Notebook

THE CAPITAL CITY WITHIN THE CITY, ACROSS THE SAVA, IN THE PLAIN, SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD
Good Old New Belgrade
The restaurant with that name has existed since 1924, a newspaper since 1930, an association since 1932. At that time, the architect Brašovan painted his oil on canvas vision ”New Belgrade”... The preparatory work for the construction of the first buildings began in 1947. Apart from professional builders, in in the following years and decades, almost two hundred thousand young Pavilions, skyscrapers, blocks, boulevards sprung up... For a long time it was a ”distant suburb”, ”a large dormitory”, ”the largest barracks in the world”. But it hasn’t been like that for a long time. Today, that refined area is the most modern part of the Serbian capital, where residential and commercial square meters reach incredible prices

By: Miloš Lazić
Photo: Martin Candir, Dragan Bosnić, Aleksandar Ćosić, Mića Nikolić, the NR Archives

Those yellowish-gray five-story buildings, close to Tošin Bunar, are forever marked by the architecture of the time in which they were built and the patina of the years. They stand in such a way that they form the Cyrillic letter P and seem awkward. Each of them has four identical entrances with five unequal steps, a narrow landing, a decorative column made of artificial stone, glazed doors...
Since they came to existence, they have been called – pavilions. The first three are on the corner of Sremskih odreda and Radoja Dakića streets. The following three are adjacent to them and so on, up to the former railway line, then to the Mother and Child Institute, along Pohorska and back... Between them are shady green oases where children always play and old people rest.
It was said that there used to be a stone pool between the pavilions where children used to swim on hot summer days, but today it is hard to believe.
New Belgrade has not been new for a long time. The settlements that are sprouting up around the city, into which the rivers of the new Belgraders flow, are newer than it.

THE FIRST TENANT

In the first pavilion, the third entrance, on the first floor, lived Mister, then comrade, Dušan Spasojević. The official address is, in fact, Sremskih Odeda Street no. 18, but it would be difficult for anyone to find it following those directions... except for the postman, maybe. The streets and house numbers of New Belgrade are arranged in such a way as to create the most intricate labyrinth. Mycenaean, so to speak.
Dušan was born in 1911 in Brza Palanka, and he came to Belgrade at the age of twelve to learn the shoemaking trade. He studied it, and stayed.
He was an athlete. He started as a zealous collector of balls at the old ”Radnički” stadium near Bara Venezia, below Zeleni Venac, and later he did a little bit of everything.
– The only thing I have never done was boxing – he once said. – Because I didn’t like being beaten, even if it was in the ring.
After the occupation, Dušan Spasojević was one of the founders of the shoe factory ”Petar Velebit”, in Voždovac. He was given the honor, although he took it more as a duty, to be the first president of the Leather Workers’ Union of Belgrade.
He had two sons with his wife Anka: one was an engineer, the other an architect. They have their families. If their health is good, they already have grandchildren. They are there somewhere, in New Belgrade.
He once told that he used to live in Zeleni Venac, in Abadžijska Čaršija, in buildings that have been demolished a long time ago and were located where the park is today, below Terazije. In a ”shared apartment”. When, shortly before the demolition, the evictions began, they offered the tenants to live in New Belgrade, but the owner of the apartment, he did not remember his name, but he remembered that he was a descendant of an old and respectable Belgrade winemaking family Starčević, said – ”I am not going to Austria-Hungary as long as I live”, and stayed to have the building be demolished over him. Comrade Dušan agreed. To get rid of the community and finally settle down in his own apartment. They moved in 1953.
When they moved in, the building was still surrounded by scaffolding, and the second and third pavilions were just bare, unplastered walls. There were meadows and gardens around, and vineyards on the slopes of Bežanijska Kosa. The nearest building was the old ”Tošin Bunar” tavern. And transportation worse than ever: only one bus commuted from the Pavilion to the city, and that was under the underpass near the building of Federal Executive Council, which entered the history of the city as the scene of a conflict between students and the police in 1968. When it rained, or when it froze, it only ran to the underpass, because it couldn’t go under it. It took Dušan an hour and a half, sometimes two, to get to the company in Voždovac. So much and back. It didn’t bother him, he got used to it. And he was young...
He was a good, cheerful man. I guess he ended up there? Has anyone seen him walking his great-grandchildren in the park?
Perhaps this short biography of citizen Duško Spasojević would not be worth mentioning if he was not – the first resident of New Belgrade! If we ever get rid of the bad habit of too often naming streets and alleys after politicians, maybe Dušan’s name will one day make it to that list?

