Ruins of the National Library of Serbia (1941)

Remnants of Serbia's National Library, founded in 1832 and largely destroyed with irreplaceable manuscripts during German air raids in 1941.

The National Library of Serbia was founded in 1832 by Prince Miloš Obrenović and became the country's most important archive, housing medieval manuscripts from the 12th century, incunabula, and millions of other documents. On April 6, 1941, German air raids destroyed much of the building and its irreplaceable collections — including manuscripts with no copies elsewhere. The date is considered one of the darkest in Serbian cultural history. The surviving ruins and a nearby modern building stand as a quiet reminder of what war can do to a nation's cultural memory.