In order to commemorate the forthcoming day when 190 years ago the first Serbian Constitution was adopted on Sretenje in 1835, as well as to remember the work of Dimitrije Davidović, who was the author of one of the most important documents in the history of our country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized for the heads of foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations a New Year's trip to the City of Kragujevac - the first capital of modern Serbia.
Today, the ambassadors of fifteen countries, including Brazil, Denmark, Venezuela, Tunisia, Canada and others, traveled along the "paths of Serbian diplomacy in the Principality of Serbia", building a lasting bridge between the past and the future.
In the City Hall, the former building of the District Headquarters, the guests were welcomed by the Mayor of Kragujevac, Mr. Nikola Dašić. The Mayor welcomed the guests to the City of Kragujevac, which is in the heart of Šumadija, and which was in 1818 chosen as the first capital of modern Serbia by prince Miloš Obrenović. It is the city where the foundation of the modern Serbian state was laid and the direction towards European values and modernization was set.
Kragujevac is the city of the first Serbian Constitution known as Sretenjski, the city of the first theater, printing press and newspaper. The Lyceum from which the University of Belgrade later emerged was founded in Kragujevac, as well as the first professional military-craft school, the library, the first building of the National Assembly. It is the city where the first light bulb was lit, the first billiards and the lottery were played, Mr. Dašić pointed out. The building in which we are standing now was built in 1904. It used to be the building of the District Headquarters. From this place Radomir Putnik, who was the first Serbian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian army in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War, and after whom the Square in front of this building is named, led the Serbian Supreme Military Command in the First World War and made the strategies and decisions that were needed to achieve advantages on the front. Kragujevac was then, and still is, the city of the automotive industry and the city of the future - the center of the IT, rail and car industries, as well as of many other industries that have a large share in the foreign trade surplus of our country, Mr. Dašić concluded.
On the occasion of commemorating the 190th anniversary of the first ball organized by prince Miloš Obrenović in 1834 for the royal family, noblemen and state officials, the Music Center staged a reconstruction of the first ball at the City Hall, with the performance of Šlezinger's original compositions from that time, as well as with a dance ensemble that evoked the spirit of the royal Kragujevac.
The guests then visited the "Milošev venac", complex, which houses the old court church "Temple of the Holy Trinity" from 1818, the endowment of Prince Miloš Obrenović, as well as the building of the Old Assembly, built in the yard of the old church. A short play about Dimitrije Davidović and Prince Miloš was staged in the Princely-Serbian Theater, with a focus on the history, development and rise of Serbian diplomacy in the Principality of Serbia. After the First Grammar School, the guests visited the State Data Center, the most modern data bank in the region, where the first national platform for artificial intelligence is located.
