The monument to Stefan Nemanja is the work of the Russian sculptor Alexander Julijanovic Rukavishnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Arts, dedicated to the great prefect Stefan Nemanja, the ancestor of the Serbian medieval Nemanjic dynasty.
The monument was placed on Savski trg in Belgrade, that is, at the beginning of Nemanjina Street, in front of the former building of the Main Railway Station, where the History Museum of Serbia is to be moved.
The monument was unveiled on Savindan, January 27, 2021, in the presence of the political leadership of the Republic of Serbia, Srpska and (partly) Montenegro.
The monument represents the ruling figure of Stefan Nemanja in a noble uniform. In his right hand is a sword, and in his left hand is the Hilandar Charter. Although at the first presentation of the conceptual design of the monument, it was predicted that the great prefect would hold a cross (double or Russian cross), later it was decided that it would be a sword.
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As a wide controversy arose about it, dominated by the thesis that the cross was abandoned due to the insistence of Arab investors from nearby Belgrade on the water, the dilemma was removed by the sculptor Rukavishnikov himself in a conversation with Sputnik in Serbian: "I have heard that on that topic and to ask the question why the cross was replaced by a sword? It is also stated that he was replaced at the last moment. Well, at the last minute, it wouldn't even be realistic to do that.
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On the contrary, it was replaced at the beginning. (...) We thought for a long time and decided to show Stefan Nemanja in secular clothes, and not in spiritual ones, and that we should show him as a man who created Serbian statehood. That is what is most important. In this particular case, the sword makes sense, it is more suitable because the silhouette of the monument ends with a blade. "
