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SERBIAN STUDIES JOURNAL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCffiTY FOR
SERBIAN STUDffiS
Vol. 24 2010 Nos.l-2
Editors
Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University, Co-Editor Lilien F.
Robinson, George Washington University, Co-Editor Jelena
Bogdanovic, Iowa State University, Associate Editor Vasa D.
Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Book
Review Editor
Editorial Board
Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Jelena Bogdanovic,
Iowa State University Svetlana Tomic, University of Novi Sad Gojko
Vuckovic, Los Angeles School District Gordana Pesakovic, Argosy
University Borde Jovanovic, World Bank Marina Belovic-Hodge,
Library of Congress
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North American Society for Serbian Studies
N SAS s
Executive Committee President: Nada Petkovic-Dordevic,
University of Chicago Vice President: Dusan Danilovic, Iowa State
University Secretary: Slobodan Pesic, American Public University
Treasurer: Sonja Kotlica
Standing Committee Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Slobodanka Vladiv-Giover, Monash University, Australia Radmila
Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Ljubica D. Popovich,
Vanderbilt University Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George
Washington University
Past Presidents Alex N. Dragnich, Vanderbilt University Vasa D.
Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill George Vid
Tomashevich, New York State University, Buffalo Biljana
Sljivi6-Simsi6, University of Illinois at Chicago Dimitrije
Djordjevic, University of California, Santa Barbara Sofija Skoric,
Toronto University Jelisaveta Stanojevich Allen, Dumbarton Oaks
Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University Thomas A. Emmert,
Gustavus Adolphus College Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia
University Julian Schuster, Ham/ine University Dusan Korac,
Catholic University Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George Washington
University Ruzica Popovitch-Krekic, Mount St. Mary's College Ida
Sinkevic, Lafayette College Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of
Pittsburgh
1978- 80 1980-82 1982- 84 1984-86 1986- 88 1988- 90 1990-92
1992- 94 1994-96 1996-98
1998- 2000 2000-02 2002-04 2004-06 2006-08 2008- 10
Membership in the NASSS and Subscriptions to Serbian Studies
The North American Society for Serbian Studies was founded in
1978 and has published the Society's journal, Serbian Studies ,
since 1980. An inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal, it invites
scholarly articles on subjects pertaining to Serbian culture and
society, past and present, and across fields and disciplines. The
journal also welcomes archival documents, source materials, and
book reviews.
Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to co-editors, Ljubica
D. Popovich and Lilien F. Robinson at lfremail.gwu.edu. Articles
must be in English and, in general, should not exceed 8,000 words,
excluding footnotes. Formatting should be consistent with the
Chicago Manual of Style. Graphic and photographic images should be
in jpeg format.
Serbian Studies is published twice yearly and is sent to all
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Membership including subscription to Serbian Studies, is $40.00 per
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and retirees, and $10.00 for individuals in Serbia and former
Yugoslav lands. Subscription without membership is $30.00 per
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Articles submitted and all correspondence concerning editorial
matters should be sent to Lilien F. Robinson, Co-Editor, Department
of Fine Arts and Art History, George Washington University, 801
22nd. St. NW, Washington, DC 20052 (lfremail.gwu.edu) or Ljubica
Popovich, Co-Editor, 5805 Osceola Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816. AJI
articles considered to have potential for publication will be
subject to anonymous peer review by scholars in the field.
Book reviews should be sent to the Book Review Editor, Vasa D.
Mihailovich, 1864 Summer St., Stamford, CT 06905 (vamih
aol.com).
AJI communications regarding membership, subscriptions, back
issues, and advertising should be addressed to the Treasurer, Sonja
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(sonjakotyahoo.com).
The opinions expressed in the articles and book reviews,
published in Serbian Studies are those of the authors and not
necessarily of the editors or publishers of the journal.
Serbian Studies accepts advertising that is of interest to the
membership of the NASSS. Advertising information and rates are
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Copyright 2012 by Serbian Studies : ISSN 0742-3330
Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue,
provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the
reprinted material are sent to Serbian Studies.
Technical Editor: Brianne Nunn
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Contents
A Note from the Editors
I. History
Lilien Filipovitch Robinson, George Washington University
Belgrade: Transformations and Confluences
Vladislav B. Sotirovic, Mykolas Romeris University The
Memorandum (1804) by the Karlovci Metropolitan Stevan
Stratimirovic
II. Religion and Art
Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
3
27
Saint Sava and the Power(s) of Spiritual Authority ....... ...
.. ............. 49 Ljubomir Milanovic, Rutgers University
Materializing Authority: The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade
and Its Architectural Significance .... ..... ... ... ... .. ..
..... .. .... ..... ... .. ... ... ....... ... ............. .
63
Dragana Corovic, University of Belgrade- The Faculty of
Architecture Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade .. ... ....
..... .... 75
Ill. Literature
Vessela S. Warner, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Postcommunist, Postmodern, Postmortem: Images of Dogs, Women, and
Children in the Drama ofBiljana Srbljanovic ......... .. ... .....
