Vracar
Encyclopedia
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...
. With an area of only 297 hectares (734 acre), it is the smallest of all Belgrade's (and Serbian) municipalities, but also the most densely populated. Vračar is one of the three municipalities that constitute the central area of the city (together with 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...
and Stari Grad
Stari Grad, Belgrade
Stari Grad is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It encompasses some of the oldest sections of urban Belgrade, thus the name...
). One of the most famous Belgrade landmarks, Saint Sava Temple is located in Vračar.
Location
The neighborhood of Vračar is located on the top of the Vračar plateau, partially in the easternmost section of the municipality of Savski VenacSavski 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...
as a result of a series of administrative changes of municipal boundaries 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...
. Despite its small area, being located less than a kilometer away from downtown (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 :...
) it borders many other Belgrade neighborhoods: the square and neighborhood of Slavija
Slavija (Belgrade)
Slavija Square , officially Dimitrije Tucović Square , is one of the central town squares and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...
to the north, Palilula
Palilula Belgrade
Palilula is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It has the largest area of all municipalities of Belgrade.- Location :...
to the northeast, Čubura
Cubura
Čubura 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 :...
and Gradić Pejton
Gradic Pejton
Gradić Pejton |Peyton Place]]) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar, it is a unique craftmen settlement in the city.- Location :...
to the east, Neimar
Neimar
Neimar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.-Location:...
to the south and the park and neighborhood of Karađorđev Park to the southwest. Vračar plateau is one of the highest points in downtown Belgrade
History
Name Vračar (derived from Serbian word vrač meaning the 'medicine manMedicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
', 'healer') was mentioned for the first time in 1495 in Turkish
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...
documents. In 1560 it is mentioned as the Christian village outside the fortress of 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...
with 17 houses. It is believed this village is the place where in 1595 the Turkish grand vizier
Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...
Sinan Pasha
Sinan Pasha
Sinan Pasha or Sinan Pashë Kahremanliu was an Albanian Grand Vizier, Ottoman military commander and statesman.-Life:...
burned at the stake the remains of Saint Sava
Saint Sava
Saint Sava was a Serbian Prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law and literature, and a diplomat. Sava was born Rastko Nemanjić , the youngest son of Serbian Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja , and ruled the appanage of Hum briefly in...
, a major Serbian saint, to pacify and punish a rebellious population.
At the beginning of the 19th century Vračar, as a geographical term, referred to a much wider area, from the village of Savamala
Savamala
Savamala is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipalities of Savski Venac and Stari Grad.- Location :...
(present Mostar
Mostarska Petlja
Mostar interchange or colloquially Mostar is a major interchange and a surrounding urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac....
) on the west to the village of Paliula (present neighborhood of Karaburma
Karaburma
Karaburma is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.- Location :...
), which means it used to cover at least three times larger territory than the municipality covers today. By order of prince Miloš Obrenović, an alternative city centre with western characteristics was designed and built here while city of Belgrade was still under Turkish rule and for three quarters an oriental town with all the characteristics of Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
. On the other hand, Vračar was built with broad streets and boulevards, first parks and monuments. It was housing all Serbian public buildings and state institutions in Belgrade, known as a place where the remains of the Serbian Saint Archbishop Sava Nemanjic were burned by Turks. The Masonic Temple on this site was destroyed during the German bombing of Belgrade on 6 April 1941. Today, it is the site of the biggest Christian Orthodox Cathedral in the world.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on October 17, 1843 published a text full of exultations. 'Four years have passed since the time when I was last here, and how Belgrade has changed! I have hardly recognised it. The high belfry on the church (Cathedral) now screens by its shadow the Turkish mosques; many shops are now provided with new doors and glass windows, oriental clothing is more rare and houses with several storeys, in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an manner, are being built everywhere'.
Many architects-baumeisters (builders) Germans, Czechs, Italians and the Serbians who appeared only at the end of the 1860s built new Serbian Belgrade in Vračar. After 1867, when Turkish military garrisons left the Belgrade fortress Kalemegdan they extended their architectural activities on the ruins of the Turkish houses (Stambol gate, Dorćol
Dorcol
Dorćol is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.- Location :Dorćol begins already some 700 meters north of Terazije, the central square of Belgrade...
