European Heritage Days are being celebrated in Serbia this year for the twelfth time, with the theme ‘Industrial Heritage’ – Protection and Revitalization. The aim of choosing this theme is to draw the attention of both experts and the general public to the potential of industrial heritage as a specific type of cultural heritage. Industrial heritage sites can serve numerous functions and purposes, and their revitalization can contribute to the overall development of the community. In recent decades, many abandoned industrial sites across Europe have been successfully revitalized by adapting their architecture, breathing new life into them with new contents, and repurposing them for new functions and uses.

The industrialization of the 19th century meant modernization and the entry into the modern era across Europe. In this context, industrial heritage represents an important element of contemporary European identity. The particular significance of industrial heritage in Serbia lies in the fact that it is part of European heritage and memory, as many of these sites were built by builders from various European countries who came to Serbia in the early 20th century to help its citizens with construction and contribute to the development of a new society. In this sense, Serbia’s industrial heritage can be seen as a material testimony to the cultural diversity of this environment, as well as a link to European and global cultural heritage.

Kragujevac, with the complex of the Military Technical Institute (Knežev Arsenal), which represents the oldest preserved urban industrial landscape, unique for its pioneering nature in this part of Europe, where the establishment of Serbian military industry from 1853 to the present day has been continuously observed, the development into an industrial giant, and the beginning of the transformation from military to creative industry, was chosen as the location for this year’s central event of the European Heritage Days.