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Slavija (Belgrade)
Encyclopedia
Slavija Square officially Dimitrije Tucović Square (Serbian
Cyrillic: Трг Димитрија Туцовића), is one of the central town square
s and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade
, the capital of Serbia
. It is divided between the Belgrade's municipalities of Vračar
and Savski Venac
.
The square was named after Serbian socialist Dimitrije Tucović
.
, designated downtown of Belgrade, on an altitude of 117 meters. The majority of the square itself belongs to the municipality of Vračar (eastern and central parts) while the western parts belong to the municipality of Savski Venac. The neighborhood which surrounds the square borders the neighborhoods of Cvetni Trg
on the north, Vračar's sub-neighborhoods of Grantovac
on the north-east and Englezovac
/Savinac
on the south-east, and Zapadni Vračar on the west.
s and boating on the pond. The formation of the square started when a well-known Scottish
businessman and Nazarene
Francis Mackenzie
, bought a large piece of land above the present square and parcelled it for sale (the area became subsequently known as Englezovac). Soon after that, Mackenzie has built a house for himself at Slavija (at the place where the old "Slavija" cinema used to be), which in 1910 was turned into the Socialist People's Center, a gathering place of the worker's movement. The other, smaller buildings at the corner of Kralja Milana and the square, where the famous cafés "Tri seljaka" and "Rudničanin" used to be, were destroyed before and during World War II
.
The Slavija was projected as the final square in a succession of squares around Belgrade's central route from Kalemegdan
to Englezovac: Studentski Trg
-Trg Republike-Terazije
-Cvetni Trg
-Slavija. In time, Studentski Trg and Terazije lost their square functions, becoming streets, while Cvetni Trg, with final changes in early 2000s, is completely defunct as a traffic object, so Slavija and Trg Republike remain as the rare true squares in downtown Belgrade.
After the World War II
, the new Communist government re-buried the remains of the leading Serbian Socialist Dimitrije Tucović
at the central square plateau in 1947 and a bronze bust of Tucović was erected, work of Stevan Bodnarov. In addition, the name of the square was officially renamed from Slavija (meaning "land of the Slavs") to the Square of Dimitrije Tucović. The name, just like most of the other Communist administrative name changes in the old core of the city didn't live up, and in early 2000s it was officially changed back to Slavija.
A hotel "Slavija" was built in 1962, and enlarged later (complex Slavija A and Slavija B). Third addition, ultra modern Slavija Lux was built in 1989. The square is also a home to the first McDonald's
restaurant ever built in Eastern Europe
, opened 24 March 1988 and still operational. The restaurant is in the former Vučo family house, constructed by Dimitrije T. Leko
in 1893. The restaurant was heavily damaged during the protests following the proclamation of the declaration of independence of Kosovo
on 17 February 2008.
es and tram
s) meet. Due to the general inadequacy of the city's transportation, traffic jams are regular on the square and especially hard if helped by some additional reason (bad weather, snow, especially the 2006 reconstruction of the Autokomanda
interchange, etc).
The transportation importance of the square can be seen as it branches into the eight streets:
decided to put a large sundial
in the place. In the early 1990s, Dafiment banka, one of the major pyramid schemes of the Milošević's regime
, bought the lot and announced a monumental shopping mall, but after the scheme failed completely, now fenced lot was turned into the dump (technically, it was in fact a
Ponzi scheme
). After the regime change in 2000, the area was cleaned and a temporary park was built instead. The failed projects continued, including the ultra-modern, gigantic shopping mall by Israelis which turned out to be a complete hoax. All of this was more than enough for people to consider the "hole" a cursed place.
The old hotel Slavija from 1962, in the manner of the International style
is today viewed by the Belgraders as an obsolete and ugly building, with its hospital-like look, especially compared to the modern marble and glass Slavija Lux which perfectly fits into the buildings behind it. Inside the hotel is elaborately decked out with wooden panelling on most surfaces in the rooms. It features a Casino and large dining room. The Hotel has not been fully renovated since 1962 and still operates fully, though not using all rooms.
Construction of the new building of the National Bank of Serbia
also began in the early 1990s. It is located a little bit further from the square itself, but due to its size it is visible from many parts of Belgrade. Money problems caused a decade and a half of delays. A massive construction was deemed ugly and unappropriate for the location by many Belgraders and in 1994 the then governor of the bank, Dragoslav Avramović, said that he will not move into the new building even if it will be done on time. However, a massive glass building was finally finished only in 2006. Some old houses and small building were demolished for the construction of the bank, but some remained right next to it as a contrast. The terrain surrounding the building has not been landscaped to date (2011).
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
Cyrillic: Трг Димитрија Туцовића), is one of the central town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
s and an urban neighborhood of 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...
, the 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 divided between the Belgrade's municipalities of Vračar
Vracar
Vračar is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade. With an area of only , it is the smallest of all Belgrade's municipalities, but also the most densely populated. Vračar is one of the three municipalities that constitute the central area of the...
and Savski Venac
Savski Venac
Savski Venac is one of 17 urban municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Savski Venac is one of the three municipalities that constitute the very center of the city .-Location:Savski Venac is located on the right bank of the Sava river...
