Once a symbol of pride for a former country, Belgrade’s iconic Hotel Yugoslavia is fading into history alongside the name of a state that no longer exists. After over half a century as a preferred destination for heads of state and movie and music stars, it can now be seen only through the construction fence surrounding it, amid machinery ready to raze it to the ground. "It was the era of socialist realism, yet this is modernist architecture at its finest! Le Corbusier! Serbia had something that Europe didn't have at that time," says Slobodan Maldini, executive director of the Association of Serbian Architects. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES