The Royal Compound has been in existence since 1924. In such a short time the compound has served as the most important residence of a country that changed nine names, two systems of Government and two dictators. The Royal Palace is today a symbol of big changes that engulfed Serbian and Yugoslav society during the 20th century. It is interesting to note that during the time of King Alexander I and Queen Maria, the decoration of The Royal and White Palaces did not include explicit Dynastic symbols and Royal insignia, if we exclude the Byzantine two-headed white eagles in the decoration of the arches in the basement of The Royal Palace.
There are numerous artefacts, paintings, photographs and testimonies in The Royal Compound, testifying to the interior adjustments of the Palaces after World War Two. There are three types of symbols of the Communist regime.
After the Second World War the regime’s used as they saw fit The Royal and White Palaces. The regime’s legacy in The White Palace represents a significant segment of its history. In a certain way the inherited condition of the Royal Compound until 2000 represented the history of a failed political experiment of the former Yugoslavia.
HRH Crown Prince Alexander II says that only dictators erase and cleanse history, and so the symbols of the period from 1945 to 2000, will remain in memory of the times that have passed.