'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, and with over 200 skyscrapers and 600 apartment buildings, it is a city within a city - Belgrade's biggest residential area as well as a place of lively economic activity.
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 is 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 is romanticaly 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.
Population
There are no separate settlements within the municipality, as the entire area administratively belongs to the Belgrade City proper and is statistically classified as part of Belgrade (''Beograd-deo''). The area located around the municipal assembly building and the nearby
roundabout is considered to be Novi Beograd's center.
As it was planned and constructed, Novi Beograd was divided into blocks. Currently, there are 72 blocks (with several sub-blocks, like 70-a, etc). Old core of the village of Bežanija, Ada Međica, and Mala Ciganlija, as well as the area along the highway west of Bežanijska Kosa are not divided into blocks, while due to the administrative borders changes, some of the blocks (9, 9-a, 9-b, 11, 11-c and 50) belong to the municipality of
Zemun, extending north of Novi Beograd as one continuous built-up area.
Ever since the construction began in 1948, Novi Beograd experienced explosive population growth, but oddly, as the 2002
census showed, the population size actually decreased slightly during the 1990s. Regarding this, and the fact of the general unreliability of the official statistical estimates, it is hard to predict the future population changes in Novi Beograd. With an estimated population of 217,421 on
December 31,
2005, and including refugees from
Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Kosovo, the number of people is probably not exceeding 250,000, despite the figure of 300,000 inhabitants often circulating in the press over the last 20 years.
Population of Novi Beograd in various years:
★ 1953 census - 11,339
★ 1961 census - 33,347
★ 1971 census - 92,500
★ 1981 census - 173,541
★ 1991 census - 218,633
★ 2002 census - 217,773
★ 2006 estimation - 236,898
[1]
Ethnic structure
According to the 2002 census, the major ethnic groups in the municipality were:
★
Serbs = 187,253 (85.99%)
★
Yugoslavs = 5,341 (2.45%)
★
Montenegrins = 5,233 (2.40%)
★
Croats = 2,520 (1.16%)
★
Roma = 2,371 (1.09%)
★
Macedonians = 1,683 (0.77%)
★ others (including
Chinese)
Neighbourhoods of Novi Beograd
Just like other municipalities of Serbia, Novi Beograd is further divided into ''local communities'' (Serbian: ''mesna zajednica''). Apart from Bežanija and
Staro Sajmište, no other neighbourhoods have historical or traditional names, as Novi Beograd didn't exist as such. However, in the five decades of its existence, some of its parts gradually became known as distinct neighboorhoods of their own.
List of the neighbourhoods of Novi Beograd:
Several more neighbourhoods are currently under construction:
Airport City Belgrade,
Delta City,
Park Apartments,
Savograd and
Univerzitetsko Selo.
History
Origins
First historical mention of human settlement on the territory of today's New Belgrade goes back to Turkish occupation of Serbia. It is found in the 1713 book ''Kruševski pomenik'' that notes the existence of ethnic Serb village named
Bežanija as early as 1512. It also mentions the village had 32 houses, a number that grew to 115 by the year 1810.
Throughout the 18th century, Bežanija's population was exclusively
Serbian, but after
Ottomans got ran out, the arrival of new occupiers,
Habsburg forces, encouraged settlement of
Germans,
Hungarians, and
Croats.
Between two world wars of the 20th century, communities sprung up closer to
Sava River in Staro Sajmište and Novo Naselje.
First urbanization plans that talk about
Belgrade's expansion to
Sava's left bank were drawn up in 1923, but lack of funds and manpower needed to drain out the swampy terrain put them on hold indefinitely.
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.
Sajmište concentration camp
Main articles: 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.
New Belgrade, Sept. 22, 2005
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 had 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.
In 1990s with the collapse of gigantic state-owned companies, the 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 is 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
New Belgrade's night skyline, Nov. 30, 2005
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 is 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 Intercontinetal hotels, luxury Genex
condos,
Ušće Tower,
Belgrade Arena, 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.
New Belgrade's Blok 62, Jan. 23, 2005
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 have 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
[1]:
★ '
Belfort',
France
★ '
Karpoš',
Former Yugoslav 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 Wales
See also
★
Belgrade
★
List of cities in Serbia
★
Subdivisions of Belgrade
★
List of Belgrade neighborhoods and suburbs
External links
★
Municipality of New Belgrade Official Website
★
Municipality of New Belgrade Informator
★
Municipality of New Belgrade FORUM
★
Gallery by Aleksandar Ćosić
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