The first time I set my eyes on the building it was night time and the visual effect of the lights was awesome. I was being driven by a local friend who confirmed that place was the national parliament.
Then, next day, I walked in that direction. I always like to take a look at this kind of buildings, as usually so many things happened there. This case is a little different though, as the building is hosting the parliament for only a couple of years now. Even so, it's a beautiful place and definitely deserves a visit. I didn't go inside, as I usually don't like to visit buildings inside when I am traveling and need to manage my time. But took a deep look at its facade, noticing the statues of lines in both sides.
The following text is a quotation from Wikipedia (
visit link) but I advise a reading of the original article as it provides furt5her information about the istitution and the previous buildings. The current location has been used only since 2006.
"The current Parliament building is located in downtown Belgrade, on the Nikola Pašic Square 13, in front of Pioneer's Park. It is officially called Dom Narodne Skupštine "House of the National Assembly"). The Parliament of Serbia moved into this building on 23 July 2006 following the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Prior to becoming the parliament of Serbia, it served as the seat of parliament for Yugoslavia (Kingdom, DFY, FPRY, SFRY and FRY) and the State Union. During the time of Yugoslavia and the State Union, the parliament of Serbia convened in another building on Kralja Milana street.
Construction on the building started in 1907, with the cornerstone being laid by King Petar I. The building was based on a design made by Konstantin Jovanovic in 1891; a variant of that design made by Jovan Ilkic, which won a competition in 1901. World War I delayed construction, and the original plans to the building were lost. Reconstruction of the plans were made by Ilkic's son Pavle. The interior was designed by Nikolaj Krasnov. It was designed in the manner of academic traditionalism. The construction of the building was completed in 1936 and the first session in the new edifice was held on October 20 of the same year. At the time, it was the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In September 1939, the Assembly was dissolved and during the Second World War it was occupied by the aggressor's civil administration for Serbia. Several decades after the end of the war, this was the building of the Assembly of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, in the 1990s, this edifice became the seat of the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and later the seat of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro. On June 5, 2006, Serbia became an independent republic, thus, the parliament building became the House of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.
The National Assembly House covers an area of 13,400 m2 and contains four floors: subterranean part, ground floor, first floor and attic and mezzanines – below the subterranean part, between the subterranean part and ground floor and between the ground floor and first floor. The building contains 100 offices, great and small plenary halls and four committee halls with full conference equipment. All the halls are air-conditioned. The building is equipped with computers, printers, scanners and fax machines, has an internal television channel and computer network with a non-stop internet connection. The library, situated on the first floor of the National Assembly, has an area of 165 m2 and contains over 60,000 books.
A sculpture by Toma Rosandic, Igrali se konji vrani ("Play of Black Horses"), was placed in front of the building in 1939.
Former building of the National Assembly
A clip of the parliament building burning (which happened during the October fifth Overthrow) can be seen in the 2008 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. The building is shown on the five thousand Serbian dinar note. The parliament building also seems to have served as inspiration in the game Half-life 2, featured as the Overwatch Nexus. The parliament building was featured in the 2011 movie Coriolanus."