Upon the completion of adaptation of the old school building into a modern museum space (2006), the National Museum in Kraljevo realised a complex permanent exhibition, which was opened on May 16th, 2008, after two years of work carried out by the complete team of museum experts from the National Museum Kraljevo and managed by the director Dragan Drašković. The entire first floor of the building which covers four halls and a corridor along both wings of the building was intended for permanent exhibition. The permanent exhibition of the National Museum Kraljevo provides a general insight into the history of Kraljevo and its surroundings. The curators, i.e. authors of the exhibition, adjusted their ideas to the possibilities offered by the space: the visitor goes upstairs to the hallway; the right wing of the building is dedicated to a separate Hall of Archaeology, which is chronologically connected with the Hall of War History of Kraljevo and its surroundings, while the corridor in this wing of the building is closed into a Memorial Room dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting in Kraljevo in October 1941, one of the most tragic events in the past of the city; the left wing of the building consists of a hall which presents the political and cultural history of Kraljevo (development of its local administration, trade, crafts, banking, health care, church, education and the connection between the town and the Obrenović and Karađorđević dynasties), the Legacy of Olivera Radojković Čolović in the corridor, and the Hall of Ethnology which presents the formation and Europeanisation of the bourgeoisie during the 19th and 20th centuries.

At first sight, the permanent exhibition of the National Museum Kraljevo retains the classical concept of presenting the course of history from the oldest periods towards modern times, but rather as an external framework enabling visitors to be aware of the general line of development within which there are a large number of topics. The exhibition offers not only the cognitive aspect of history of the specific city and its surroundings, but it also shows that a museum can be a place which preserves the knowledge from the past, human memories and emotions, where new ideas are created or where one can discover that the world around us offers much more challenges than we can imagine. A year later, i.e. in 2009, the Serbian Museum Association granted its most prestigious award – “Mihailo Valtrović” to this project.

During its 12 years of existence, the exhibition has changed with the introduction of new elements, i.e. as living tissue of the museum, it has developed with the course of time and in accordance with new investigations and acquisition of new exhibits, as well as through the constant work with the public. It has become accessible to the disabled, and a special video guide has been recorded for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Kraljevo, which developed by the monastery of Žiča, the mediaeval centre of Serbian spirituality and statehood, suffered for centuries together with its sacred place in all war events. Kraljevo and Žiča were defended and liberated in fierce battles. Called by their fatherland when it was in danger, the people from Kraljevo responded massively and returned from the wars with the belief that they would live in peace, renewing and building Kraljevo and Žiča, which always filled them with strength, belief and hope.

In the hall dedicated to the history of war events in the surroundings of Kraljevo, the oldest material belongs to the late Middle Ages and the early Ottoman occupation, when Maglič, as a fortress, retained its military-administrative importance. It housed the permanent Ottoman crew with a dizdar at their head, all until the signing of the Treaty of Požarevac in 1718 and establishing of the Austrian-Ottoman border along the West Morava, when this role was assumed by Karanovac. The uprisings and rebellions of Serbs in the period 1804–1815, which did not pass by Karanovac, make another important segment of the exhibition. The development of communication lines increased the strategic importance of the place, so that the standing army in Karanovac developed into a garrison. It allowed the town to obtain its first doctor and a military hospital in 1837, as well as the pontoon bridge in 1876 and other facilities. The central part of the hall is dedicated to the wars for liberation and uniting with the southern regions and for freedom: Serbian-Turkish Wars (1876–1878), Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the First World War (1914–1918), in which Kraljevo and the people of Kraljevo participated, suffered and liberated their town.

Kraljevo had not even managed to recover from the previous war suffering by the time the new world war began two decades later, with terrifying consequences for the town. The last part of the exhibition refers to that period, which is characterised by: stationing of the German army in Kraljevo, as an important centre of communication lines and an important regional centre; inflow of refugees from Slovenia, Independent State of Croatia and Kosovo, among which the most touching scene was the arrival of starving and sick Serbian children, who were accommodated in the refugee shelters in Mataruška Banja; joint attacks of partisan and chetnik forces striving to liberate the town, which incited the response – mass shooting of civilians (special hall) preceded by the bombing of Žiča and the arrest of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović. Finally, in 1944, the allies cruelly bombed Kraljevo, turning it into ruins. Kraljevo was liberated on November 29th, 1944 by the joint operations of the Red Army and the units of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army. At the very end of the 20th century, during the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kraljevo was among the targets from the first to the last day.

Along the staircase which leads to the Hallway of the permanent exhibition, there is a part dedicated to Vladislav Maržik, first educated painter from Kraljevo, who is marked as a passionate chronicler of daily changes in the appearance of the town. His paintings recorded the first hospital, post office, first museum building and many parts of the city which do not exist any more. Hence, his drawings, which can be used for reconstruction of the appearance of Kraljevo in the past, make an introduction to the permanent exhibition, which occupies the entire first floor of the museum building. In the Hallway, there is a large niche, which has changed its content in the course of time, so originally it was a classroom, thus establishing the link with the primary purpose of today’s Museum building. In the meantime, the National Museum Kraljevo received a large donation, so that today this niche accommodates a drawing room, donated by Nikola Jončić. In the Hallway, there is also a part dedicated to family life, as a kind of introduction to the Hall of Social History. To the right of the hall, one can enter the Hall of Archaeology, Hall of War History and the Memorial Room for the victims of shooting in October 1941. These three halls make the right wing of the building. In the left wing, from the Hallway one can enter the Hall of Social History and an open corridor, which has also changed its display twice. Firstly, it was dedicated to urban planning and organised as the main street of Kraljevo. But, after this space had been damaged in the earthquake of November 3rd, 2010 and then reconstructed, a part of the legacy of Olivera Radojković Čolović was placed there and it is currently under reconstruction. From the corridor, one can enter the Hall of Ethnology, which is also dedicated to bourgeois life and which makes a counterpart of the Hall of History in the left wing of the building.

The historical events in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century led to the changes in all fields of life in Serbia. The wish for emancipation and Europeanisation was increasingly intensive. In Kraljevo, as in the other towns of Serbia, wealthy tradesmen, craftsmen, young people educated in Western European centres gradually accepted new habits, a new model of behaviour, a new fashion and way of life in general. The exhibited objects, elements of bourgeois culture from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century refer to the organisation and furnishing of residential and business premises, household items and dishes. A special impression is made by the costume of women living in the town and jewellery from the mentioned period, both in typological and stylistic senses, as well as by its opulence and indisputable aesthetic and artistic values. The clothes and jewellery, as reflections of economic and political events, the spirit of the epoch, time and territory in which they were created, reveal ethnical and cultural specificities, various influences and mutual permeation. By this exhibition, the Ethnological Department of the National Museum in Kraljevo wants to allow its visitors to get back, at least for a moment, to the past, to Kraljevo from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.