by Pr. Ljubodrag Grujić, who consulted Dragomir Acović, the Honorary President of the Serbian Heraldic Society. The flag from the image isn't the current one, but the one used between 2004 and 2011. The changes that were made are linked by the coat of arms' stylization and by the color standardization (the red and the blue are more darker, to avoid resemblance with those of the Russian flag).