Novi Beograd
Encyclopedia
Novi Beograd or New Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Београд, 'nɔ̂ʋiː bɛ'ɔ̌ɡrad) 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. In recent years it has become the new financial centre of Belgrade and its fastest developing area, with many businesses moving to the new part of the city, due to more modern infrastructure and larger available space. With population of 212,000 people, it is the most populous municipality of Belgrade
.
region. Administratively, its northeastern section touches 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 began in late 2008. European route E75
, with five grade separation
s, including a new double-looped one at the Belgrade Arena
, goes right through the middle of the settlement.
The municipality of Novi Beograd covers an area of 40.74 square kilometres (15.7 sq mi). 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 conveyor belt
s 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 romantically 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.
Though it has no forests in the real sense, of all urban municipalities of Belgrade, Novi Beograd has the largest green areas, with a total of 3.47 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi), or 8.5 % of the territory. The majority of it is made by the large Novi Beograd-Ušće park. The latest addition to Belgrade parks, Park Republika Srpska
from 2008, is also located in the municipality.
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. All of these complexes will be removed and develop in business and residential areas.
In 1990s with the collapse of gigantic state-owned companies, Novi Beograd's local economy bounced back by switching to commercial facilities, with dozens of shopping mall
s 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.
New Belgrade become main business district in Serbia. Many companies choose New Belgrade for their headquarters or regional centers such as Acer, Comtrade group, Imtel Computers
, Microsoft
, Ikea
, Delta Holding
, DHL
, Jat, OMV
, Siemens
, Société Générale
, Telekom Serbia, Telenor Serbia
, Unilever
, Vip mobile
, Yugoimport SDPR
, Ericsson
, Colliers, CB Richard Ellis
, Cisco
, SAP AG
, Hewlett-Packard
, Huawei
... The Belgrade Stock Exchange
is also located in New Belgrade. Other notable structures built not too long afterwards include convention and congress hall Sava Center
, Hotel Jugoslavija
, Genex condominium, Genex Tower
sports and concert venues Hala Sportova
and Belgrade Arena
, and 4 and 5-star hotels Continental Hotel Belgrade, Holiday Inn
, Hyatt Regency, Tulip Inn,... Many structures are currently under construction like Ada Bridge
, Airport City Belgrade
, Vienna Insurance Group HQ, Elektroprivreda Srbije
HQ., Intesa HQ, Raiffaissen Bank HQ, West 65 business-residential complex, etc.
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. Currently finished projects in New Belgrade are Delta City
, Sava City
, Univerzitetsko Selo
and Ušće Tower
.
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 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 Serbian refugees from Croatia
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Serbian Province of Kosovo
, the number of people is probably not exceeding 250,000, despite the figure of 400,000 inhabitants often circulating in the press over the last 20 years.
Population of Novi Beograd in various years:
According to the 2002 census, the major ethnic groups in the municipality were:
, no other neighbourhoods have historical or traditional names, as Novi Beograd did not exist as such. However, in the five decades of its existence, some of its parts gradually became known as distinct neighborhoods of their own.
List of the neighbourhoods of Novi Beograd:
Several more neighbourhoods are currently under construction: Airport City Belgrade
, Delta City
, Park Apartments, Sava City
and Univerzitetsko Selo
.
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 run 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.
The first urbanization plans that talk about Belgrade
's expansion to the Sava
's left bank were drawn up in 1923, but a lack of either funds or the manpower needed to drain out the swampy terrain put them on hold indefinitely. In 1924 Petar Kokotović opened a kafana
on Tošin Bunar
with the prophetic name Novi Beograd. After 1945 Kokotović was president of the local community of Novo Naselje-Bežanija which later grew into the municipality of Novi Beograd. In 1924 an airport was built in Bežanija and in 1928 the Rogožerski factory was constructed. In 1934 plans were expanded to include the creation of a new urban tissue which connected Belgrade and Zemun, as Zemun was administratively annexed to the city of Belgrade in 1929, losing separate city status in 1934. A bridge was also built over the Sava river and a tram line connecting Belgrade and Zemun was established. Also, a Zemun airport was built.
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. Also this year, the municipality of Belgrade signed a contract with two Danish
construction companies, Kampsax and Højgaard & Schultz, to build the new neighborhood. Engineer Branislav Nešić was entrusted with leading the project. He even continued doing it after 1941, which lead to his trial by the Communist authorities after 1945 as a collaborator.
