Everything about Novi Beograd totally explained
Novi Beograd or
New Belgrade (
Serbian Cyrillic:
Нови Београд) is one of 17 municipalities which constitute the
City of Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia. It is also one of the 10 urban municipalities which form the Belgrade City proper.
Novi Beograd is the capital's most populous municipality with around 300,000 citizens
(External Link
), and with over 200 skyscrapers and 600 apartment buildings with 86,000 apartments, earning a name "Serbian
Manhattan". It is a city within a city - Belgrade's biggest residential area as well as a place of lively economic activity. Over 100,000 people work in 5,000 companies.Currently there's 1,2 million sq.m. under construction .
(External Link).
Location
Novi Beograd is located on the left bank of the
Sava river, in the easternmost part of the
Syrmia region. Administratively, though not residentially, in its northeastern section it also begins along the right bank of the
Danube, right before the Sava's confluence. It is generally located west of the 'Old' Belgrade to which it's connected by five bridges (
Gazela,
Branko's bridge,
Old Sava bridge,
old and
New Railway Bridge) and the construction of the sixth, which is a cause of the heated debate, is about to begin in 2007.
European route E75, with five
grade separations, including a new double-looped one at the
Belgrade Arena, goes right through the middle of the settlement.
Geography
The municipality of Novi Beograd covers an area of . The main physical characteristic of Novi Beograd is its flatness, which poses a high contrast to the old Belgrade which is altogether built on 32 hills. Except for its western section,
Bežanija, Novi Beograd is built on terrain that was essentially a swamp when construction of the new city began in 1948. For years, kilometers long
conveyer belts were transporting
sand from the Danube's island of
Malo Ratno Ostrvo almost completely destroying the island in the process, from which only a small, narrow strip of wooded land remains today. Thus, it's romantically said that Novi Beograd is actually built on an island.
Other geographic features are the peninsula of
Mala Ciganlija and the island of
Ada Međica, both on the Sava and the bay of
Zimovnik (
winter shelter), engulfed by Mala Ciganlija, with the facilities of the
Beograd shipyard. The
loess slope of
Bežanijska Kosa is located in the western part of the municipality, while in the southern, the
Galovica river-canal flows into the Sava.
Though it has no forests in the real sense, of all urban municipalities of Belgrade, Novi Beograd has the largest green areas, with a total of 3,47
square kilometers, or 8,5 % of the territory. . In 1924 airport at Bežanija was built and in 1928
Rogožerski factory was constructed. In 1934 plans were expanded to the created of a new urban tissue which wil connect Belgrade and Zemun, as Zemun was administratively annexed to the city of Belgrade in 1929, losing separate city status in 1934. Bridge over the Sava was also built and a tram line connecting Belgrade and Zemun was established. Also, a Zemun airport was built.
In 1938, a complex of buildings in the community of
Staro Sajmište went up. Spread over 15 thousand square meters it hosted fairs and exhibitions designed to show off the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia's developing economy. Also this year, the municipality of Belgrade signed a contract with two
Danish construction companies to build the new neighborhood. Engineer Branislav Nešić was entrusted with leading the project. He even continued doing it after 1941, which lead to his trial by the Communist authorities after 1945 as a collaborator.
Sajmište concentration camp
In 1941, German forces occupied much of the Kingdom.
Nazi secret police,
Gestapo, took over Sajmište. They encircled it with several rings of
barbed wire turning it into what they referred to as "collection center" - a euphemism for a prison. It eventually became an
extermination camp.
Until May 1942
Germans used
Sajmište concentration camp to mostly kill off
Jews from Belgrade and other parts of
Serbia. From April 1942 onwards, prisoners were transported in from
Jasenovac and
Stara Gradiška concentration camps run by
Croatian Nazi puppet regime -
Ustaše.
Partisans captured throughout
Serbia were also sent to Sajmište. Detainees were also sent in from other parts of Yugoslavia, especially after major German offensives on briefly liberated territories. Liquidations of captured prisoners lasted as long as the camp existed.
