City view
Harbor of Belgrade
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Impressions |
December 2004 |
The city Belgrade is the capital and the biggest city of Serbia. The “white city” is located at the confluent of the Danube and the Sava. Add a small hill and this becomes a perfect location for a fortification (the “Kalemegdan”) to control the whole region. And so it happened for the several hundred years, with its lot of invasions, destructions and reconstructions. The nineteenth century brought the liberation from the Turks and the establishment of Serbia, Sava and Danube were the frontier with Austria. The twentieth century brought three wars to Belgrade, the establishment of Yugoslavia, but also the falling apart. Today, 1.6 million people live there officially.
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City view |
Harbor of Belgrade |
The center of the town is still dominated by the large buildings erected hundred years ago. Some huge buildings have been constructed between 1950 and 1980. If they were used by army, police or communist party, they have probably been destroyed during the NATO air strike in 1999. You can still see the rumble in the center of the city as no one is interested to clean them up and supply the army with more office space. (It should be mentioned that the now destroyed building of the General Staff of the Yugoslav army is bigger than the Bundesamtsgebaeude in Vienna which houses three ministries, of which one is the ministry of defense.
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Knez Mihailova street |
Trg Republike, Center of the city |
The Kalemegdan, the old fortress, dominates the city. It is a marvelous place to stroll, specially at sunset. There are few buildings, but a large park, and hundreds of Belgradians stroll there at all times of the day. Along the rivers, there are many boats which house all kinds of restaurants. And there are many of them in the city. Going out is not cheap, but the people like to do it. No one cares if you sit in a pub and have one glass of beer for the whole evening. It gets really busy after 10 p.m. and the center is more crowded on Saturday night than during daytime. Belgrade has also its opera with a good ballet, and the Kolarac, the concert hall, offering a stage for very gifted young artists.
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Kalemegdan fortress |
Banovo Brdo |
