Belgrade, Serbia (part 2)

Back to the contrasting images in Belgrade. This building was bombed by NATO in the late 90's and still has boarded windows today. The banners in the street are for an upcoming Beer Fest which shows that life is festive and goes on even when reconstruction lags in other areas.

Inside the courtyard of several buildings are more murals, depicting an inner beauty to the city that you don't see from the streets.

Then you have the ridiculous amount of money that was spent on building the Temple of Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This building isn't old or historic and only completed in 2020 after an initial ground-breaking in 1935 followed by interruptions of conflict and war. The building is huge and a good picture would probably need to be done by drone.

The interior is spectacular. The estimated cost is 100 million Euros and 50 million was from private donations. The government of Serbia contributed 40 million and Russia 10 million. I hope this pays off for Belgrade in terms of tourism but when I looked at this, all I could think of was all the other ways this money could have been spent to help people not the church. Is the place impressive? Yes. Is it connected in bigger ways to politics and religion? Yes. I walked out. In this day and age, it's time to let go of religious obsession and expense.