On this day, April 14th, 2026, it is the 85th anniversary of the German occupation of Kraljevo in the Second World War. Soldiers of the 6th Bosnian Regiment, led by reserve lieutenant Žarko Tomić, dug a trench near the post office. The first occupation administration was formed by members of the 60th Motorized Division, and later garrison troops of the 717th Infantry Division arrived.
On this day, April 13th, 2026, it is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Kosta Cukić, economist, professor of the Lyceum, and minister of finance and education, credited with creating the modern financial system and reforming gymnasiums, as well as founding the Great School, the predecessor of the University of Belgrade. He is remembered for his honesty. It is also believed that he introduced the card game préférence into Serbia.
On this day, April 6th, 2026, we are marking the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, which began on the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the so-called April war, from April 6th, 1941, when the German air force bombed Belgrade, to April 17th, when the capitulation of Yugoslavia was signed.
On this day, April 1st, 2026, it is the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the work of the Railway Workshop, later the Wagon Factory. On the eve of the Second World War, 800 workers were employed here, who annually repaired about 5,000 passenger and freight wagons, but also worked on the production of new ones. After the war, it resumed its work under the name Wagon Factory.
On this day, March 27th, 2026, it is the 85th anniversary of the military coup that led to the fall of the Cvetković–Maček government, as well as the demonstrations that followed. These events also had their echo in Kraljevo, where demonstrations were organized against the accession of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the Tripartite Pact.
On this day, March 8th, 2026, International Women’s Day is celebrated. It was first marked in 1911, although at the beginning it was not connected with a specific date. The link between March 8 and this holiday was established later, at the Second International Congress of Communist Women in 1921. The United Nations recognized this holiday in 1977.
Just 3 kilometers from Raška, in the village of Gnjilica, lies the Končul Monastery, one of the oldest endowments of Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja. It was built in the pre‑Nemanjić period, and Stefan Nemanja restored it around 1175. In this monastery, the future archbishop Danilo II took monastic vows, and during the reign of King Milutin it was also the seat of the Končul Diocese.
The Vinča culture belongs to the Late Neolithic, that is the Younger Stone Age, and the initial period of the Copper Age. It developed in the period from about 5300 BCE until 4500 BCE. It encompassed a wide area of the northern and central Balkans. On the territory of Kraljevo, remains of the Vinča culture were discovered at the site Divlje Polje in Ratina.
Miljko Petrović Riža was one of the richest industrialists in Kraljevo between the two world wars. He owed his nickname to the water chute (riža), by which timber was transported from the forests on Čemerno and Goč to his sawmills. After the war he was accused of economic collaboration with the occupier, and his property was confiscated.
The vine has been cultivated in these areas for thousands of years. During the Middle Ages, viticulture flourished on the estates of monasteries and nobility. Wine regions were formed that are known to this day. After the Ottoman period, viticulture developed again, and Serbian wines, despite the appearance of phylloxera and the extinction of old varieties, gradually broke through to European markets.