Raška, Serbia – The whirlwind of war that swept through Serbia in 1914 forced the state leadership to retreat from Belgrade into the country’s interior. Along with the King, the government, and the army, a large number of civilians also fled. And so it happened that a peaceful small town in the southwest became Serbia’s war capital and the scene of a true historical drama.
Raška is a small town nestled in southwestern Serbia, between Kopaonik and Golija, in the valley where the Trnavska River flows into the Raška, and a little further, the Raška into the Ibar. Though a small place, it is a town with an incredible history.
Indeed, it was Raška in the autumn of 1915, when it had just over 1,000 inhabitants, that served as the war capital of Serbia for 13 days!
It must have been a spectacular and terrifying sight! Led by King Petar, Regent Aleksandar, Nikola Pašić, and other government members, practically all of Serbia poured into Raška, fleeing the horrors of war that had already engulfed the north of the country.
The most significant place in the entire country during those days became the house of the Kursulić family in Raška. It was there, from October 31 to November 12, 1915, that as many as 11 sessions of the government of the Kingdom of Serbia were held, discussing the future fate of the country and its people.
The Kursulić house, belonging to well-to-do local merchants, has survived to this day. Since 2015, it has housed the city library and the “Gradac” Center for Culture and Education, which also includes a contemporary art gallery. To mark 100 years since the fateful events of World War I, a memorial room “Raška – War Capital of the Kingdom of Serbia 1915” was opened here.
The room displays numerous photographs, documents, weaponry, uniforms, as well as a significant number of art objects and pieces of original furniture from that period. All of this aims to meticulously recreate the atmosphere in which the government of the Kingdom of Serbia resided and held its sessions in November 1915.
However, the most valuable exhibit of this permanent display is a rare phototype edition of the Miroslav Gospel, the most significant Cyrillic monument of Serbian-Slavic literacy from the 12th century. It was precisely in the Kursulić house that this priceless work was handed over for safekeeping to the state treasury, with which it would cross Albania.
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Source: Istorijski Zabavnik; Foto: Wikimedia Creative Commons