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 camp
s run by Croatia
n 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 Syrmia
n 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.
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 is known today as New Belgrade.
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.
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 (Savezno izvršno veće
) building, which housed the Federal Executive Council
. The building has 75,000 square meters of usable space. Built during the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
, it was also used during the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia before its dissolution. The building has been renamed Palace Serbia, and now houses some departments of the Serbian government.
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
.
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.
's residential campus - Studentski Grad.
List of schools in Novi Beograd:
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.
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 Intercontinental hotels, luxury Genex condos
, Ušće Tower
, Belgrade Arena
, Delta City
, 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 does not inspire creative living nor encourage healthy human interaction, and is only good for overnight sleep at the end of the hard day's work.
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 New York 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.
, Franche-Comté
, France
Karpoš
, Republic of Macedonia
Xanthi
, Greece
Prague 7
, Czech Republic
Banja Luka
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Metlika
, Slovenia
Subdivisions of Belgrade
The 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...
that constitutes the City 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 a planned
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
city, built in 1947 on the left bank of the Sava river which was previously an uninhabited area, opposite of the old Belgrade. In recent years it has become the new financial centre of Belgrade and its fastest developing area, with many businesses moving to the new part of the city, due to more modern infrastructure and larger available space. With population of 212,000 people, it is the most populous municipality of Belgrade
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" ...
.
Geography
Novi Beograd is located on the left bank of the Sava river, in the easternmost part of the SremSrem
Śrem is a town on the Warta river in central Poland. It has been situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999; from 1975 to 1998 it was part of the Poznań Voivodeship...
region. Administratively, its northeastern section touches the right bank of the 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....
, right before the Sava's confluence. It is generally located west of the 'Old' Belgrade to which it is connected by five bridges (Gazela
Gazela Bridge
Gazela is the most important bridge in Belgrade, Serbia, across the Sava river. It is a part of the city highway and it lies on European route E75, on the highway passing through the wider city center, connecting Belgrade with Niš to the south, and Novi Sad to the north...
, Branko's bridge
Branko's Bridge
Branko's bridge is the second-largest bridge of Belgrade, Serbia, connecting the city center with New Belgrade across Sava river....
, Old Sava bridge, old and New Railway Bridge) and the construction of the sixth began in late 2008. European route E75
European route E75
European route E 75 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe.The E 75 starts from Vardø, Norway in the Barents Sea and runs south through Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Republic of Macedonia to Sitia, Greece on...
, with five grade separation
Grade separation
Grade separation is the method of aligning a junction of two or more transport axes at different heights so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other transit routes when they cross each other. The composition of such transport axes does not have to be uniform; it can consist of a...
s, including a new double-looped one at the Belgrade Arena
Belgrade Arena
The Belgrade Arena is an indoor arena located in Novi Beograd, Belgrade. It is designed as a universal hall for sport, cultural events and other programs. With a total space that covers 48,000 square metres, and an official total capacity of 19,982 seats , it is one of the largest indoor arenas in...
, goes right through the middle of the settlement.
The municipality of Novi Beograd covers an area of 40.74 square kilometres (15.7 sq mi). 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
Bežanija
Bežanija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.- Location :...
, Novi Beograd is built on terrain that was essentially a swamp when construction of the new city began in 1948. For years, kilometers-long conveyor belt
Conveyor belt
A conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley...
s were transporting sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
from the Danube's island of Malo Ratno Ostrvo
Malo Ratno Ostrvo
Little War Island or Malo Ratno Ostrvo is a river island in Serbia, located at the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube...
, almost completely destroying the island in the process, from which only a small, narrow strip of wooded land remains today. Thus, it is romantically said that Novi Beograd is actually built on an island.
Other geographic features are the peninsula of Mala Ciganlija
Mala Ciganlija
Mala Ciganlija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd....
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
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
. The loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
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.
Though it has no forests in the real sense, of all urban municipalities of Belgrade, Novi Beograd has the largest green areas, with a total of 3.47 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi), or 8.5 % of the territory. The majority of it is made by the large Novi Beograd-Ušće park. The latest addition to Belgrade parks, Park Republika Srpska
Park Republika Srpska
Park Republika Srpska is one of the newest parks in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Novi Beograd.- Location :The park is located in the eastern section of the municipality...
from 2008, is also located in the municipality.
