The Victor is a 4-metre figure with a falcon in his left hand and a sword in his right, on a 13-metre pedestal. It commemorates Serbia's triumph over both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.
ADVERTISEMENTThe most recognisable monument of Belgrade's skyline has been removed for refurbishment
The Victor is a 4-metre figure with a falcon in his left hand and a sword in his right, on a 13-metre pedestal.
It commemorates Serbia's triumph over both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and was designed and made in 1913 by Ivan Mestrovic, a renowned Yugoslav and Croatian sculptor.
The statue was placed on its pedestal overlooking the Belgrade fortress and the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers in 1928 and has not been moved since.
Since no technical documentation about the Victor and how it was fixed to the pillar exists, the Belgrade Cultural Monument Protection Institute, responsible for its removal and restoration, has used 3D scanning techniques in order to establish how the monument was anchored to the pillar it stands on – in order to understand how best to detach it.
Olivera Vuckovic, head of the Belgrade Cultural Monument Protection Institute, said: "The monument will be on display at the Istanbul Road, which is part of the Belgrade Fortress, and after that, it will travel to Smederevo [a small town in central Serbia]. The Victor will stay there around three months, and we expect the restoration of the bronze will be finished in February of 2020."