.
Dimitrije Tucovic
Dimitrije Tucović was a prominent leader and theorist of the socialist movement in the Kingdom of Serbia...
.
Location
The Slavija square is located less than 1.5 kilometers south of TerazijeTerazije
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 :...
, designated downtown of Belgrade, on an altitude of 117 meters. The majority of the square itself belongs to the municipality of Vračar (eastern and central parts) while the western parts belong to the municipality of Savski Venac. The neighborhood which surrounds the square borders the neighborhoods of Cvetni Trg
Cvetni trg
Cvetni Trg or Flower Square is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :...
on the north, Vračar's sub-neighborhoods of Grantovac
Grantovac
Grantovac was an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar....
on the north-east and Englezovac
Englezovac
Englezovac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :...
/Savinac
Savinac
Savinac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :...
on the south-east, and Zapadni Vračar on the west.
History
Until the 1880s, the area of the modern Slavija square was a large pool on the eastern outskirts of the city, where the inhabitants of Belgrade went hunting wild duckWild duck
Wild Duck can refer to:*The Wild Duck, play by Henrik Ibsen*mallard, species of wild duck...
s and boating on the pond. The formation of the square started when a well-known Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
businessman and Nazarene
Nazarene
Nazarene may refer to:* Nazarene , a title applied to Jesus of Nazareth* Nazarene , a sect of 4th century Christianity described by Epiphanius* Church of the Nazarene, modern Christian Pentecostal denomination...
Francis Mackenzie
Francis Mackenzie
Francis Mackenzie, was a Scottish member of the Plymouth Brethren Nazarene group, who travelled to Belgrade to start work for the British and Foreign Bible Society to foster religiosity among the Serbian people. He stayed in Belgrade from 1876 till 1895....
, bought a large piece of land above the present square and parcelled it for sale (the area became subsequently known as Englezovac). Soon after that, Mackenzie has built a house for himself at Slavija (at the place where the old "Slavija" cinema used to be), which in 1910 was turned into the Socialist People's Center, a gathering place of the worker's movement. The other, smaller buildings at the corner of Kralja Milana and the square, where the famous cafés "Tri seljaka" and "Rudničanin" used to be, were destroyed before and during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The Slavija was projected as the final square in a succession of squares around Belgrade's central route from Kalemegdan
Kalemegdan
Belgrade Fortress , represent old citadel and Kalemegdan Park on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube, in an urban area of modern Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad...
to Englezovac: Studentski Trg
Studentski Trg
Studentski Trg or Students Square is one of the central town squares and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.-Location:...
-Trg Republike-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 :...
-Cvetni Trg
Cvetni trg
Cvetni Trg or Flower Square is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :...
-Slavija. In time, Studentski Trg and Terazije lost their square functions, becoming streets, while Cvetni Trg, with final changes in early 2000s, is completely defunct as a traffic object, so Slavija and Trg Republike remain as the rare true squares in downtown Belgrade.
After the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the new Communist government re-buried the remains of the leading Serbian Socialist Dimitrije Tucović
Dimitrije Tucovic
Dimitrije Tucović was a prominent leader and theorist of the socialist movement in the Kingdom of Serbia...
at the central square plateau in 1947 and a bronze bust of Tucović was erected, work of Stevan Bodnarov. In addition, the name of the square was officially renamed from Slavija (meaning "land of the Slavs") to the Square of Dimitrije Tucović. The name, just like most of the other Communist administrative name changes in the old core of the city didn't live up, and in early 2000s it was officially changed back to Slavija.
A hotel "Slavija" was built in 1962, and enlarged later (complex Slavija A and Slavija B). Third addition, ultra modern Slavija Lux was built in 1989. The square is also a home to the first McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant ever built in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, opened 24 March 1988 and still operational. The restaurant is in the former Vučo family house, constructed by Dimitrije T. Leko
Dimitrije T. Leko
Dimitrije T. Leko was a renowned Serbian architect and urbanist. He has spent most of his life outside Serbia – he had finished high school in Winterthur, before studying architecture at the universities in Zürich, Aachen and Munich...
in 1893. The restaurant was heavily damaged during the protests following the proclamation of the declaration of independence of Kosovo
2008 Kosovo declaration of independence
The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was adopted on 17 February 2008 by individual members of the Assembly of Kosovo acting in personal capacity and not binding to the Assembly itself...
on 17 February 2008.
Traffic importance
Slavija is one of the most vibrant traffic objects in Belgrade, being one of the major squares of Belgrade. It is one of the rare traffic routes in the city where all three types of public transportation (buses, trolleybusTrolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es and tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s) meet. Due to the general inadequacy of the city's transportation, traffic jams are regular on the square and especially hard if helped by some additional reason (bad weather, snow, especially the 2006 reconstruction of the Autokomanda
Autokomanda
Autokomanda is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located on the tripoint of the Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac, Savski Venac and Vračar.- Location :...
interchange, etc).