Among others, prisoners included women, children and the elderly from
Kozara region, entire Jewish families from Belgrade and other cities,
Roma families, as well as entire populations of different
Syrmian villages.
November 1946 report released by Yugoslav State Commission for Crimes of Occupiers and their Collaborators claims that close to 100,000 prisoners came through Sajmište's gates. It is estimated that around 48,000 people perished inside the camp.
On
July 9,
1987, Belgrade City Assembly decided to make Staro Sajmište a cultural site, thereby protecting it from real-estate expansion development.
On
April 21,
1995, a monument in remembrance of Sajmište victims was unveiled along Sava, one day ahead of the 50-year anniversary of
Hitler admitting defeat on
April 22,
1945.
Rapid development
It was on
April 11,
1948, three years after
World War II ended, that the ground was broken on a huge construction project, which would give birth to what we know today as New Belgrade.
Buildings sprung up one after another and by 1952, New Belgrade was officially a municipality. In 1955 the municipality of Bežanija was annexed to Novi Beograd. It was for years the biggest construction site in
Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and a huge source of pride for country's
communist authorities that oversaw the project.
And they'd reason to be boastful. During first three years of construction alone, over 100 thousand workers and engineers from all over the freshly liberated country took part in the building process. Work brigades made up of villagers brought in from rural Serbia provided most of the manual labour. Even high school and university student volunteers took part. It was backbreaking labour that went on day and night. With no notable technological tools to speak of, mixing of concrete and spreading of sand were done by hand with horse carriages only used for extremely heavy lifting.
Before the actual construction started, the terrain was evenly covered with sand from the Sava and the Danube rivers in an effort to dry out the land and raise it above the reach of flooding and underground streams.
Among the first to go up was the SIV building, incorporating some 75,000 square meters of usable space which has for years since housed different Federal Executive Councils (Savezno izvršno veće) of Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ) and
Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), as well as Governments of
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ). It was a place where
Council of Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro met, and office of the
President of Serbia and Montenegro. Its future purpose is yet to be determined.
First buildings for classic residential purposes were built as pavilions close to the area known as
Tošin Bunar (Toša's Well).
Studentski Grad (Student City) complex was also built around the same time to meet the residence needs of the growing
University of Belgrade student body that came from other parts of
Serbia.
Other notable structures built not too long afterwards include convention and congress hall
Sava Center, Genex condominiums,
NIS Petrol-Jugopetrol headquarters, sports and concert venue
Hala Sportova, and 5-star hotels
Continental Hotel Belgrade and
Hyatt Regency.
Now over 1,2 million square meters is under construction in New Belgrade. Estimated value of construction in next two and half years will be over 1,5 billion Euros.
Presidents of the municipality
Presidents of the municipal assembly, since the creation of the municipality in 1952 were:
1952 - 195?: Mile Vukmirović
195? - 195?: Ilija Radenko
1957 - 1962: Ljubinko Pantelić
196? - 1965: Jova Marić
1965 - 1969: Pero Kovačević (b. 1923)
1969 - April 11, 1979: Novica Blagojević (d. 1979)
1979 - 1982: Milan Komnenić
1982 - 1986: Andreja Tejić
1986 - 1989: Toma Marković
1989 - October 12, 2000: Čedomir Ždrnja (b. 1936)
October 12, 2000 - present: Željko Ožegović (b. 1962)
Economy
As all of the communist governments considered heavy industry to be the drawing force of the entire economy, it for decades dominated Novi Beograd's economy too: Motors and Tractors Industry - IMT, Metallic cast iron factory - FOM, Beograd (formerly Tito) shipyard, large heating plant in Savski Nasip, MINEL electro-construction company, etc.
All these coplexes will be removed and develop in bussines and residential areas.
In 1990s with the collapse of gigantic state-owned companies, Novi Beograd's local economy bounced back by switching to commercial facilities, with dozens of shopping malls and entire commercial sections. These activities are further enhanced in the 2000s. The 'Open Shopping Mall' or the Belgrade's flea market is also located in Novi Beograd.
