Avala – Mountain near Belgrade

511 m hill south of Belgrade with war memorial, TV tower and sweeping panoramic views

Avala is a 511 m hill about 18 km south of central Belgrade and has been a nature reserve since 1859. In the Middle Ages a fortress on its summit controlled the approach to the city. In 1938 the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was built here – a work by sculptor Ivan Meštrović commemorating Serbian fallen of the First World War. The distinctive Avala Tower, destroyed by NATO in 1999 and rebuilt in 2009, now offers a panoramic viewing platform. From the summit you can see Belgrade, the Vojvodina plains, and on clear days deep into Šumadija.