The transportation importance of the square can be seen as it branches into the eight streets:
- Boulevard of Liberation, which goes up and down the Vračar hill and connects it to AutokomandaAutokomandaAutokomanda is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located on the tripoint of the Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac, Savski Venac and Vračar.- Location :...
and the highway; - Svetog Save, which also goes up the Vračar hill and ends up at the Temple of Saint SavaTemple of Saint SavaThe Cathedral of Saint Sava or Saint Sava Temple in Vračar, Belgrade, is an Orthodox church, the largest in the Balkans, and one of the 10 largest church buildings in the world.. The church is dedicated to Saint Sava, founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church and an important figure in medieval Serbia...
; - Makenzijeva, which also through Vračar connects it to the neighborhood of ČuburaCuburaČubura is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar, it is a synonym of the city's bohemian life.- Location :...
; - Prote Mateje, which connects it to the Belgrade's longest street, Boulevard of the King AlexanderBulevar kralja AleksandraBulevar Kralja Aleksandra , with length of 7,5 kilometers, is the longest street entirely within the urban limits of Belgrade, capital of Serbia...
; - Beogradska, which also connects it to the Boulevard of the King Alexander, and the neighborhood of Tašmajdan and further to Palilula;
- Kralja Milana, the main street of Belgrade, going through downtown (Terazije) and further to the Square of the Republic and Kalemegdan;
- NemanjinaNemanjina StreetNemanjina Street is a very important thoroughfare in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, in the Savski Venac municipality. After the completion of the construction of the Railway station in 1884, it became one of the city's main communicational links...
, which connects it to the main railway and bus stations and the bank of the Sava river; - Deligradska, which connects it to the vast complex of the Clinical Center of Serbia;
Architecture
Due to numerous and constant changes in the architectural structure of the urban tissue surrounding the square, Slavija became a synonym for an architectonically ugly and devastated area and the source of one of the most popular urban legends in Belgrade: the curse of the Mitićeva rupa ("Mitić's hole").Mitićeva rupa
One of the richest people in Belgrade before World War II, Vlada Mitić, bought the lot on Slavija to build the largest department store in the Balkans, but the outbreak of the war halted the realisation. After the war, Communist government imprisoned Vlada Mitić and confiscated his entire property, including the lot on Slavija, on the corner of the Kralja Milana and Beogradska streets, and money prepared for the construction of the department store. From 1946 to 1980 26 different project were completed for the lot, but none was realised. Then mayor of Belgrade, Bogdan BogdanovićBogdan Bogdanović
Bogdan Bogdanović was a Serbian architect, urbanist and essayist. He taught architecture at the University of Belgrade, where he also served as dean...
decided to put a large sundial
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...
in the place. In the early 1990s, Dafiment banka, one of the major pyramid schemes of the Milošević's regime
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
, bought the lot and announced a monumental shopping mall, but after the scheme failed completely, now fenced lot was turned into the dump (technically, it was in fact a
Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
). After the regime change in 2000, the area was cleaned and a temporary park was built instead. The failed projects continued, including the ultra-modern, gigantic shopping mall by Israelis which turned out to be a complete hoax. All of this was more than enough for people to consider the "hole" a cursed place.
Cinema Slavija
On the place of the residence of Francis Mackenzie, a cinema "Slavija" was built, from the Beogradska to Prote Mateje streets. For decades one of the symbols of Belgrade, the cinema was demolished in the early 1990s, but like the Mitić's hole, none of the projects for construction on this site have been realised. Not knowing what to do with the empty lot, city government turned it into the temporary parking lot.Slavija hotels
There are three Slavija hotels on the square:- Slavija A, between the Makenzijeva and Svetog Save streets, right on the square;
- Slavija B, also between those two streets but behind the Slavija A (to which it makes one complex), further from the square;
- Slavija Lux, across the old hotels, between the street of Svetog Save and the Boulevard of the Liberation;
The old hotel Slavija from 1962, in the manner of the International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
is today viewed by the Belgraders as an obsolete and ugly building, with its hospital-like look, especially compared to the modern marble and glass Slavija Lux which perfectly fits into the buildings behind it. Inside the hotel is elaborately decked out with wooden panelling on most surfaces in the rooms. It features a Casino and large dining room. The Hotel has not been fully renovated since 1962 and still operates fully, though not using all rooms.
National bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia is the central bank of Serbia; its main responsibilities are the protection of price stability and maintenance of financial stability....
also began in the early 1990s. It is located a little bit further from the square itself, but due to its size it is visible from many parts of Belgrade. Money problems caused a decade and a half of delays. A massive construction was deemed ugly and unappropriate for the location by many Belgraders and in 1994 the then governor of the bank, Dragoslav Avramović, said that he will not move into the new building even if it will be done on time. However, a massive glass building was finally finished only in 2006. Some old houses and small building were demolished for the construction of the bank, but some remained right next to it as a contrast. The terrain surrounding the building has not been landscaped to date (2011).