This guide follows one straight line through central Belgrade, from the shops of Knez Mihailova Street to the cliff above the rivers. On the way you pass the old seat of learning on Studentski trg, the spot where the Ottomans handed over the keys of the city in 1867, and the Victor, the bronze figure that has become the best-known image of Belgrade. Together they tell how a frontier fortress town became a modern European capital in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Knez Mihailova Street
Knez Mihailova is Belgrade's main pedestrian street, running from the Terazije area, close to Republic Square, to the edge of Kalemegdan Park and the fortress. It follows a very old line: the Roman town of Singidunum had its grid here, and a Roman aqueduct ran along the route. Under the Ottomans the area had fountains, gardens and mosques, and the old name Delijska survived longer than any other Ottoman street name in the city.
The street got its present shape from the town plan drawn up by Emilijan Josimović in 1867, and building started in 1869. In 1870 it was officially named after Prince Mihailo Obrenović, who had been assassinated two years earlier. Wealthy merchants then lined it with town houses and banks in styles imported from Vienna and Paris, which is why it still looks so different from the rest of the Balkans. It was protected as a cultural-historical unit in 1964, the first area in Belgrade to get that status, and has been closed to cars since a reconstruction in 1987.
- The building of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts at number 35, built in 1923–24, with one of the grandest facades on the street.
- Grčka Kraljica at number 51, a café in a building from 1835, one of the oldest houses on the street.
- The Delijska fountain in front of the Zora building, a 1987 design by Aleksandar Deroko that recalls the Ottoman-era fountain that gave the street its first name, and the City Library in the former Srpska Kruna hotel at number 56, built in 1869.
University of Belgrade and Captain Miša's Mansion
A short step east of Knez Mihailova, on Studentski trg, stands the building that has been the seat of higher education in Serbia for more than 160 years. It was built in 1863 to designs by the Czech architect Jan Nevole for Miša Anastasijević, a wealthy merchant known as Captain Miša. It was first meant as a residence for his son-in-law, a grandson of Karađorđe, but Miša gave it to the state for education instead. In September 1863 the Belgrade Higher School moved in, and the words on the facade dedicate the building from Miša Anastasijević to his fatherland.
The Higher School goes back to 1808, when it was founded during the First Serbian Uprising with the help of the writer Dositej Obradović. By a law of 1905 it became the University of Belgrade, today the oldest and largest university in Serbia. Over the years the mansion also housed a gymnasium, the Ministry of Education, the National Library and the National Museum, and the Serbian assembly met here in 1864. Today it holds the rectorate of the university. Two of the stops on our scavenger hunt are on this theme: the University of Belgrade and the city's educational buildings around the square.
- The golden-yellow facade with dark red terracotta frames around the windows, a mix of Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance motifs.
- The statues of Apollo with a lyre and Minerva with a spear and shield, standing for art and learning.
- The small tower on the roof: for decades it was the highest lookout in town, and a guard kept watch from it for fires until 1919.
The Keys Handover Memorial
Walk to the end of Knez Mihailova and into Kalemegdan Park, and just to the right of the main entrance you will find a white marble block with a carved picture. It marks the place where, in April 1867, the Ottoman commander handed the keys of the Belgrade fortress to Prince Mihailo Obrenović. The same decree from Sultan Abdülaziz also gave up the fortresses of Smederevo, Šabac and Kladovo. For the first time in generations, the city's fortress was under Serbian control.
Serbia was not yet fully independent: it still paid tribute to the Ottoman court and had to fly the Ottoman flag beside its own, and independence was only recognised internationally in 1878. The memorial was set up in 1967 for the centenary of the handover and has been a protected landmark since 1991. Every April the Days of Belgrade festival, which celebrates the anniversary, opens with flowers laid here and cannon fire from the fortress. This spot is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The carved scene on the marble block, showing the moment of the handover, and the dates of the event.
The Victor (Pobednik)
The Victor is a bronze figure of a naked man on a tall column at the edge of the Upper Town of the fortress, looking out over the meeting of the Sava and the Danube. It is the work of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović and was unveiled on 7 October 1928, on the tenth anniversary of the breakthrough on the Salonika front. It commemorates Serbia's victories over the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires in the Balkan Wars and the First World War.
The statue was first planned as the centrepiece of a fountain on Terazije square, in the middle of the city. The nude figure drew objections, and it ended up instead here, on the edge of the fortress, facing away from the city towards the plain across the rivers. It is now the image of Belgrade you see on posters and souvenirs. In 2019 it was taken down for restoration and put back on its column in February 2020. The Victor is the finish of our scavenger hunt route.
- The falcon in the figure's left hand and the sword lowered in his right, read as symbols of peace and war.
- The view from the terrace beside the monument: the mouth of the Sava, New Belgrade on the far bank and the island of Great War Island in the Danube. Late afternoon, with the sun going down over the rivers, is the best time.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the top of Knez Mihailova, near Republic Square, and walk down the street towards the fortress. Halfway along, turn right towards Studentski trg to see Captain Miša's Mansion and the university buildings, then come back to Knez Mihailova and follow it to its end. Cross into Kalemegdan Park through the main entrance, where the Keys Handover Memorial stands on your right, and keep walking through the park into the Upper Town of the fortress until you reach the Victor on its column above the rivers.
See Belgrade with World City Trail
Our Belgrade scavenger hunt turns the old centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from Republic Square to the Victor. The University of Belgrade, the educational buildings around Studentski trg, the place where the city keys were handed over and the Victor are all stops, along with the National Theatre, the National Museum, Studentski Park, the Monument of Gratitude to France and the Royal Gate. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Belgrade, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Belgrade scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Belgrade →
Play the outdoor escape game in Belgrade →
Facts checked in October 2026.