, Palilula) and on the ruins of the Serbian huts in the Sava river port, Savamala.
Since 1880s, the neighborhood was roughly divided into Zapadni Vračar (West Vračar) and Istočni Vračar (East Vračar), divided by the road of Šumadijski put (present Boulevard of Liberation). Since 1955 when municipality was officially split into these two, Zapadni Vračar later became core of the new municipality of 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...
while the term Vračar became synonym for Istočni Vračar only.
Characteristics
The most dominant feature of modern Vračar is the massive Temple of Saint SavaTemple of Saint Sava
The 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...
. Its decades long, troubled construction shaped not just the present appearance of the plateau, but also the skyline of the entire Belgrade. Plateau has been reshaped in the early 2000s, with fountains, marble access roads to the temple with pillars and children playgrounds added, while the already existing monument to the leader of the First Serbian Uprising
First Serbian Uprising
The First Serbian Uprising was the first stage of the Serbian Revolution , the successful wars of independence that lasted for 9 years and approximately 9 months , during which Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after more than three centuries of Ottoman rule and...
, Karađorđe, was erected on a low, artificial hillock. The plateau is also the location of the National Library of Serbia and Karađorđev Park also begins here, while the craftsmen settlement of Gradić Pejton and the bohemian quarter of Čubura nearby.
Location
The small municipality of Vračar borders five other Belgrade municipalities: VoždovacVoždovac
Voždovac is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...
to the south, Zvezdara
Zvezdara
Zvezdara is a hill, forest, urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...
to the east, Palilula to the northeast, Stari Grad
Stari Grad, Belgrade
Stari Grad is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It encompasses some of the oldest sections of urban Belgrade, thus the name...
to the north and Savski Venac to the west. It is generally bounded by the three boulevards: Boulevard of Liberation, Southern Boulevard and the Boulevard of King Aleksandar
Aleksandar Obrenovic
Not to be confused with Alexander I of Yugoslavia.Alexander I or Aleksandar Obrenović was king of Serbia from 1889 to 1903 when he and his wife, Queen Draga, were assassinated by a group of Army officers, led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević-Accession:In 1889 Alexander's father, King Milan,...
.
Geography
The Vračar plateauVracar plateau
Vračarski Plato or Vračar plateau is a plateau in Vračar, Belgrade with an absolute height of 134 meters above the sea level.The dominant position in Belgrade's cityscape made the plateau a natural location for the first meteorological observatory in Serbia, Belgrade Meteorological Station, built...
is one of the highest point in downtown Belgrade, which is generally built on a hilly terrain (32 hills altogether). Almost no geographical features survive today as the area is completely urbanized, except for the small section of Karađorđev Park on the southern slopes of the plateau. Some much larger parks, like major portion of Karađorđev Park or parks Manjež
Manjež
Manjež Park is a public park situated in the centre of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.It is located in the heart of the city, in an area bounded by the Nemanjina, Resavska, King Milan and Svetozar Marković streets. It derives its name from the French word manege from the Royal Horse Guards which...
and Tašmajdan are left just outside the Vračar's administrative borders.
Administration
The municipality of Vračar was officially formed in 1952 after Belgrade was administratively reorganized from districts (rejon) to municipalities. Already on September 1, 1955 Vračar was divided into Zapadni Vračar (West Vračar) and Istočni Vračar (East Vračar). Year and a half later, on January 1, 1957, parts of Istočni Vračar merged with the municipality of NeimarNeimar
Neimar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.-Location:...
and the western part of the municipality of 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 :...
to create new, albeit the smallest municipality in Belgrade, Vračar. Zapadni Vračar became municipality of 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...
, while the easternmost section of Istočni Vračar became part of the municipality of Zvezdara
Zvezdara
Zvezdara is a hill, forest, urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...
(local community
Local community
A local community is a group of interacting people sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.- Overview...
of Vračarsko Polje; Zvezdara hill itself was styled Veliki Vračar - Big Vračar).
Recent presidents of the municipal assembly:
- January 1993 - December 1996: Dragan MaršićaninDragan MaršicaninDragan Maršićanin is a Serbian politician. He was the ambassador of Serbia to Switzerland, serving from 2004 to 2009. He was also Serbian Minister of Economy, but his position was put on hold when he decided to run for president in 2004...
