Once upon a time, when powerful rulers ruled and the land of Serbia was vast and powerful, three great men walked through it, leaving behind traces that neither time nor winds could erase.
- Stefan Nemanja
In ancient times, when powerful forces were fighting for supremacy over the Balkan Mountains, in the small but proud country of Raška, Stefan Nemanja was born. Even as a child, there was a spark in his eyes that could not be extinguished. He was wise and brave, and his heart beat only for the people and God.
It was said that when he became the great prefect, he left the palace in the dark nights and went around the villages, listening to what the people said to him. When they told him that the cross should be raised high, that thunder could not destroy the faith, he built Studenica - a monastery that still stands today as a witness of his piety.
But enemies were lurking, and the powerful from the west and east did not want to see Serbia grow. Nemanja fought many battles, but the hardest for him was the one against his own brother. When he defeated him and secured the throne, he knew that the fate of the country was in his hands. However, when his heart grew tired of ruling, he left the throne to his son and retired to Mount Athos, where he found peace in prayer.
-Saint Sava / Rastko Nemanjić
And his son, Rastko, was not like other princes. From his youth, he did not care about the splendor of the palace, but dreamed different dreams - those in which one travels along the paths of heaven. He fled from the palace to Mount Athos, where he became a monk and became Sava.
But he did not abandon Serbia, but led it along the path of light. He was a mediator between heaven and earth, a reconciler of those in conflict, a teacher and a healer of the soul. When his brothers called him to help Serbia, he brought autocephaly to the church, became the first archbishop and illuminated the path for his people.
And when old age came for him, he died in a foreign land, but the people did not let his spirit stay far away. His relics were brought to Serbia, but the Turks, fearing his strength, burned his body in Vračar. But they did not know that light cannot be burned, nor can ashes erase a name that lasts forever.
- Emperor Dušan the mighty Nemanjić
When two centuries had passed since Nemanja, a man appeared, the likes of which the Serbian land had never seen before. His name was Dušan and he was the son of King Stefan Dečanski. But his strength was so great that it was said that he carried the flame of dragons in his veins.
Dušan was a master who knew no fear. With an army like a stormy wind, he expanded Serbia from the Danube to the Aegean, from the Adriatic to Constantinople. He was crowned in Skopje, but not as a king - but as an emperor! He was the emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians, and under him Serbia became more powerful than ever before.
But power breeds envy, and envy breeds treachery. They said that Emperor Dušan was poisoned, that his enemies poured a deadly drink into his cup, fearing that he would take Constantinople and make Serbia the center of the world. He died in full force, but the people did not forget him.
His body, although hidden in the darkness of centuries, was found and transferred to the church of Saint Mark, where it rests today. And his spirit? They say that on stormy nights you can still hear the clatter of his horse, rushing across the Serbian mountains, trying to finish what he started.
- Today, when we walk around Belgrade, we see them again. Nemanja stands like a giant at the old railway station, holding a sword and the Gospel - as if saying: "Keep the faith and defend justice!" Sava watches from Vračar, quietly and steadily, like a star that never dims. And Dušan, although under the church vaults of Saint Mark, still dreams of the empire he could create.
And so, people still remember them today. Because as long as stories about them are told, so will the country they loved.