Order of the White Eagle (Serbia)

The Order of the White Eagle ( Serb. Order of the White Eagle ) is a state award of the Kingdom of Serbia and its successor - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , since 1929 - the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In 1945 it was abolished. In 2009, restored as a state award of Serbia .

Order of the White Eagle
A country	Kingdom of Serbia Kingdom of the CX Kingdom of Yugoslavia Serbia
Type of	Order
Status	is awarded
Statistics
Established	January 23, 1883
Precedence
Senior award	Order of Milos the Great until 1903 Order of the Star of Karageorgia since 1904
Junior Award	Order of the Cross until 1903 Order of Saint Sava since 1903 Order of the Yugoslav Crown since 1930

It was established by the King of Serbia by Milan I on January 23, 1883 , simultaneously with the Order of St. Sava . Serbia was proclaimed kingdom on March 5 (February 22), 1882 . The image of a double-headed white eagle with spread wings in flight, which became the state symbol of Serbia, apparently should have emphasized the dominant position of Serbia in the Balkans and was a universal symbol of the Christian Empire, rooted in the Byzantine Empire. The symbols of the double-headed eagle were already used by the medieval rulers of Serbia, as well as the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, the emperors of Russia and Austria. The difference was only in color. In Serbia, the double-headed eagle was white (silver in heraldry), while the Byzantine eagle was golden, and the Russian and German were black.