While the architectures of the Serbian and Croatian capitals showed distinct patterns of expressing national agendas based on different position of statehoods prior to the unification into the South Slavic state, the attempts at generating an explicitly Yugoslav architectural identity were part of conscious political programs fighting against the pre-WWI imperial hierarchies. Once the Yugoslav state was formed, the romantic tone of these programmatic architectural artifacts disappeared. Thus, the epic national memorials such as Ivan Meštrović’s Vidovdan Temple failed to realize, while the abstract national shrines like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near Belgrade, as well as various national pavilions at the World Fairs represented Yugoslavness in a similar fashion as any other nation-state could have accomplished worldwide.