Economy
Heavy industry
Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many Japanese and Korean firms, meaning...
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
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
factory - FOM, Beograd (formerly Tito) shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
, large heating plant in Savski Nasip, MINEL electro-construction company, etc. All of these complexes will be removed and develop in business and residential areas.
In 1990s with the collapse of gigantic state-owned companies, Novi Beograd's local economy bounced back by switching to commercial facilities, with dozens of shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
s and entire commercial sections. These activities are further enhanced in the 2000s. The 'Open Shopping Mall' or the Belgrade's flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
is also located in Novi Beograd.
New Belgrade become main business district in Serbia. Many companies choose New Belgrade for their headquarters or regional centers such as Acer, Comtrade group, Imtel Computers
Imtel Computers
Imtel Computers is a Belgrade/Serbia based computer company.The history of Imtel Computers dates back to 1973 when a division of Institute of Physics in Belgrade became a separate company named Institute of Applied Physics...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Ikea
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
, Delta Holding
Delta Holding
Delta Holding is the third largest company in Serbia. The company was founded in Belgrade. Delta Holding performs a variety of services, such as import-export,real-estate , banking, insurance, retail, wholesale, etc. The president is Miroslav Mišković...
, DHL
DHL
DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....
, Jat, OMV
OMV
OMV is Austria's largest oil-producing, refining and gas station operating company with important activities in other Central European countries...
, Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
, Société Générale
Société Générale
Société Générale S.A. is a large European Bank and a major Financial Services company that has a substantial global presence. Its registered office is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, while its head office is in the Tours Société Générale in the business district of La...
, Telekom Serbia, Telenor Serbia
Telenor Serbia
Telenor Serbia , subsidiary of Norwegian company Telenor, is the second largest Serbian mobile network operator.According to its most recent annual financial report submitted to the Serbian Economic Register Agency, the company has 1,102 employees and it posted an annual profit of RSD 6,459,361,000...
, Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
, Vip mobile
Vip mobile
Vip mobile is the third Serbian mobile network operator and a member of mobilkom Austria group. It is the exclusive strategic partner of Vodafone in Serbia....
, Yugoimport SDPR
Yugoimport SDPR
Yugoimport SDPR is a Serbian state-owned defence company and represents the Government and military industrial complex of Serbia in the sphere of importation and exportation cooperation of defence equipment and related services...
, Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
, Colliers, CB Richard Ellis
CB Richard Ellis
CBRE Group, Inc. , a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm . The Company has approximately 31,000 employees , and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices worldwide...
, Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
, SAP AG
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Huawei
Huawei
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...
... The Belgrade Stock Exchange
Belgrade Stock Exchange
The Belgrade Stock Exchange is a stock exchange in Belgrade, Serbia.-History:The first ideas about establishing an institution which would control the movement of the value of money appeared in Serbia in the 1830s. The Serbian Trading Association, important for the development of the entire...
is also located in New Belgrade. Other notable structures built not too long afterwards include convention and congress hall Sava Center
Sava Center
For the former UK supermarket see Sainsbury's SavacentreSava Centar is an international congress, cultural and business centre of various multi-functional activities located in New Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest audience hall in the country and entire former Yugoslavia...
, Hotel Jugoslavija
Hotel Jugoslavija
Hotel Jugoslavija translated in English to Hotel Yugoslavia in Belgrade is one of the oldest luxurious Serbian hotels located in the Novi Beograd municipality....
, Genex condominium, Genex Tower
Genex Tower
Genex Tower , or Western City Gate , is a 35-storey skyscraper in Belgrade, Serbia, which was designed in 1977 by Mihajlo Mitrović in the brutalist style. It is formed by two towers connected with a two-storey bridge and revolving restaurant at the top...
sports and concert venues Hala Sportova
Hala sportova
Hala sportova is a multi-purpose sports arena located in Belgrade municipality of New Belgrade.The venue's actual name is "Palata sportova" , but it is widely known by its informal title - Hala. It was built and opened during 1968...
and Belgrade Arena
Belgrade Arena
The Belgrade Arena is an indoor arena located in Novi Beograd, Belgrade. It is designed as a universal hall for sport, cultural events and other programs. With a total space that covers 48,000 square metres, and an official total capacity of 19,982 seats , it is one of the largest indoor arenas in...
