| Beli Dvor | |
|---|---|
| White Court | |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | neo-Palladian |
| Location | Dedinje, Belgrade, Serbia |
| Completed | 1936 |
| Technical details | |
| Size | 12 hectares |
| Design and construction | |
| Client | Aleksandar of Yugoslavia Elizabeth of Yugoslavia Pavle of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito Slobodan Milošević |
| Architect | Aleksandar Đorđević |
Beli Dvor (Serbian Cyrillic: Бели двор; English: White Court or White Palace) is a mansion located in Belgrade, Serbia. The mansion is part of the Royal Compound, a real estate of royal residences and parklands located in Dedinje, an exclusive area of Belgrade.
The Royal Dedinje Compound covers an area of over 100 hectares, of which 27 hectares surround the Royal Palace and another 12 hectares the Beli dvor. The service buildings include kitchens, garages, Palace Guard buildings, the administration of the Office of the Marshal of the Royal Court, etc.[1]
The word "dvor" in Serbian translates to "court" or "palace".[2] The official press releases of the Royal Family and their brochures use the term "White Palace", which is easy to verify on the web site of the Royal Family.
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Designed by architect Aleksandar Đorđević, Beli dvor 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.[2]
While the Old Palace (Royal Palace) was being built, King Aleksandar of Yugoslavia wanted to build a house for his children.[3]
After the King's assassination in 1934 in Marseille, Queen Marija and the couple's sons, including the young King Peter II, who was then 11, continued to reside in the Royal Palace (within the Royal coompound) as well as the sprawling Novi Dvor (New Palace) in central Belgrade, which was the royal family's official residence, and is now the Presidency of Serbia. Construction of Beli dvor continued, however, and it was completed in 1936. Although historians often say that the building was completed in 1937, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia was born in the White Palace in 1936, so it is safe to say that it was completed at that time.
It became the residence on loan to the Prince Regent and his family in waiting for King Peter II's majority.[1]
After World War II, when the Communist government seized control of Yugoslavia, Beli dvor was used by presidents Josip Broz Tito and later by Slobodan Milošević.
After revolution on October 5, 2000, the Royal Family, then living in the United Kingdom, was invited to return to Yugoslavia, and it did so, in 2001. Crown Prince Alexander, his wife, Crown Princess Katherine, and his three sons Prince Peter, Prince Philip and Prince Alexander by his first wife, Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans Braganza, now live in the Royal Compound.
Beli dvor is open to the public on weekends, for regular visits, during the tourist season, from April to November.[4]
The Royal Compound has also participated in Tourism Fairs in Belgrade and Novi Sad and during the Days of the European Cultural Heritage.,[5][6]
The qualified tour guides at the Palace will tell any visitor that Beli dvor's notable works of art include paintings by: Piero di Cosimo, Biagio d'Antonio, Nicolas Poussin (3 works), Giovanni Cariani, Sébastien Bourdon, Albrecht Altdorfer, Titian, Rembrandt (3 attributed), Palma Vecchio (2 paintings), Carlo Caliari, Peter Paul Rubens, Simon Vouet,, two paintings by Brueghel, Antonio Canaletto, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Giuseppe Crespi, Nicolae Grigorescu, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Eugène Fromentin, Gaspard Dughet, Richard Parkes Bonington, Đura Jakšić, Ivan Meštrović, Vlaho Bukovac and others. This collection was created by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. Also the green and white Sèvres porcelain service was purchased by him in 1932 in Paris from the gallery Charpentier. The service once belonged to the Comte d'Artois.
Many works looted after Communists (Partisans) entered the Belgrade in fall 1944.One of looted paintings is Rembrandt's 'Klint Tabie Maximus'.[7]
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