Culture and education
For a settlement of such size, Novi Beograd has some strange cultural characteristics, influenced by the Yugoslav communists' ideas how a new and modern city should look like. If it can be understood why there were no churches built, a fact that a city of 250,000 has no theaters and only one museum (out of the residential area) is much less comprehensible, unerlying the decades long Belgraders' feel of Novi Beograd being nothing more but a big dormitory.
Museum of Contemporary Art is located in Ušće which is also projected by the city government as the location of the future Belgrade Opera. The issue became highly controversial in the 2000s as the general feel of the population, ensemble of the opera and most prominent architects and artists is that it's a very bad location for the opera, while the city government stubbornly insists against the popular wishes.
For decades, the only church in the municipality was an old Church of Saint George in Bežanija. Construction of the new church in Bežanijska Kosa, the Church of Saint Basil of Ostrog, began in 1996, while the construction of the Church of Saint Demetrius of Salonica, which is considered the first church in Novi Beograd, began in 1998. Both are still not completed.
Schools
Education faired much better than culture, as there are numerous elementary and high schools, as well as University of Belgrade's residential campus - Studentski Grad.
List of schools in Novi Beograd:
IX Belgrade Gymnasium
X Belgrade Gymnasium
Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Graphic Design Secondary School
Polytechnical Academy
Technical School
Russian School
Night life
Novi Beograd offers rich night life along the banks of Sava and Danube, right up to the point where the two rivers meet. What started mostly as raft-like social clubs for river fishermen in 1980s expanded into large floats offering food and drink with live turbo folk performances during the 1990s.
Today, it's unlikely that one would walk a 100 meter stretch along the rivers without encountering a float. Some of them grew into entire entertainment complexes rivaling clubs in Belgrade's downtown core. While most of the floats used to be synonymous with turbo folk in what was essentially a stereotypical kafana setting, a recent trend saw many turned into full fledged clubs on water with elaborate events involving world famous DJs spinning live music.
Criticism and public image
It's fairly obvious that not much attention was paid to detail and subtlety when New Belgrade was being built during late 1940s and early 1950s. The objective was clearly to put up as many buildings, as fast as possible, in order to accommodate a displaced and growing post World War II population that was in the middle of a baby boom.
This across-the-board brutalist architectural approach led to many apartment buildings and even entire residential blocks looking monumental in an awkward way. Although the problem has been alleviated to certain extent in recent decades by addition of some modern expansion (Hyatt and Intercontinental hotels, luxury Genex condos, Ušće Tower, Belgrade Arena, Delta City, etc.), many still complain about what they see as New Belgrade's "grayness" and "drabness". They often use the derisive term "spavaonica" ("dormitory") to underscore their view of New Belgrade as a place that doesn't inspire creative living nor encourage healthy human interaction, and is only good for overnight sleep at the end of the hard day's work.
This opinion has found its way into Serbian pop culture as well.
In an early 1980s track called 'Neću da živim u Bloku 65', popular Serbian band Riblja čorba sings about a depressed individual who hates the world because he's surrounded by the concrete of New Belgrade, while a more recent local cinematic trend sees New Belgrade presented somewhat clumsily as the Serbian version of black American ghettos like those found in Harlem, Brooklyn and The Bronx. The most obvious example of the latter would be 2002 movie 1 na 1, which portrays a bunch of Serbian teenagers who rap, shoot guns, play street basketball and seem to blame many of their woes on living in New Belgrade. Other films like Apsolutnih 100 and The Wounds also implicitly paint New Belgrade in the negative light but they've a more coherent point of view and place their stories within the context of the 1990s when war and international isolation truly did push some Serbs, including those inhabiting New Belgrade, to desperate acts.
International cooperation
Novi Beograd is twinned with following cities and municipalities:
Belfort, France
Karpoš, Republic of Macedonia
Xanthi, Greece
Prague 7, Czech Republic
Quotes
Now this is more like America... but those buildings are unlike anything in America. - Jimmy WalesFurther Information
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