Višnjica
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...
, 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 located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.
Location
Višnjica is located on the right bank of the DanubeDanube
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....
, stretching for almost 5 kilometers, from the Danube's arm of Rukavac and Ada Huja
Ada Huja
Ada Huja is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.- Location :...
peninsula (including the Višnjica marina
Marina
A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....
) almost to the weekend-settlement of Bela Stena
Bela Stena
Bela Stena is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula....
. The original village of Višnjica developed between the northern part of the Višnjica field and the Danube, but today makes one continuous built-up area with the rest of the city, through the bordering neighborhoods of Ada Huja, Rospi Ćuprija
Rospi Cuprija
Rospi Ćuprija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula...
and Karaburma
Karaburma
Karaburma is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.- Location :...
on the west and its own modern extension of Višnjička Banja, mainly on the south. The main street connecting it to downtown is Višnjička.
History and population
Until the 1970s, Višnjica was a separate village and a suburban settlement of Belgrade. With the massive adminsitrative reorganization of the Belgrade City limits after the 1971 population census, entire eastern and southern string of more or less urbanized suburbs (Višnjica, MirijevoMirijevo
Mirijevo is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara...
, Mali Mokri Lug
Mali Mokri Lug
Mali Mokri Lug is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the south-eastern section of Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara. It marks the border with the municipality of Grocka. It mostly stretches between Bulevar kralja Aleksandra and the Highway Belgrade–Niš,...
, Veliki Mokri Lug
Veliki Mokri Lug
Veliki Mokri Lug is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara.- Location :...
, Selo Rakovica
Selo Rakovica
Selo Rakovica is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Voždovac and should not be confused with the neighborhood of Rakovica in the municipality of the same name.-Location:Selo Rakovica is located in the central part of the...
, Jajinci
Jajinci
Jajinci is an urban neighborhood located in the municipality of Voždovac, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was the site of the worst carnage in Serbia during World War II when German occupational forces executed nearly 80,000 people, many of them prisoners of the nearby Banjica concentration...
, Kijevo
Kijevo, Belgrade
Kijevo is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Rakovica.-Location:...
, Kneževac
Kneževac
Κneževac is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Rakovica.-Location:Κneževac is located in the central part of the municipality...
, Resnik, Železnik
Železnik
Železnik , is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica.- Location :...
, Žarkovo
Žarkovo
Žarkovo is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica.- Location and Divisions :...
) were administratively annexed to the Belgrade City proper (uža teritorija grada), turning from the separate settlements into the "local communities" (mesna zajednica). Population of Višnjica, according to the official censuses of population:
- 1921 - 1,688
- 1971 - 5,429
- 1981 - 7,463 (as a local community within Belgrade)
- 2002 - 3,611
The 1981 figure covers both Višnjica and Višnjička Banja. The latter split into the separate local community in the 1990s (the combined population of two neighborhoods would be 12,108 in 2002).
The name of the neighborhood, Višnjica, is Serbian for the sour cherry orchard. The entire area, stretching from Karaburma and Viline Vode
Viline Vode
Viline Vode is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.- Location :...
on the east, was known for its thermal springs and healing mud which gave name to the new neighborhood of Višnjička Banja (Serbian for "Višnjica spa").
Characteristics
As a former village, Višnjica is a residential area without industrial or commercial facilities. The distance from the downtown (7-8 kilometers) and a bad public transportation are the main communal problems in the neighborhood.Overlooking the easternmost, wooded section of Ada Huja and the Danube itself, Višnjica, just as Viline Vode closer to downtown, was projected as an elite neighborhood in the project of "Belgrade's descend to the river banks". However, the idea of a rich settlement with villas and mansions was dropped with the economic crisis in former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in the late 1980s and succession of Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
in 1990s.
Višnjička Banja
Višnjička Banja (SerbianSerbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
Cyrillic: Вишњичка Бања) is located in the northern section of the Višnjica field, between the neighborhoods of Rospi Ćuprija
Rospi Cuprija
Rospi Ćuprija is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula...
to the west, Lešće
Lesce
Lesce is a town in the Radovljica municipality in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. It is an industrial as well as a tourist centre.It is one of the oldest mentioned settlements in the region, first noted in a document from 1004 together with Bled and Bohinj...
to the southeast and Višnjica to the north.
The modern neighborhood was built as an urban connection of the former village of Višnjica to the rest of Belgrade and was so named after many thermal springs and healing mud near Višnjica (Višnjička Banja is Serbian for Višnjica spa). The springs, for the most part, have been artificially shut down and conducted underground into the city's sewage system.
The area is residential, without specific borders with Višnjica itself. Southern section of the neighborhood has many brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
, but as boundaries of the neighborhoods in Belgrade are mostly arbitrary, some place this industrialized section in Rospi Ćuprija. It had the population of 8,497 according to the 2002 population census.
Višnjičko Polje
Regulatory plan for the construction of the neighborhood of Višnjičko Polje was given green light on May 15, 2007. According to the plan, the future city within the city will cover an area of 81 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s with 7,500 apartments with a total area of 900.000 square meters. After Bežanijska Kosa in 1987, this is the first grand-scale planned neighborhood of Belgrade.
The neighborhood will be located in the Višnjica field (thus the name). It will border the neighborhoods of Višnjička Banja on the north, Lešće on the east, and Ćalije
Calije
Ćalije is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula....
and Rospi Ćuprija on the west. Future boundary of the neighborhood will also be the projected internal Belgrade's beltway.
As the inclination of the terrain is 7 to 10%, the neighborhood will be built in the amphitheater style. Unlike other planned neighborhoods in Belgrade, Višnjičko Polje will not have sky-scrapers: 50% will make individual houses while only 20% will be made of four-storeys buildings. 600 apartments will be given to the Roma families which currently live in the area in an informal settlement.
The projected neighborhood will have two centers: Center 1, around the present brickworks Rekord, designed for the culture and commerce, and Centar 2, around the present brickworks Kozara, designed for the sports and recreation. The neighborhood will have a nursery, kindergarten, elementary school, sport's fields, etc. Being a massive project, it is expected that 10 to 12 projecting teams will be building it. The city government decided that the neighborhood will be not built partially, but as a whole.
Vrtača, a water hole artificially created as a result of clay digging for the neighboring brickworks, will remain a reservation of nature to protect the present plant and animal life in it. It is currently inhabited by the egret
Egret
An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
s, mallard
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
s. shelduck
Shelduck
The shelducks, genus Tadorna, are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans....
s, grass snake
Grass Snake
The grass snake , sometimes called the ringed snake or water snake is a European non-venomous snake. It is often found near water and feeds almost exclusively on amphibians.-Etymology:...
s, etc.