page_title: Belgrade Main railway station
section_title: World War II and reconstruction
hierarchical_section_title: Belgrade Main railway station / History / World War II and reconstruction
caption_attribution_description: English: 1941 bombardment main railway station BGEspañol: Estación de ferrocarril de Belgrado tras su bombardeo. 1941.
context_page_description: The Belgrade Main railway station was a train station in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was built between 1882 and 1885 after the designs of the architect Dragutin Milutinović, and it has the status of a сultural monument of great importance. Until the opening of the new Belgrade Center station in 2016, it was the city's main station, and the busiest train station in the country. In order to free up the space for the Belgrade Waterfront project, the station was closed on 1 July 2018, and repurposed to become a museum.
  Passenger trains have been gradually relocated to the new station during 2016 and 2017. Most national railway traffic was moved to the new station in December 2017, thus leaving only international trains and two trains to Novi Sad in the old station. The Main station operated until 30 June 2018, when the last train, international train 340 to Budapest, left the station at 21:40. International trains were relocated to Prokop and train to Bar relocated to the Topčider railway station.
context_section_description: The building was damaged during World War II. It was hit during the bombing of Belgrade, part of the German attack on Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Immediately after entering Belgrade, Germans constructed an improvised stationary building next to the damaged building, on the location where the Tito's Blue Train was exhibited in 1980. The station was further damaged during the heavy Easter Bombing, conducted by the Allies in 1944. The building was reconstructed after the war, being fully finished in 1953. Two side towers, one of the main architectural and visual marks of the station in the direction of the Karađorđeva Street, weren't rebuilt but were completely demolished instead. 
  The post-war reconstruction was headed by the Russian contractors. The clock, placed above the main entrance immediately after the opening in 1885, was also damaged. New mechanism was placed inside and the clock was returned to its original place, but the clock's decorative lace of wrought iron wasn't restored. The door at the main entrance were replaced, but the decoration from the same material as the clock's also hasn't been restored. The glass roof was completely destroyed during the war, but the Russian opted for a built roof instead for restoring the original, glass one. Above the clock, in the tympanum there was a coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia, held by sculptured, stone winged lions (gryphons. Above this composition, the Roman numerals MDCCCLXXXIV, marking the year of 1884, were written over the architrave. New Communist authorities took down the royal coat of arms immediately after taking over after World War II. The stone lions and the cartouche, the decorative round shield around them, were removed later and disappeared after a while. The late 2010s plans for the reconstruction include the restoration of the coat of arms, but none of the other destroyed or removed parts of the building.
  The coat of arms composition on the tympanum (fronton) was 3.9 m (13 ft) long and 1.15 m (3 ft 9 in) tall. It was reconstructed in 2019 and made of metal core covered with clay, which is used to make the plaster cast. This cast was used for the new sculpture, which was made of the mix of concrete and three types of crushed Aranđelovac stone. The coat of arms was placed on 11 February 2020.
caption: 1941 bombardment
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