WRONG ANNIVERSARIES

This year, New Belgrade will mark seven and a half decades of existence. In fact, seventy-five years since the beginning of construction. Yes, it is nice to celebrate, but it is not good when the date is wrong. It is true that construction began then, seven and a half decades ago, but the story of a new city on the left bank of the Sava is a year older. Because, to be honest, the preparatory work started back in 1947, which was confirmed by Ratko Đorđević, a former youth worker and builder. They lasted from October 1 to December 3, and the commander of that volunteer work action was Voja Crnjanski. Just so be known that the 76th birthday of good old New Belgrade should be celebrated these days.
The first issue of the newspaper Novi Beograd was published on 17 January 1930, and was edited by a certain Aleksandar Vranješević. Two years later, the Association for the Beautification of the Left Bank of the Sava ”New Belgrade” was founded in Belgrade. The famous architect Dragiša Brašovan also dreamed about the city on the left bank of the Sava, so on the eve of the last world war he painted the composition New Belgrade (oil on canvas) which adorned the wall of his house for a long time, but its further fate is unknown.
But those were all dreams. The first news about the start of construction of a new residential area on the other side of the Sava was published in daily Politika on 5 January 1947. The article was entitled ”This year, the foundations of the new Belgrade at the confluence of the Sava and Danube will be laid”, with a small ”n” in the name. On 12 April 1948, the same newspaper published a large text on its front page with the title – ”Youth of Yugoslavia began its great work yesterday – the construction of New Belgrade”, this time with a capital ”N” in the title – and the first commander of the Youth Work Brigades was Živorad Mihajlović, aka Draško.
According to the memory of Ratko Đorđević, on June 30, the brigadier was visited by Tito in the ”Milovan Milovanović” camp, which was located near the latter building of the Central Committee, just two days after the Information Bureau resolution. The next day, all the ”IB press” announced that Broz was captured near Zemun, which was supported by photos of smiling activists who surrounded him.
Đorđević also talked about the elation of his generation with that undertaking, about the construction of the ”Metropol” building (it was intended for SKOJ, the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia, but it became a hotel and in our time was sold to the Greeks for a pittance). He talked about swimming in the ponds near the SIV building and picking bamboo, and especially about the dreams that, in front of their eyes, turned into reality.

THERE WERE URBAN PLANNERS HERE

Belgrade welcomed the liberation in October 1944 with 180,000 inhabitants, and the following year their number grew to 225,000. Due to such an influx of residents, the urban part of the capital grew rapidly (so today it covers 360 square kilometers). That time was marked by so-called social realism, even in life, and in architecture it was represented by the slogan – ”simple and functional”. This is a consequence of the state of mind, which is evidenced by the fact that the new buildings were monotonously identical in appearance and most often built ”in line”, as blocks with clerical (numerical) designations that turned into official names.
The expansion of the city and the increase in the number of inhabitants narrowed the center and threatened public and individual traffic. All roads led to the Republic Square and Knez-Mihailova Street, or at least to the ”circle of no. two”, the area bounded by the tracks of tram line number 2. Who knows how it would have ended if urban planners had not rushed to the field with the ingenious idea of polycentricity, creating more local ”centers” that would satisfy needs with their amenities. The first such center on a small scale appeared in New Belgrade, and is remembered under the name ”Fontana”, in order to spread such a system throughout the city.
Later, the highway passed through Belgrade, dividing it into two ”vilayets”, and the same fate befell the settlement on the left bank of the Sava. Salvation from very bad consequences was sought (and found) in the construction of bypasses around the city.   
Novi Belgrade is still growing, so even though it is only one of the city’s municipalities, after Belgrade and Novi Sad it is the third largest settlement in Serbia (not including Priština, the capital of the province of Kosovo and Metohija, and you know why). Perhaps because of its disunity, for a long time it was characterized by the almost derogatory term ”periphery”. Whenever someone from the old part of the city moved to New Belgrade, they usually consoled him with the words that it is far away, but it is also healthy, because there, above, the ”wind rose” swirls.
Today, blocks are closer determinants of places of residence. For example, if someone lives in Block 45, Belgraders know that it is in New Belgrade, near the Sava, and somewhere at the height of Ada Ciganlija. And the lower the number, the closer the block is to Pavilions and Zemun. But there are deviations.
Košava wind affects people’s mood, so it was once said that the New Belgraders are grumpy and moody. But that no longer applies. Especially not since New Belgrade was declared the municipality with the highest economic and other growth in all of Serbia, and the price of housing jumped to astronomical heights.
Old Belgrade has remained a trade and cultural center, a place where memories are made, and New Belgrade is a European business center where memories have yet to be born.

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First time
The name New Belgrade was first mentioned in 1924, when Petar Kokotović opened a tavern in Tošin Bunar Street, somewhere where the railroad crossed this street, and gave it this name. Later, its namesake appeared here, in Čubura, on the corner of Makenzijeva and Baba Višnjina streets.

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Forces
About one hundred and fifty thousand young people in 900 brigades from all over the country participated in the construction of New Belgrade (FNR Yugoslavia). Along with them, there were also about twenty thousand frontmen with their female comrades from the Women’s Antifascist Front, as well as a few kulaks for hard labor. And here’s what they created!

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Dormitory and barracks
In addition to being declared the ”biggest dormitory”, New Belgrade has also been nicknamed the largest barracks under the sun in the city’s geography. Because as many as 80 percent of the officers of the Yugoslav Army decided to spend their retirement days and see the end in new apartments in the new city, allegedly as close as possible to their commander-in-chief.

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Košava and leeward
Easy consolation about the air and wind rose could pass everywhere, except in New Belgrade. Because that’s where Košava always reigns! Sharp, strong and persistent. It can take three or seven days, depending on the moody weather even in the Romanian Carpathians. Although, as the new city grew, so the Košava was weakening: it broke against the skyscrapers and blocks, and was swallowed by the small and large leeward winds of New Belgrade.