, and 4 and 5-star hotels Continental Hotel Belgrade, Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
, Hyatt Regency, Tulip Inn,... Many structures are currently under construction like Ada Bridge
Ada Bridge
The Ada bridge or Sava bridge is a new cable-stayed bridge currently under construction over the Sava river in Belgrade, Serbia. The bridge will cross over the tip of Ada Ciganlija island, connecting municipalities of Čukarica and Novi Beograd...
, Airport City Belgrade
Airport City Belgrade
Airport City Belgrade or is a business park in Novi Beograd, Serbia.ACB is multi-use commercial facility. The project is often called "City within a City", spreading over an area of 14 hectares. Upon completion ACB spans 186 000 square meters. The construction of the project was led by...
, Vienna Insurance Group HQ, Elektroprivreda Srbije
Elektroprivreda Srbije
Elektroprivreda Srbije or simply EPS is the state-owned energy provider in Serbia, and currently the largest enterprise in Serbia. As of 2010, the company employs 34,130 workers....
HQ., Intesa HQ, Raiffaissen Bank HQ, West 65 business-residential complex, etc.
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. Currently finished projects in New Belgrade are Delta City
Delta City
Delta City is a brand of shopping malls, with malls in Belgrade, Serbia and Podgorica, Montenegro. It is a subsidiary of Delta M, itself a division of Serbian Delta Holding.-Delta City Belgrade:...
, Sava City
Sava City
Sava City is going to be a 35,000 metre square business complex which will be located in Belgrade, Serbia. It is supposed to be the first elite residential|business in the New Belgrade Area, which each consists of three apartments on each floor of each. The Construction Started in 2006 but the...
, Univerzitetsko Selo
Univerzitetsko Selo
Univerzitetsko Selo or University Village or Belville is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The first officially planned new neighborhood of Belgrade after 12 years, it is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.-Location:Univerzitetsko Selo is built in the Novi...
and Ušće Tower
Ušce Tower
Ušće Tower is the tallest skyscraper in Belgrade, capital of Serbia, and the second-tallest building overall, after the Avala tower...
.
Population
Roundabout
A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
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
Zemun
Zemun is a historical town and one of the 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...
, 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
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
showed, the population size actually decreased slightly during the 1990s. Regarding this 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 Serbian refugees from Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
and Serbian Province of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, the number of people is probably not exceeding 250,000, despite the figure of 400,000 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 http://www.novosti.rs/code/navigate.php?Id=14&status=jedna&vest=95457&search=oblakoderima&datum=2006-10-25
- 2009 calculation - 388,354
Ethnic structure
- SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
= 192,486 (88.39%) - YugoslavsYugoslavsYugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
= 5,341 (2.45%) - CroatsCroatsCroats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
= 2,520 (1.16%) - Roma = 2,371 (1.09%)
- MacedoniansMacedonians (ethnic group)The Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
= 1,683 (0.77%) - others = 13,372 (6.14 %)
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 SajmišteStaro Sajmište
Staro Sajmište is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd and it was the site of the World War II Sajmište concentration camp ....
, no other neighbourhoods have historical or traditional names, as Novi Beograd did not exist as such. However, in the five decades of its existence, some of its parts gradually became known as distinct neighborhoods of their own.
List of the neighbourhoods of Novi Beograd:
|
Dr Ivan Ribar Dr Ivan Ribar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.- Location :... Fontana (Belgrade) Fontana is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.... Ledine Ledine is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.... |
Mala Ciganlija Mala Ciganlija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.... Paviljoni Paviljoni is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.- Location :... Savski Nasip Savski Nasip is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.... Staro Sajmište Staro Sajmište is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd and it was the site of the World War II Sajmište concentration camp .... |
Studentski Grad (Belgrade) Studentski Grad or colloquially Studenjak is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd... Tošin Bunar Tošin Bunar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.... Ušce (Belgrade) Ušće is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd. Ušće is located on the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube, thus the name... |
Several more neighbourhoods are currently under construction: Airport City Belgrade
Airport City Belgrade
Airport City Belgrade or is a business park in Novi Beograd, Serbia.ACB is multi-use commercial facility. The project is often called "City within a City", spreading over an area of 14 hectares. Upon completion ACB spans 186 000 square meters. The construction of the project was led by...
, Delta City
Delta City
Delta City is a brand of shopping malls, with malls in Belgrade, Serbia and Podgorica, Montenegro. It is a subsidiary of Delta M, itself a division of Serbian Delta Holding.-Delta City Belgrade:...