(b. 1950) - December 1996 - June 13, 2006: Milena Marković (b. 1950)
- June 13, 2006–present: Branimir Kuzmanović (b. 1968)
Mrs Dunja Vlahović (b. 1912), who was municipal president from January 1957 when Vračar was restored as one municipality, was one of the first female municipal presidents in Serbia.
District (Serbian: srez) which comprised the suburban area of Belgrade after 1945 was called Vračar District (Vračarski srez) though the name Belgrade District was also used. In 1955 the Vračar District merged with the City of Belgrade and parts of some bordering districts to create new, enlarged Belgrade District.
Population
As the other two central Belgrade municipalities, Stari GradStari Grad, Belgrade
Stari Grad is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It encompasses some of the oldest sections of urban Belgrade, thus the name...
and Savski Venac, Vračar has been depopulating for the last five decades. Despite that, Vračar is by far, thanks to its small area, the most densely populated municipality of Belgrade, with 19.659 inhabitants per square kilometer (2002 census; 29,772 back in 1971). Population of Vračar:
- 1961 census - 88,422
- 1971 census - 84,291
- 1981 census - 78,862
- 1991 census - 67,438
- 2002 census - 58,386
- 2005 estim. - 69,528
If the pre-1955 administrative division remained, population of the municipality would be 91,539 in 2002.
Neighborhoods
As Vračar has a very small area by itself, its sub-neighborhoods are also small, some of them encompassing only a street or so:
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Englezovac Englezovac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :... Gradic Pejton Gradić Pejton |Peyton Place]]) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar, it is a unique craftmen settlement in the city.- Location :... |
Grantovac Grantovac was an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.... Kalenic (Belgrade) Kalenić is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar, centered around the Kalenić market, one of the main open green markets in Belgrade.- Location :... Krunski Venac Krunski Venac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.... |
Neimar Neimar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.-Location:... Savinac Savinac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar.- Location :... |
|
Characteristics
Vračar is a residential and very important commercial part of Belgrade. The tall skyscraperSkyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
in downtown Belgrade, the Beograđanka, Cvetni Trg (famous for its flower shops) and the square of Slavija occupy the western section of the municipality. Other important features are the Temple of Saint Sava
Temple of Saint Sava
The 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...
and the National Library of Serbia
National Library of Serbia
The National Library of Serbia is the national library of Serbia, located in the city of Belgrade, .-History:...
on the Vračar plateau, northern section of the big interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
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 :...
and the stadium of the FK Obilić
FK Obilic
Fudbalski klub Obilić is a football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. Named after legendary Serbian medieval hero Miloš Obilić, the club currently competes in the Druga beogradska liga - grupa Dunav .The club's stadium is also named accordingly; to venerate the Serbian knight it is called the...
(Miloš Obilić Stadium
Miloš Obilic Stadium
Obilić Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Belgrade, Serbia. Located in Vračar municipality, it is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 4,508 people.It is the home ground of FK Obilić.-External links:*, Blic, April 5, 2008...
) and the Architecture high school in the extreme west of the municipality. Commercial center of the municipality is the area surrounding the Kalenić, largest open green market in Belgrade.
International cooperation
Vračar is twinned with following cities and municipalities: AnavyssosAnavyssos
Anavyssos is a town and a former municipality in East Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Saronikos, of which it is a municipal unit....
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
See also
- Istočni Vračar
- Zapadni Vračar
- Subdivisions of BelgradeSubdivisions of BelgradeThe city of Belgrade is divided into 17 municipalities.Most of the municipalities are situated on the southern side of the Danube and Sava rivers, in the Šumadija region...
- List of Belgrade neighborhoods and suburbs
Historical references
- Beograd - Izdanje opštine beogradske, 1911;
- Zapisi starog Beograđanina 2000;
- Iz starog Beograda, Živorad P. Jovanović 1964;
- Siluete starog Beograda, Milan Jovanović - Stojimirović, 1971;
- Uspon Beograda, Milivoje M.Kostić, 2000;
- Beogradske gradske pijace, JKP Beogradske pijace, 1999;
- Vračarski glasnik, 1997–2004