The Monument to the Unknown Hero ( / Spomenik Neznanom junaku) is located atop Mt. Avala

Avala

Avala is a mountain in Serbia, overlooking Belgrade. It is situated in the south-eastern corner of the city and provides a great panoramic view to Belgrade, Vojvodina and Šumadija, as the surrounding area on all sides is mostly a lowlands...

 in the south-east Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 perihpery, and was designed by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrovic

Ivan Meštrović was a Croatian and Yugoslav sculptor and architect born in Vrpolje, Croatia...

.

Memorial was built on the location of Žrnov

Žrnov

Žrnov or Žrnovan was a Serbian medieval fortress located on the highest top of Avala, at , in Belgrade, Serbia. At the top Ancient Romans built the outpost, and later the Serbs expanded it into a fortress. Ottomans occupied fort, and expanded and strengthened it for preparations of the attack on...

 fortress.

The construction of this monument was ordered by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia

Alexander I of Yugoslavia

Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...

, to commemorate the victims of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Marked only by the dates 1912-1918, the monument also commemorates those lost in the Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...

 (1912-1913).

In order to show his support for Yugoslav unity, the King ordered that this monument include caryatid

Caryatid

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese...

s representing all the nations over which he governed following the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. They represent Serb woman from Šumadija

Šumadija

Šumadija is a geographical region in Serbia. The area is heavily covered with forests, hence the name...

 (Šumadinka); a woman from Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

 and Vojvodina

Vojvodina

Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...

 (Panonka), a woman from Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

 (Crnogorka) and Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

 (Kosovka); Croat

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 women from Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

 (Dalmatinka) and Zagorje

Hrvatsko Zagorje

Hrvatsko Zagorje is a region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...

 (Zagorka); one Slovene and one Macedonian

Macedonians (ethnic group)

The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...

 woman.

The Monument to the Unknown Hero was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance

Monuments of Culture of Exceptional Importance (Serbia)

Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance are the monuments in the Republic of Serbia that have the highest level of the State protection, and some of them are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites....

 in 1987, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.

See also

• Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance
  Monuments of Culture of Exceptional Importance (Serbia)
  Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance are the monuments in the Republic of Serbia that have the highest level of the State protection, and some of them are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites....
  
  
• Tourism in Serbia
  Tourism in Serbia
  Serbia stretches across two geographic and cultural regions of Europe: Central Europe and Southeast Europe. This boundary splits Serbia roughly in a ratio of 1:2 alongside the Danube and Sava rivers. The northern parts of the country are Central-European lowlands while the southern and central...