, Park Apartments, Sava City
Sava City
Sava City is going to be a 35,000 metre square business complex which will be located in Belgrade, Serbia. It is supposed to be the first elite residential|business in the New Belgrade Area, which each consists of three apartments on each floor of each. The Construction Started in 2006 but the...
and Univerzitetsko Selo
Univerzitetsko Selo
Univerzitetsko Selo or University Village or Belville is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The first officially planned new neighborhood of Belgrade after 12 years, it is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.-Location:Univerzitetsko Selo is built in the Novi...
.
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 BežanijaBežanija
Bežanija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.- Location :...
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
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, but after Ottomans got run out, the arrival of new occupiers, Habsburg
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
forces, encouraged settlement of Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, Hungarians, and Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
.
Between two world wars of the 20th century, communities sprung up closer to Sava River
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
in Staro Sajmište and Novo Naselje.
The first urbanization plans that talk about 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...
's expansion to the Sava
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
's left bank were drawn up in 1923, but a lack of either funds or the manpower needed to drain out the swampy terrain put them on hold indefinitely. In 1924 Petar Kokotović opened a kafana
Kafana
Kafana , kafeana , kavana are terms used in the former Yugoslav countries for a distinct type of local bistro which primarily serves alcoholic beverages and coffee , and which sometimes also has a live band.The concept of a social gathering place for men to drink...
on Tošin Bunar
Tošin Bunar
Tošin Bunar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd....
with the prophetic name Novi Beograd. After 1945 Kokotović was president of the local community of Novo Naselje-Bežanija which later grew into the municipality of Novi Beograd. In 1924 an airport was built in Bežanija and in 1928 the Rogožerski factory was constructed. In 1934 plans were expanded to include the creation of a new urban tissue which connected Belgrade and Zemun, as Zemun was administratively annexed to the city of Belgrade in 1929, losing separate city status in 1934. A bridge was also built over the Sava river and a tram line connecting Belgrade and Zemun was established. Also, a Zemun airport was built.
In 1938, a complex of buildings in the community of Staro Sajmište
Staro Sajmište
Staro Sajmište is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd and it was the site of the World War II Sajmište concentration camp ....
went up. Spread over 15 thousand square meters it hosted fairs and exhibitions designed to show off the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
's developing economy. Also this year, the municipality of Belgrade signed a contract with two Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
construction companies, Kampsax and Højgaard & Schultz, to build the new neighborhood. Engineer Branislav Nešić was entrusted with leading the project. He even continued doing it after 1941, which lead to his trial by the Communist authorities after 1945 as a collaborator.
Sajmište concentration camp
In 1941, German forces occupied much of the Kingdom. NaziNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
secret police, Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, took over Sajmište. They encircled it with several rings of barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
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
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
used Sajmište concentration camp
Sajmište concentration camp
Sajmište concentration camp was a German run Nazi concentration camp located on the outskirts of Belgrade whilst part of NDH . It was established in December 1941 and shut down in September 1944...
to mostly kill off Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
from Belgrade and other parts 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...
. From April 1942 onwards, prisoners were transported in from Jasenovac
Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...
and Stara Gradiška concentration camp
Stara Gradiška concentration camp
Stara Gradiška was the most notorious concentration and extermination camp in Croatia during World War II, mainly due to the crimes which were committed against women and children. The camp was specially constructed for women and children of Serb, Jew, and Romani ethnicity...
s run by Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n Nazi puppet regime - Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
. Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
captured throughout 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...
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
Kozara
Kozara is a mountain in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. It is bounded by the rivers Sava - north, Vrbas - east, Sana - south and Una - west...
region, entire Jewish families from Belgrade and other cities, Roma families, as well as entire populations of different 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....
n 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
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
admitting defeat on April 22, 1945.
Rapid development
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...
ended, that the ground was broken on a huge construction project, which would give birth to what is known today as New Belgrade.
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.
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.
Among the first to go up was the SIV (Savezno izvršno veće
Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
The Prime Minister or the President of the Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia was the head of government of the Yugoslav state, from the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 until the end of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.-Kingdom of...
) building, which housed the Federal Executive Council
Federal Executive Council
The Federal Executive Council is the formal body holding executive authority under the Constitution of Australia. It is equivalent to the other Executive Councils in other Commonwealth Realms such as the Executive Council of New Zealand and is equivalent to the Privy councils in Canada and the...
