Days of Milunka Savić | Tourist Calendar of Serbia

A two-day event called "Days of Milunka Savić" encompasses a series of cultural events - lectures, panel discussions, film screenings, and theatrical performances, as well as a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial complex "Milunka Savić" in Jošanička Banja, and a walking tour to Milunka Savić's birthplace in Koprivnica.

With the aim of raising overall awareness about the life, work, and personality of Milunka Savić, the event dedicated to this brave female warrior, one of the most significant figures of the liberation wars in the early 20th century, was established in Jošanička Banja in 2016.

Milunka Savić is yet another among the great individuals who have greatly contributed to this country with their blood, and yet it has not adequately repaid them, at least not during their lifetime.

Born in Koprivnica near Raška in 1889, Milunka Savić disguised herself as a man at the beginning of the First Balkan War in order to save her younger brother from conscription. From the Balkan Wars and World War I, in which she bravely participated as a recruit named Milun, she emerged as the most decorated woman in the history of warfare.

As a member of the famous Iron Regiment, wounded nine times, surviving the Albanian Golgotha and recovery on the island of Corfu, participating in the breakthrough of the Salonika Front and the Battle of Kajmakčalan, she earned the respect of post-war Europe through her overall contributions, as well as the highest military honors for bravery from France, Great Britain, and Russia.

However, the person admired and treated with great respect by General Franše D'Epere, Admiral Geprat, Charles de Gaulle, and Archibald Reiss, was quickly forgotten in the country for which she shed blood after the war. One of the bravest women ever, Serbian Joan of Arc, spent the rest of her life in anonymity, working as a seamstress, cook, and bank cleaner. Historians and sociologists will explain the reasons for this treatment towards such a heroic woman.

Milunka Savić passed away in 1973 at a ripe old age, in a small apartment in a building in the Voždovac neighborhood in Belgrade, where a street bearing her name has recently been located. She was initially buried in the family tomb but was exhumed in 2013 and reburied in the Alley of Greats at Belgrade's New Cemetery.

Only in the past ten years, thanks to the descendants and relatives of this brave warrior, the wider public has been presented with a plethora of photo documentation, written and oral accounts, showcasing the life and work of Milunka Savić. This unjustly forgotten heroine has only recently begun to receive the recognition she deserves in Serbian history.

For more details about this year's edition of the event, information can be obtained through the mass media.