The Serbian Museum is a small museum on Moustoxydi Street in Corfu Town that tells one of the strangest chapters of the First World War. In early 1916 about 150,000 exhausted Serbian soldiers, together with their government, were shipped to Corfu after retreating across the mountains of Albania, and for more than two years the island was in effect Serbia's capital in exile. The museum keeps their photographs, uniforms, flags and even the surgical tools their doctors used.
The Serbian Museum at a glance
- Where: Moustoxydi Street, the wide lane locals call Plati Kantouni, in the old town, a few minutes' walk from the Spianada and the Liston.
- Building: a three-storey neoclassical house that the Municipality of Corfu granted to the Serbian nation for 99 years; in Serbian it is called Srpska kuća, the Serbian House.
- What it is today: a museum of about 120 square metres with close to 400 exhibits on the Serbian army and government on Corfu from 1916 to 1918.
- Time needed: 30–45 minutes.
From the Albanian retreat to the Corfu Declaration
In October 1915 Austria-Hungary and Germany, soon joined by Bulgaria, attacked Serbia. The Serbian army, the old king and the government retreated in winter across the mountains of Montenegro and Albania towards the Adriatic, and hunger, cold, disease and attacks killed huge numbers of soldiers and civilians on the way. Between 18 January and 21 February 1916, Allied ships carried the survivors, about 150,000 people, to Corfu. Many were too weak to recover: on the small island of Vido, opposite the harbour, where the sickest were taken, about 100 men died each day in the first weeks.
The Serbian government under Prime Minister Nikola Pašić settled in Corfu Town, and the Serbian parliament met in the town's old Municipal Theatre. A Serbian printing house produced the official newspaper Srpske novine and even banknotes. On 20 July 1917 the Serbian government and the Yugoslav Committee signed the Corfu Declaration, agreeing that Serbs, Croats and Slovenes should live in one state after the war; the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed in December 1918. By then the rebuilt Serbian army had left the island for the Salonika front, where it helped break through the enemy lines in September 1918.
What to look for
- Photographs: the largest part of the collection, showing the camps, field hospitals, parades and daily life of the Serbian soldiers on Corfu.
- Uniforms, rifles and ammunition of Serbian soldiers and officers, many of them worn out by the retreat.
- Regimental flags, and the vestments and religious objects of the army's Orthodox priests.
- Surgical instruments used by Serbian doctors on Vido in 1916, a reminder of how many men arrived too ill to be saved.
- Medals and decorations of the Kingdom of Serbia.
The Blue Tomb
Vido is small and rocky, and there was no room to bury all the men who died there. Many were taken out by boat and lowered into the sea; more than 5,000 Serbian soldiers are thought to lie in the waters around the island. The Serbian poet Milutin Bojić, who had made the retreat himself, wrote the poem 'Plava grobnica' ('The Blue Tomb') about them, and the name stuck. In the 1930s a Serbian mausoleum was built on Vido to hold the remains of soldiers buried on the island.
Tips for your visit
- Check the opening days before you go: the museum is small and does not open every day of the week.
- Take your time with the captions. Most of the story is told through photographs, so the visit is short but dense.
- In summer, small boats cross from the old port to Vido, where you can see the Serbian mausoleum and the sea of the Blue Tomb. It makes the museum visit much more real.
Nearby
- Spianada: Corfu's huge open square, with a cricket ground, the Maitland Rotunda and views of the Old Fortress.
- Liston: the arcaded row of cafés along the Spianada, built in the French period and modelled on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris.
- Church of Saint Spyridon: the church of the island's patron saint, with the tallest bell tower in town and the saint's relics inside.
- Corfu Town Hall: the Venetian building on Town Hall Square, first a loggia for the nobles and later the island's first theatre.
See Corfu with World City Trail
Our Corfu scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 2 hours, with about 26 minutes of walking. It includes the Spianada and the arcades of the Liston, both a few minutes from the Serbian Museum. You can play in English, German, French, Italian, Dutch or Greek.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Corfu.
Play the Corfu scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Corfu →
Play the outdoor escape game in Corfu →
Facts checked in October 2026.