Permanent setting
On an area of 2300 square meters, in 52 rooms of different dimensions, more than 3000 museum objects are exhibited.
The permanent museum exhibition covers the 14-century long struggle for freedom, that is, the period from the settlement of the Slavs in the Balkans and the creation of the first Serbian and South Slavic medieval states to the last war events during the 1990s.
Historical periods are presented chronologically through historical objects and auxiliary museum material with, at the time when the exhibition was created, the most modern way of museological presentation. The very successful museological, architectural and artistic solutions of this exhibition still attract the attention of visitors today. The first floor of the exhibition deals with the period until the end of the First World War, while the second floor, according to the time in which the exhibition was created, is mostly dedicated to the Second World War and the socialist revolution.In the first part of the exhibition, from the creation of medieval states to the end of the First World War
and the creation of the first joint Yugoslav state, historical periods are presented through key and turning historical events such as, as far as Serbian history is concerned: the Battle of Kosovo, the Serbian despotism and its fall under Turkish rule, the Military Territory, the First and Second Serbian Uprising, the Serbian-Turkish Wars, the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Understandably, all historical periods and events are illustrated, wherever the preserved material allows, with original objects, often those that belonged to certain historical figures. Until the 14th century, original copies are very rare and this deficiency is supplemented by copies, art material, models, etc. Attention is devoted to the very composition of certain units in which the object itself is the center of attention. This is the case with the weapons and equipment of the Bokele navy of the 17th and 18th centuries, one of the most beautiful compositions in the museum display. The first part of the exhibition ends with regimental flags of the Serbian army from the First World War, Serbian and allied decorations and weapons from the given period.
The visitor has the opportunity, apart from the event, to get acquainted with the most diverse examples of weapons, military clothing and uniforms, flags, decorations, photographs and works of art and in this way gain an insight not only into national history and culture, but also into different achievements of civilization, their mutual influences and the intertwining of styles and tastes of different cultures that met in our area and left a lasting impression.It remains for the future generations to correct the mistakes with a new setting and using the achievements of modern historiography and museology, to present an integral history of Serbia freed from dangerous ideological traps.