With the raising of this building as well as with the implementation of the Regulations Plan of Town in Trench by Josimović[1] from 1867, the conditions were made for the formation of today's main Republic Square in Belgrade.

Built back in 1868, the National Theatre, following the fate of its own people and the country, went through different phases of the architectural and artistic development, surviving as a symbol of Serbian culture, tradition and spirituality.

Prince Michael, impressed by the performances he experienced, invited Jovan Đorđević (the founder of the Novi Sad Serbian National Theatre) to found a similar institution in Serbia.

Foundation was laid by the Serbian prince Milan M. Obrenović IV, and consecrated and blessed in the church ceremony by the Archbishop of Belgrade and Metropolitan of all Serbia Mihailo, in the month of August, 19th day, 1868.

After the reconstruction was finished, the outer appearance of the building lost its unity of decorative styles and the unison original concept of the Vienna Secession and Baroque architecture blend.

However, keeping the appearances of normal cultural life turned to be a tenuous situation for Popović, as the theatre was disastrously understaffed.

Out of the pre-war employees, five were killed in the bombing, six were sent to camps, seven were dismissed for being Jews, Romanies and Freemasons, while numerous actors refused to work forming independent acting troops.

The interior was designed by Milan Pališaški, façade and ornamental plastic was done by Branka Bremec, Dimitrije Ivančević and Zoran Badnjević, while the engineer Milenko Popović was entrusted with solving the problem with statics.

The building was fully reconstructed while the new annex was built in the direction of the Braće Jugovića Street, doubling the floor venue of the edifice.

[5] During one of the toughest times in Serbian history, which is the 1999 NATO bombing, this theatre was the only one to open its doors to the public during the 78-day air raids.

The first stage is marked by many tragedies and enactments inspired by medieval and modern history, like The Death of Uroš V by Stefan Stefanović.

The characteristic of the repertoire of the National Theatre, especially at the end of the 19th century were plays with singing like dramatizations of Stevan Sremac’s popular short stories: Zona Zamfirova and Ivkova Slava.

Beside Branislav Nušić others like Simo Matavulj, Vojislav Jovanović Marambo, Nikola Živković Mirabo and Milivoj Predić must be mentioned.

Koštana by Borisav Stanković was first shown at the very beginning of the 20th century and it has remained the cult performance of this theatre till this day.

In the first stage on the repertoire of the National Theatre were plays written by the most significant writers of all periods: from the earliest (Sophocles), to William Shakespeare, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Molière, Jean Racine, Carlo Goldoni, Edmond Rostand, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Nikolai Gogol, Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.

Between the two world wars, speaking of domestic dramaturgy, the plays of Jovan Sterija Popović, Branislav Nušić, Milutin Bojić, Borisav Stanković, Ivo Vojnović, Milan Begović, Ivan Cankar and Todor Manojlović were staged.

Political changes and certain liberalization characterise the relationship towards the foreign dramaturgy and discovering of the American drama and the works of Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett.

The seventies and eighties were marked by plays of Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz, Aleksandar Popović, Žarko Komanin, Ljubomir Simović and Jovan Hristić.

Conductors such as Lovro Matačić, Ivan Brezovšek, directors Branko Gavella and Josip Kulundžić [sr] were notable in the period between the two wars.

After the Second World War, conductor Oskar Danon quickly renewed the activities of the Opera as its general manager.

The golden period of the Belgrade Opera saw significant development and international affirmation of the Serbian operatic art.

Starting in 1954 with a very successful performance of Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky in Switzerland as a part of a concert cycle "Clubhouse", and gramophone recordings of seven major Russian operas for Decca.

The venue found in the then Yugoslav capital for the first batch of recordings was the cinema in the Dom Kulture ("House of culture") complex, but which could only be used after the last film of the day (around 11 p.m.) so sessions took place at night.

[10] The culmination of this "golden period" was an outstanding production of Mazeppa by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky on the stage of the Theater des Westens in West Berlin.