In the year behind us, the National Museum Kraljevo devoted special attention, as always, to its primary mission: the protection, preservation, processing, and presentation of movable cultural heritage. Our six collections were significantly enriched and expanded through donations and acquisitions. Field research was also conducted both in Serbia and abroad.
We are particularly proud of our exhibition and publishing activities. In 2025, several important anniversaries were marked with special exhibitions: 75 years of the National Museum Kraljevo, 50 years of the Children’s May Art Salon, 30 years since the untimely death of Milorad Mihailović, one of the museum’s most important curators and directors.
Our long-standing cooperation with the National Museum of Serbia continued this year with the guest exhibition “Between Trapeza and Sofra: Metal Vessels from the 13th to 19th Centuries in the Collections of the National Museum of Serbia”, ceremonially opened on Statehood Day. We also hosted the exhibition of the Museum in Smederevo, “King Milan’s Journey East: Pilgrimage and Oriental Culture at the Serbian Court”, opened during the Žiča Spiritual Assembly “Transfiguration”, as well as the outstanding exhibition of naïve art from Kovačica, “The Female Artistic Manuscript of Kovačica’s Naïve Painting: From Needle and Thread to UNESCO”, organized by the Museum of Vojvodina. The year concluded with the exhibition of photographs and video works by artist Stefana Savić “This Is Not The Place.”
We can also highlight the publication of the monumental two-volume work “Population Census of 1863”, prepared by Bojana Miljković, PhD, Senior Research Associate of the Historical Institute in Belgrade, and Nemanja Trifunović, curator of the National Museum Kraljevo. This occasion inspired a one-day scienmtific conference titled “The Development of Towns in Western Pomoravlje in the 19th and 20th Centuries.” In addition, the proceedings of the conference “Kosovo and Metohija in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Historical-Geopolitical Context” were published, along with a monograph dedicated to archaeological research at the site of “Lojanik.” Our cooperation with the Historical Archives Kraljevo, alongside the journal “Our Past” was crowned with the award “Mihailo Valtrović”, given to the exhibition by Silvija Krejaković and Aleksandar Berežnov dedicated to the Allied bombing of 1944.
With great satisfaction, we welcomed primary and secondary school students, designing and conducting numerous workshops, book promotions, and lectures together. This year we also hosted the Spring Session of the Assembly of the National Committee of ICOM Serbia, which included the professional conference “Museums on the Internet”, where the work of the Official Internet Presentation of the National Museum Kraljevo was presented through four presentations. At the end of the year, we hosted the Regional Conference of Museum Educators, “Museum Education and Family: Intergenerational Learning, Shared Experience, and Identity Development”, also organized by the National Committee of ICOM Serbia.
We are especially proud of the work on our Official Internet Presentation, which is constantly being improved thanks to the efforts of the Editorial and Technical Boards. This year we further enhanced our internal organization, resulting in greater efficiency and overall quality of work. The best evidence of this is the fact that our website and social media content reached one million users and achieved over seven million views. In addition to our informative program, which regularly updates audiences on all museum activities, our educational-scientific posts have been particularly engaging, revealing lesser-known facts from the history of our city and region.
Finally, I would like to express gratitude for the support we have received from our visitors, especially our fellow citizens, to extend holiday greetings for the New Year and Christmas, and to invite you to follow us on our website and social media. We are proud of what we achieved in 2025 and look forward with optimism to the new year, 2026.
Darko Gučanin
historian, archivist
director of the National Museum Kraljevo