Avala Tower

Avala is a mountain in Serbia, overlooking Belgrade. It is situated in the south-eastern corner of the city and provides a great panoramic view of Belgrade, Vojvodina and Šumadija, as the surrounding area on all sides is mostly lowlands. It stands at 511 metres (1,677 ft) above sea level, which means that it enters the mountain category just by 11 m (36 ft).

Avala is a traditional picnic resort for Belgraders, but its capacities are not being used much. In 1984 number of tourists was only 15,700 despite over 1.5 million of inhabitants in Belgrade.

Some attractions and capacities on the mountain include: Šuplja Stena, a former very popular children's resort; Avala Tower, landmark TV Tower that was destroyed during the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, later rebuilt in 2010, and which includes, among other facilities, a restaurant, ethno-gallery, souvenir shop, sports fields and outdoor gym; motel "1000 Ruža" in Beli Potok, now adapted into the 3-star hotel; hotel "Avala" which was privatised in 2005, but in 2007 it was declared a cultural monument; Trešnja resort, in the southernmost extension of the mountain and many more.

Special attractions of the Avala are several monuments. They include: Monument to the Unknown Hero - dedicated to the unknown Serbian soldier from World War I; sculptured by Ivan Meštrović in the form of mausoleum with 8 caryatides (columns shaped like female figures, in this case each one representing a woman from a different historical region of Yugoslavia), it was completed in 1938.

Monument to the Soviet war veterans - dedicated to the members of the Soviet military delegation which died in an airplane crash on the Avala on October 19, 1964. They were flying to Belgrade for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in World War II, October 20, 1944, as Red Army forces participated in the expulsion of Germans. The monument was sculptured by Jovan Kratohvil.

Memorial Park – dedicated to the victims of the World War II.

Monument to Vasa Čarapić - dedicated to Vasa Čarapić, one of the leaders of the First Serbian Uprising in 1804 and liberator of Belgrade from the Turks, built in Beli Potok, his birthplace, near the mountaineers home Čarapićev brest. It was sculptured in 1991 by Dušan Nikolić.