10/27/2025
Medical train on stamps as symbol of ties between Serbia and Order of Malta
The personalized postage stamp "140th Anniversary of the First Donation of the Order of Malta to the Kingdom of Serbia" was presented at the PTT Museum in Belgrade.
Francesco M. Amoruso, Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta to Serbia, Dr. Sima Avramović, Ambassador of Serbia to the Holy See and the Order of Malta, and Zoran Anđelković, Acting Director of the Post of Serbia, spoke about the symbolism of the issue in honour of the anniversary of cooperation between Serbia and the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Director Zoran Anđelković expressed his satisfaction that the PTT Museum, as a point of connection between the past and the future, is hosting the ceremony marking 140 years of cooperation. He pointed out that the Post of Serbia is today a leader in digital transformation and the application of new technologies and that it recently received the highest recognition from the Association of Public Postal Operators of Europe – PostEurop, the Rising Star Award in the Field of Innovation 2025, for the project of a robotic system for automated sorting of postal items.
He added that the philately of the Post of Serbia is appreciated throughout the world, and that this year it won the award for the most beautiful stamp of the "Europe" issue, according to the votes of the audience.
"The stamp, which was created by our artists in collaboration with the Embassy, shows continuity and is a symbol of our cooperation and its lasting seal", said Anđelković. He thanked the collaborators who worked on the project and Ambassadors Amoruso and Avramović for their dedication to this initiative.
Ambassador Francesco M. Amoruso, emphasized that the anniversary, marked by the issuance of a personalized postage stamp, carries deep symbolism. He recalled that the first donation to Serbia dates back to 1885, when the famous Viennese surgeon Baron von Mundy came to the country, who was appointed by the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army as the Inspector of Hospitals. He then delivered an ambulance train intended for the transport of seriously wounded, which was sent as aid to the Kingdom of Serbia by the Grand Prior of the Austrian Sovereign Order of Malta, Prince Lichnowsky.
"The train had ten carriages and operated on the Niš-Belgrade route, transporting the wounded regardless of which side they fought on - in the spirit of humanity that has always adorned the Order of Malta", said Ambassador Amoruso.
Ambassador Sima Avramović said that the Order of Malta decided to donate to Serbia, through its mission in Vienna, the entire composition of the ambulance train with a locomotive and nine hospital wagons, in dynamic, difficult and absent historical moments of the 19th century. After the end of the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885, Avramović explained, this traveling hospital was used intensively for peacetime purposes, only to be used again for military purposes at the beginning of the 20th century during the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, when the ambulance train transported 100,000 wounded in two years.
"When you first board the train from Belgrade to Subotica, remember that our first train took ten hours to travel from Belgrade to Niš and that that first train was donated to us by the Sovereign Order of Malta", said Avramović.
The promotion was attended by MP and President of the Parliamentary Friendship Group between Serbia and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Jovan Palalić. He highlighted the exceptional relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, marked by trust, understanding and enthusiasm.
"Serbia highly appreciates the strong dynamics of the humanitarian activities of the Order of Malta that we have been able to observe in the last year and a half since the arrival of Ambassador Amoruso", said Palalić, and pointed out that next year marks the anniversary - 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Sovereign Order of Malta.
The personalized postage stamp was prepared by the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Serbia, with the artistic realization of Miroslav Nikolić and Nadežda Skočajić, creators of stamps for the Post of Serbia.