North Macedonia returns fence to Serbian parliament

NEWS 10.06.202113:06
Ograda, Skupština Srbije
FoNet/Božana Pavlica

Part of the original fence around the Serbian parliament was returned to Belgrade from North Macedonia where it stood around one of the villas used by the late Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

The fence sections were returned by a delegation of the city of Ohrid, home to Tito’s villa Biljana on the shore of Lake Ohrid. The entire iron fence was removed from around what was then the Yugoslav federal parliament building in the 1950s and its parts were taken to Ohrid and the White Palace residence in Belgrade’s Dedinje neighborhood. The parliament building was built in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1907 and 1936.

Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic said that part of the fence is in storage at the Belgrade City Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments. He told reporters that the Serbian authorities wanted to track down all the parts of the fence in preparation for the 85th anniversary of the first session of parliament held in the building. He said that the return of the section of the fence by the North Macedonian authorities is “a friendly gesture which should be symbolic of our relations and the friendship we are building”.