“Who on earth was Prince Marko?” is certainly one of the most intriguing questions everyone will have the chance to find an answer to this summer. It also lies behind one of the most fascinating cultural events of the summer season in Belgrade.

Specifically, this is a multimedia, interactive exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum opening to the public on 18 July, which is dedicated to the greatest hero of Serbian and Balkan epic poetry – Prince Marko (Kraljević Marko). The body of poems about Prince Marko was created continuously over a period of five hundred years, across a vast region spanning present-day Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Romania.

Serbian epic poetry represents one of the richest oral literary traditions in Europe, and Prince Marko rightfully bears the epithet of the “Serbian Hercules”. He is one of the most complex and contradictory characters that the collective imagination has ever created.

Rescuing the character of Prince Marko from oblivion

The organisers point out that the main idea behind the exhibition is to rescue the character of Prince Marko from oblivion and to offer younger generations new interpretations of the greatest epic hero.

“By conducting a parallel analysis of the epic character of Prince Marko and the historical figure of Marko Mrnjavčević, we have attempted to answer the question of where history ends and myth begins, so that visitors, whilst exploring the exhibition, can try to solve the riddle of Prince Marko for themselves – how a Turkish vassal who ruled insignificant parts of the former Serbian Empire grew into a towering figure of oral literature.”

They also note that “the exhibition was designed as a combination of striking spatial design and physical exhibits enhanced with digital content in mixed reality. The idea of the exhibition is not to canonise Prince Marko, nor to demystify him, but rather to open a dialogue between ourselves and the epic, between the past and the present, between the myth and the historical figure who lived and breathed somewhere beneath it.”

The aim of the exhibition is to bring the character of Prince Marko closer to new generations and to stimulate a dialogue between epic poetry, history, and myth.

The exhibition was staged with the support of the Ministry of Culture and runs until 31 August.

(Blic, 17.07.2026)

https://www.blic.rs/kultura/nova-izlozba-u-etnografskom-muzeju-ko-to-bese-kraljevicu-marko-video/vffb92l