STATUE OF PRINCE LAZAR

This bronze statue (Споменик Цару Лазару/Spomenik Caru Lazaru, Statuja e Princit Lazar) was installed in the central square of North Mitrovica in 2016. Offered by the Belgrade government, it represents the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović (1329-1389) who led the Balkan coalition against the Ottomans and died at the Battle of Kosovo Polje on 28 June 1389. Canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church, the "Holy Prince Lazar" (Sveti Kneza Lazara) appears in arms pointing his index finger in the direction of South Mitrovica, which has not failed to be taken as a provocation by the Albanian/Muslim inhabitants living on the other side of the Ibar. Inaugurated on 28 June 2016, the day of Vidovdan's holiday commemorating the battle, the statue was designed by Serbian sculptor Miroljub Stamenković (born in Niš in 1950). The work is 7.5 m high and weighs 6 t. It stands on a 2.5 m high pedestal decorated with twenty-four bronze medallions depicting Serbian history. The roundabout on which it stands is named Prince Lazar Square or Šumadija Square in honour of the central region of Serbia which was the first to free itself from the Ottomans in 1830. The square itself is at the intersection of three streets with evocative names: Kralja Petra I (Peter I of Serbia, the first king of Yugoslavia in 1918-1921), Sutjeska (a battle between the partisans and the Axis forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1943), Lola Ribar (Ivo Lola Ribar, who died in 1943, was one of the leaders of the Yugoslav partisans)