. The building has 75,000 square meters of usable space. Built during the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, it was also used during the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia before its dissolution. The building has been renamed Palace Serbia, and now houses some departments of the Serbian government.
First buildings for classic residential purposes were built as pavilions close to the area known as Tošin Bunar
Tošin Bunar
Tošin Bunar is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd....
(Toša's Well). Studentski Grad
Studentski Grad (Belgrade)
Studentski Grad or colloquially Studenjak is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd...
(Student City) complex was also built around the same time to meet the residence needs of the growing University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
student body that came from other parts 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...
.
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 - July 11, 2008: Željko Ožegović (b. 1962)
- July 11, 2008–present: Nenad Milenković (b. 1972)
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, underlying the decades long Belgrader's feel of Novi Beograd being nothing more but a big dormitory.Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade)
Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade is the art institution which collects and displays work produced since in 1900 in Serbia and former Yugoslavia. The museum also organizes international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It was founded in 1958 as the Museum of Modern 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 fared much better than culture, as there are numerous elementary and high schools, as well as University of BelgradeUniversity of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
's residential campus - Studentski Grad.
List of schools in Novi Beograd:
- IX Belgrade Gymnasium
- X Belgrade Gymnasium
- Faculty of Dramatic Arts
- Megatrend UniversityMegatrend UniversityThe Megatrend University is a private university located in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1989 and is organized into 19 institutions....
- Graphic Design Secondary School
- Polytechnical Academy
- Technical School
- Russian School
Night life
Novi Beograd offers rich night life along the banks of SavaSava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
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....
, 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
Kafana
Kafana , kafeana , kavana are terms used in the former Yugoslav countries for a distinct type of local bistro which primarily serves alcoholic beverages and coffee , and which sometimes also has a live band.The concept of a social gathering place for men to drink...
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
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
Hyatt Regency Belgrade
Hyatt Regency Belgrade is a modern 5-star hotel located in New Belgrade, Serbia, close to both the city centre and Sava Center, and fifteen minutes from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.-Rooms:...
and Intercontinental hotels, luxury Genex condos
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
, Ušće Tower
Ušce Tower
Ušće Tower is the tallest skyscraper in Belgrade, capital of Serbia, and the second-tallest building overall, after the Avala tower...
, Belgrade Arena
Belgrade Arena
The Belgrade Arena is an indoor arena located in Novi Beograd, Belgrade. It is designed as a universal hall for sport, cultural events and other programs. With a total space that covers 48,000 square metres, and an official total capacity of 19,982 seats , it is one of the largest indoor arenas in...
, Delta City
Delta City
Delta City is a brand of shopping malls, with malls in Belgrade, Serbia and Podgorica, Montenegro. It is a subsidiary of Delta M, itself a division of Serbian Delta Holding.-Delta City Belgrade:...
, 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 does not inspire creative living nor encourage healthy human interaction, and is only good for overnight sleep at the end of the hard day's work.
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
Riblja Corba
Riblja Čorba is a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band. Their presence on the scene has lasted from 1978 to today. They reached their peak of popularity in the 1980s, but it has declined in the 1990s, partly due to controversial political attitudes of the band's leader Bora Đorđević...
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 New York ghettos like those found in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. 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
International isolation
International isolation is a penalty applied by the international community or a sizeable or powerful group of countries, like the United Nations, towards one nation, government or people group...
truly did push some Serbs, including those inhabiting New Belgrade, to desperate acts.
International cooperation
Novi Beograd is twinned with following cities and municipalities: BelfortBelfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
, Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Karpoš
Karpos
This article is about the Greek mythological character, for the unit within the city of Skopje, go to Karpoš Municipality.In Greek mythology, Karpos , was a youth renowned for his beauty...
, Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
Xanthi
Xanthi
Xanthi ; is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi peripheral unit of the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace.-History:...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
Prague 7
Prague 7
Prague 7 is a municipal district in Prague, Czech Republic.The administrative district of the same name consists of the quarters Letná, Holešovice, Bubny, Bubeneč, Troja as well as a small part of Liben. Its one of the smallest Prague districts and stretches along the left bank of the Vltava,...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
Metlika
Metlika
Metlika is a town and municipality in the southeastern Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the river Kolpa on the border with Croatia. The municipality is at the heart of the area of Bela Krajina, the southeastern part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola. It is now included in the...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
See also
- BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade 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...
- List of cities in Serbia
- 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