Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine have the pleasure to announce that the Royal Compound tourist season is open from April 7 to October 31. Tours include the Royal Palace, the White Palace, the Park and the Royal Chapel. Visitors will accompanied by professional tour guides. Get acquainted with history, art and culture that our country is proud of during the pleasant two hour walk.
The Royal Compound in Dedinje in cooperation with Tourist Organisation of Belgrade (TOB) announces opening of the 2016 Tourist season and the first tour traditionally organised for Media representatives will take place Thursday, April 7 at 3 pm.
Every Saturday and Sunday from April 7 through October 31 at two regular times 11 am and 2 pm, the Tourist Organisation of Belgrade (TOB) will organise tours through the Royal Compound, while group visits are possible during working days with prior announcement. The entry ticket includes a round trip transfer tourist bus starting from Nikola Pasic Square in Belgrade; the Royal Compound is only a few minutes away from the city centre. Buses leave Nikola Pasic Square at 10:30 am and at 1:30 pm. The number of visitors is limited to 50 per group.
For further information and reservations, visitors must visit the Tourist Information Centre, Knez Mihailova 6, 11000 Beograd
Tel. 011 2635-622 and 011 2635-343
Contact person : Mrs Sanja Pavlović
E-mail:[email protected]; www.tob.rs
Schools, students and pension associations interested in visiting the Royal Compound should call the Office of HRH Crown Prince Alexander directly at 011/306-4014 or email: [email protected]. Note: Tours for students and pensioners are free.
Groups can have between 15 and 50 persons
Contact person: Jana Vujnović
Email: [email protected] www.dvor.rs
We kindly ask media representatives to send their accreditation and follow this event.
The Royal Palace was built between 1924 and 1929 with the private funds of His Majesty King Alexander I (the grandfather of HRH Crown Prince Alexander). The architects were Zivojin Nikolic and Nikolay Krassnoff of the Royal Academy. The palace is made of white stone in the Serbian-Byzantine style. Attached to The Royal Palace there is a Royal Chapel dedicated to Saint Apostle Andrew The First-Called, the Patron Saint of The Royal Family. The Royal Palace was the home of King Alexander I and King Peter II. Today The Royal Palace is the home of Crown Prince Alexander and his family.
The White Palace is located within the same complex as The Royal Palace and it was commissioned by command of His Majesty King Alexander I as the residence for his three sons HRH Crown Prince Peter (the future King Peter II), Prince Tomislav and Prince Andrej. King Alexander I envisaged that his three sons would require their own private accommodation when they became of age, but his assassination in Marseille caused the destiny of his sons to take a different turn. The young King Peter II became the new master of the Dedinje Complex and the completion of The White Palace was supervised by King Peter II great uncle HRH Prince Regent Paul. It was built from 1934 until 1936, as the project of the architect Alexander Djordjevic. When completed it became the official residence on loan to HRH Prince Regent Paul and his family, until King Peter II came of age. The ground floor of this classicistic palace houses a large hall and a number of drawing rooms furnished in the style of Louis XV and Louis XVI with large Venetian chandeliers. There is also a library which had more than 35 000 books and a formal Chippendale dining room.
The Palace Church is attached to the south side of The Royal Palace and linked to the main building by a colonnade of stone pillars. The Church is dedicated to St. Andrew the First Called (the Royal Family’s Patron Saint). The Church is based on the model of the monastery Church of Saint Andrew on the River Treska in Macedonia, which was built by Andrew the son of the Serbian medieval King Vukasin. The Church was designed and built at the same time as The Royal Palace.
The interior of the Church is covered with frescoes painted by a team of artists from the Belgrade Artist Association. Following King Alexander I instructions this group visited most of the Serbian medieval monasteries in order to copy their frescos. The group was led by academician Nikolai Kasnoff. After preparing the walls and cataloguing the drawings the final decision to go ahead was made by King Alexander I. The Russian painters Boris Obrascov, Nikolai Maiendorf, Vladimir Bickovski, Viktor Sevcov, and Reitlinger and Evgeny Varnu-Secret were chosen to paint the Church. All painters were requested to produce records of their previous work in medieval monasteries. The whole project for the completion of the Church took about 36 months.
This is just a brief introduction for all interested citizens who are invited to visit this extraordinary cultural and historical compound, that has had several tens of thousands domestic and foreign visitors last year.
