The Embassy of France in Belgrade is a diplomatic mission of France in Serbia, located in the capital city Belgrade.
The embassy is located between St. Michael's Cathedral and Kalemegdan in Belgrade, overlooking the Danube and the Sava. It hosts the Diplomatic Chancellery, a Consulate, a Military Attaché, residence of the Ambassador, Joint Management Service, the Press Service, and an Internal Security Service.
The building, called "Le Nouveau Banque", on the pedestrian street Knez Mihailova, houses the French Institute of Serbia, the Service of Cooperation, the Economic Mission, and the Regional Center for the Fight Against Organized Crime in Southern Afro-Eurasia.
History The building was designed by French architect Roger-Henri Expert with Serbian architect Josif Najman as assistant in 1926. At the time it was only the fourth purposely built French embassy, as it was usual to either rent or refurbish an existing building. Construction lasted from 1929 to 1933, with the inauguration night being 21 December 1935. The party had 800 guests, including Milan Stojadinović, and all high ranked government officials led by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. The building is a complete work of Art Deco, with everything from the facade, interior, furniture, and lighting in the style.
Exterior The slope of the site, on the front of two streets, where the building was constructed, represented the real challenge. The architect decided to solve this problem with the massive foundations, which work just like a fortification rather than the ground floor of a modern palace. Thus, a kind of optical fault has been achieved in an effective way. On a geometrically simply defined object that has a ground floor, two floors and a loft, the middle zone is broken down by a centrally set semicircular shape, and trapezoidal shaped wings. This is also the most expansive zone of the building. On the second floor and attic facade, there is a pyramidal cascade and facade without any decoration, and the viewer's view would be fixed to the bronze group, where the crown dominates the vision of the palace with white facade marble. The style of the building is typical of the inter-war period, modern elements with monumental classicism and refinement of the sculptures. The bronze finial group at the top of building represents Liberté, égalité, fraternité is 2.80m in height and was done by sculptor Charles Marie Louis Joseph Sarrabezolles. He was Experts' friend, known for casting concrete sculptures in innovative way, a method of direct carving in setting concrete, with much of his work was integrated with architecture. Side wings of facade have shallow reliefs that illustrate shortened history of France through Vercingetorix, Joan de Arc, Louis XIV and Marianne.
Interior The building has five floors, the first two being assigned to the Chancery and the last three to the Residence de France. The vestibule, reached by a large white marble staircase, is decorated with five medallions representing the rivers of France.Inventaire de l'Académie d'architecture du fonds Expert, Roger-Henri. The original furniture is signed Jules Leleu and Raymond Subes; unfortunately some of the purposely built furniture was either lost or returned to France during World War 2.Béatrice de Rochebouët, " Paris, reine indétronable de l'Art déco ", Le Figaroscope, semaine du 16 au 22 octobre 2013, p. 4-6.
List of ambassadors De A Ambassador Kingdom of Serbia 1907 1914 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 1921 1922 Louis Frédéric Clément-Simon Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1933 1935 Paul-Émile Naggiar 1936 1937 Robert de Dampierre 1937 1940 Raymond Brugère 1940 1940 Roger Maugras Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia 1944 1945 Henry GauquiéDélégué du Gouvernement provisoire de la République française 1945 1950 Jean PayartAmbassadeur 1950 1955 Philippe BaudetDécret du 23 septembre 1950, Journal officiel de la République française|JORF du 23 septembre 1950. 1955 1955 Camille CouletDécret du 4 janvier 1955, JORF du 5 janvier 1955 256. 1955 1956 Jean BaelenDécret du 25 novembre 1955, JORF du 4 décembre 195511744. 1956 1962 Vincent BroustraDécret du 3 novembre 1956, JORF du 7 novembre 1956 10624. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1962 1965 Jean BinocheDécret du 31 juillet 1962, JORF du 2 août 1962 7652. 1965 1970 Pierre FrancfortDécret du 3 novembre 1965, JORF du 4 novembre 1965 9723. 1970 1977 Pierre SebilleauDécret du 16 mars 1970, JORF du 18 mars 1970 2603. 1977 1980 Jacques MartinDécret du 11 février 1977, JORF du 16 février 1977 934. 1980 1982 Yves PagniezDécret du 4 janvier 1980, JORF du 8 janvier 1980 52. 1982 1985 Jacques DupuyDécret du 4 août 1982, JORF du 11 août 1982 2561. 1985 1989 Dominique CharpyDécret du 30 avril 1985, JORF du 7 mai 1985 5232. 1989 1992 Michel ChatelaisDécret du 16 février 1989, JORF 18 février 1989 2326. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1992 1992 Alain RouillardChargé d'affaires 1996 1996 Gabriel KellerChargé d'affaires puis ambassadeurDécret du 11 mars 1996, JORF No. 62 du 13 mars 1996 3887. 1996 2000 Stanislas FilliolDécret du 17 septembre 1996, JORF No. 220 du 20 septembre 1996 14000. 2000 2003 Gabriel KellerDécret du 21 novembre 2000, JORF No. 217 du 21 novembre 2000.Ambassadeur auprès de la République fédérale de Yougoslavie. Serbia and Montenegro 2003 2007 Hugues PernetDécret du 17 septembre 2003, JORF No. 217 du 19 septembre 2003.Ambassadeur auprès de la Communauté étatique de Serbie-et-Monténégro. Serbia 2007 2010 Jean-François TerralDécret du 4 avril 2007, JORF No. 81 du 5 avril 2007.Ambassadeur auprès de la République de Serbie. 2010 2014 François-Xavier DeniauDécret du 25 août 2010, JORF No. 198 du 27 août 2010. 2014 2017 Christine Moro20172019Frédéric Mondoloni20192021Jean-Louis Falcon20212025Pierre Cochard2025Florence Ferrari
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See also France–Serbia relations France–Yugoslavia relations
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