Main Railway Station

The impressive building of the Main Railway Station has been one of Belgrade’s symbols for more than 130 years. The Station was built in 1884 having as an example other European railways stations. At the same year first railway appeared in Serbia connecting Belgrade and Niš. The grand opening was assisted by 200 officials from Europe, on the 20th of August 1884 King Milan, Queen Natalia and Prince Alexander traveled by train from the Railway Station to Zemun via Sava Bridge.

The original contractor, construction firm from France, went bankrupt, and Serbia state had no guarantee and lost 36 million of dinars. This fraud turned to be a real scandal in Serbia, the Prime-Minister of that time and even Prince Milan Obrenović, were accused of accepting bribes. In spite of all the problems the construction started according to the project created by Austrian architect von Schlicht and Dragutin Milutinović, professor of the Technical Faculty of the Higher School of Belgrade. The building was complex and advanced for its time in terms of architectural form (in classicism style), functionality and space organization. It is clear that the beautiful building of the Main Railway Station belongs to the group of buildings that meant to Principality and the Kingdom of Serbia accepting and developing technical achievements of Europe of that time.