Beli dvor

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Beli Dvor

Beli dvor (English: White Court) is located in Belgrade, Serbia and is a home of Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The house is part of the Royal Compound, a private estate of royal houses that is located in Dedinje, an exclusive area of Belgrade. It was commissioned by Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

[edit] History

The building was reportedly was intended to be a group residence for the three sons of King Alexander I when they became older. This, however, seems unlikely, given the fashionable elegance of the building and the ages of the children at the time of Beli Dvor's planning (all three boys were under the age of 11).

After the King's assassination in 1934, his widow, Queen Maria, and their sons, including the young King Peter II, who was then 11, continued to reside in the Royal Palace (another building in the Dedinje complex) as well as the sprawling New Palace in central Belgrade, which was the royal family's official residence.

Construction on Beli dvor continued, however, and it took almost four years to finish. After its completion in 1937, the house became the home of Prince Regent Paul and his family.

Central hall of Beli dvor

Unlike the nearby Kralevski dvor, a grand 1920s stucco villa in the Serbian Byzantine style, Beli Dvor, which was designed by the architect Aleksandar Đorđević, is a severe neo-Palladian structure that was inspired by 18th-century English houses such as Ditchley Park. Its interiors were decorated with English Georgian and 19th-century Russian antiques by the French design firm Jansen, which later decorated the White House during the administration of John F. Kennedy.^[1]

After World War II, when the communist government ordered the royal family into exile, Beli dvor became the official residence of the presidents Josip Broz Tito (who buried his horse and his mistress on the grounds) and Slobodan Milošević.

When a democratic administration came to Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 2000, the former royal family, who were then living in the United Kingdom, was invited to return to the country. Alexander of Serbia and Yugoslavia, his wife, Crown Princess Katherine, and his three sons by his first wife (Princess Maria da Gloria of Orleans-Braganca) now live at the Royal Compound.