Great War Island is a river island

River Island

River Island is one of Britain's best known high street fashion brands and can be found in most cities across the UK. The brand also has stores in Singapore, Turkey, Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Middle East.-History:...

 in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, capital of Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

. It is located at the confluence

Confluence

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

 of Sava and Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 rivers. Though uninhabited, the island is part of the Belgrade City proper, and belongs to the city municipality

Municipalities of Serbia

Serbia is divided into 150 municipalities and 24 cities , which are the basic units of local self-government. The city may and may not be divided into city municipalities . Five cities, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Požarevac comprise several city municipalities, divided into "urban" ...

 of Zemun

Zemun

Zemun is a historical town and one of the 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...

.

Location

Great War Island is located at the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube, in the Danube's widening between the Kalemegdan fortress as the ending section of the Terazije

Terazije

Terazije is the central square and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad.- Location :...

 ridge of northern most part of Šumadija

Šumadija

Šumadija is a geographical region in Serbia. The area is heavily covered with forests, hence the name...

 on the west and the low, easternmost section of the Syrmia

Syrmia

Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....

 plain, the modern Ušće neighborhood of Novi Beograd

Novi Beograd

Novi Beograd or New Belgrade is the most populous municipality that constitutes the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is a planned city, built in 1947 on the left bank of the Sava river which was previously an uninhabited area, opposite of the old Belgrade...

, on the south.

The island is relatively close to the banks, at the closest it is just 200 meters away from both Novi Beograd and Kalemegdan. On the south, halfway between the Great War Island and Ušće is the remnant of previously larger Little War Island.

Geography and wildlife

The Great War Island is generally triangular in shape and covers an area of 2.11 km². It is low, for the most part marshy and often flooded by the Danube. The main physical feature on the island is the canal of Veliki Galijaš

Veliki Galijaš

Veliki Galijaš or just Galijaš is a canal turned lake on the Great War Island, within proper of the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.The former canal is one of the major physical features on the island...

. In time, the canal was cut off from the Danube and effectively turned into a lake, with an area of 0.24 km² and the major natural bird and fish spawning area on the island. However, during the drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

y years the lake drains out completely causing damage to the closed eco-system centered around it. Currently some two-thirds of the island are used as a nature preserve for 196 bird species, many of which are endangered. One of Belgrade's beaches, Lido

Lido (Belgrade)

Lido is a non-residential urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun.- Location :Lido is located on the northern tip of the Great War Island, on the Danube...

, is located on the northern tip of the island.

Because of the sedimentation, occasional drainage and removal of the silt from the northern tip of the island is necessary, as otherwise it would make a land connection to the bank of the Danube.

Plant life on the island includes the typical marshy fauna, like reed

Reed bed

Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...

, yellow flag or rush

Juncus

Juncus is a genus in the plant family Juncaceae. It consists of some 200 to 300 or more species of grassy plants commonly called rushes...

, but also trees like black poplar

Black Poplar

Populus nigra, the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section Aigeiros of the genus Populus, native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa....

, ash tree

Ash tree

Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...

, elderberry

Elderberry

Sambucus is a genus of between 5 and 30 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. It was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified due to genetic evidence...

, hawthorn and even some rare conifers.

History

The island gained its militant name because throughout the history Great War Island was an important strategic point either for the conquest or the defence of Belgrade. For example, in 1521 when Belgrade was under siege by Turk

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

ish forces, the majority of their attacks on Belgrade fortress were launched from the island. In liberating Belgrade in 1806 the rebel army headed by Karađorđe also used the island for military purposes, as the Serbian artillery with 500 soldiers was bombing the Kalemegdan fortress from there. During the offensive in 1915 by Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 against Belgrade, Austria-Hungary forces used the island to launch their attacks.

When construction of Novi Beograd began in 1948, the city government made a decision to completely destroy the island by using its sand and earth to cover the marshes of Syrmia, where new city was to be built. However, the deposits of alluvial materials continually brought onto the island from the Danube completely prevented this from happening. Instead, the smaller Little War Island served this purpose and was nearly destroyed in the process.

Though officially uninhabited, almost a dozen of people live in small shacks in the island's interior. They are mostly retirees who move to the island during the warm season and maintain their vegetable gardens, while in the winter they return to Belgrade.

Recent developments

In the early 2000s, speculations concerning the islands future emerged among the public, including the ideas of turning it into a grand amusement park

Amusement park

thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...

, possible relocation spot for the Belgrade Zoo

Belgrade Zoo

Belgrade Good Hope Garden is the zoo in Belgrade situated at the very center of the city, in the Kalemegdan park. It was founded in 1936.It covers an area of , and has 2,000 animals of 270 species, and beside wild animals it abounds in domestic animals too....

 or that sections of the island should be leased to the cultural representatives of the different countries which would turn each section into ethno-park of their native culture, in which case the island would be renamed to Dunavsko ostrvo (Danube Island), but all this was dropped in 2005 when it was finally decided that the island should remain intact.

In 2002, the island was declared a natural fish spawning area and declared practically the only part of the City of Belgrade where building of facilities like hotels, motels or restaurants is not allowed. The major works on the island began in 2007. In February 2007, following the disastrous 2006 European floods

2006 European floods

From February to April 2006 many rivers across Europe, especially the Elbe and Danube, swelled due to heavy rain and melting snow and rose to record levels...

 which wiped out Lido from the northern tip of the island, the Great War Island was completely cleaned with all the bulky junk being removed, so as the remains of the old constructions and the 24 hour guarding service was set. Celebrating the June 29, the international Danube Day, an ecology camp made of pile dwellings for students of the Belgrade University was opened.

In August 2007, digging of a 300 meter-long canal which reconnected Veliki Galijaš with the Danube also began to prevent the seasonal drying of the lake. A 15 meter-high lookout is to be erected west of Veliki Galijaš so as the entire network of visitor centers on the unsinkable points around the lake and throughout the island for the studying of the bird life. A bio-laboratory and the small boat landing are also scheduled for construction.