91
IV. Medicine, Society, and Sports
Gordana Stojakovic, Center for Women' s Studies and Research,
"Mileva Einstein," Novi Sad
Pioneer Serbian Women Physicians and Their Activist Role in
Women' s Rights
Miroslava Jovanovic, RAS- The International Serbian Organization
The Heroic Circle of Serbian Sisters: A History
109
125
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Dejan Zec, Institute for Recent History of Serbia The Origin of
Soccer in Serbia
V. Belgrade in Poetry and Prose
Milorad Pavic Singidunum
Desanka Maksimovic Poem to Belgrade
Miodrag Pavlovic The Sava and Danube Confluence
Gordana Pesakovic Belgrade
Mirjana N. Radovanov-Mataric Belgrade, my Belgrade Belgrade in
the Rain Drowning in the Danube
Svetislav Mandie Zvezdara
Nikita Hristea Stanescu Belgrade Made of Stone
Milos Cmjanski LAMENT over BELGRADE
Momcilo Morna Kapor SPIRIT
VI. Book Review
Miro Miketic, Kroz pakao I natrag (Vasa Mihailovich)
137
162
163
165
166
167 168 169
170
172
173
177 178
181
A Note from the Editors
The two volumes (Volume 24(1- 2)) of Serbian Studies are
dedicated to Bel-grade. Central to the history and culture of the
Serbian people and over centu-ries the city bas played an integral
and often pivotal role in the events beyond its borders and in the
world--east and west. Through articles, poetry, and prose these
volumes speak to the complex, multifaceted character of
Belgrade.
The editors would like to take this opportunity to extend their
thanks to the contributing scholars and special thanks to Dr.
Mirjana N . Radovanov Mataric. She obtained and translated the
prose and six of the poems from the original Serbian as well as
provided the biographical information on the au-thors. We are most
grateful for her dedicated assistance.
Serbian Studies: j ournal of the North American Society for
Serbian Studies 24(1 - 2): 1, 2010.
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Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade
Dragana Corovic University of Belgrade-The Faculty of
Architecture
This article addresses the emergence and evolution of parks in
nineteenth-century Belgrade by examining three specific examples:
Karadorde 's Park, Topcider, and Kalemegdan . The three parks
originated in different historical moments during the century,
giving them quite different meanings: a memo-rial park, a seat of a
government, and a town's promenade. The basic concepts of these
parks remained, but they were enriched over time with new
connota-tions: they were important public places and, at the same
time, green oases of the city. This text provides a contribution to
the study of the relationship be-tween culture and nature in the
history of Belgrade's parks. It places special emphasis on both
physical preservations and preservations of their memory, in the
context of solving contemporary environmental problems, and is
con-sistent with modern theories of landscape architecture. 1
As in the case of other cities, changes to the urban structure
of Belgrade reflected and kept pace with historical events.
Frequently, these events re-sulted in the razing of the city to the
ground and its subsequent reemergence from the ashes- it was a
rebirth based on the levels of city memories, the ones that had
never left people's minds and souls in spite of their physical
absence. In spite of all these destructions, the first settlement
had been founded on the hill that sustained its characteristic,
indestructible morphology over time. If it were not for the Sava
and the Danube flowing through Bel-grade and retaining the outlines
of its slopes, it would have appeared as if this massive rock might
leap and run away toward a plain- the endless vastness of the
opposite shore, somewhere towards the north-west. In writing
about
Acknowledgment: This paper was realized as a part of the project
"Studying Climate Change and Its Influence on the Environment:
lmpacts, Adaptation and Mitigation" (43007) financed by the
Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia within
the framework of integrated and interdisciplinary research for the
period 2011 - 14. 1 Christofe Giro, "Four Trace Concepts in
Landscape Architecture," in Recovering Landscape, Essays in
Landscape Architecture, ed. James Corner (New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1999), 59-68.
Serbian Studies: journal of the North American Society for
Serbian Studies 24(1 - 2): 75- 89, 2010.
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76 Dragana Corovic
Belgrade, many authors point to its remarkable geographic and
strategic posi-tion as the main cause of the fierce battles of the
past aimed at conquering the almost invincible fortress- the gate
between West and East.
The period of the nineteenth century in Serbia was dedicated to
the proc-ess of creating the national state. Two national uprisings
against Turkish do-minion, in 1804 and 1815, along with the
military and political struggle, were followed by establishment of
institutions necessary to a modern state and which would facilitate
the adaptation of the European cultural inheritance. In the period
from 1830 to 1833 Serbia managed to gain partial autonomy from
Turkish rule, and shortly afterwards, in 1841, Belgrade was chosen
as the capital of the Serbian Princedom. At that time, the city was
clearly divided into two separate parts: the fortress, the city
within the Moat and the area out-side the Moat, which was nothing
but a field covered with swamps and pond scums and straggling
villages. The absolute majority of the population in the Moat was
comprised of Turks, then Serbs, Greeks, Romani people, Jews, and
Cincars-each nation in its own quarter, or maha/a.2 There was also
the centuries old trade colony of Dubrovnik.
The Turkish army settled down in the Belgrade fortress; between
the walls and the city there was a vast area, an open field of the
city- Kalemeg-dan. The rulers of the fortress had never allowed any
kind of construction within this zone of three hundred to five
hundred meters in width- not even walkways or alleys, because of
the cannons of the fortress- nothing was sup-posed to block their
view. The Austrians carried out one of the biggest recon-structions
of the fortress during their siege of Belgrade in the eighteenth
cen-tury. When they left, they destroyed everything they had built
in the fort. The Moat was their heritage. In the nineteenth century
it was a six-meter-high earthen bastion, with a four-meter-deep
ditch on its external side, and widge-shaped ramps and bastions
with cannons placed within a certain span, as well as five gates as
the entrance to the "inner" city. A broken line of the Moat, which
began at the Sava shore, stretched across the Belgrade ridge and
then sloped down to the Danube. The economic, business, and
cultural life of the city took place within this enclosed space
defined by the Moat on the south and the fortress on the north
side. The Moat existed until 1880; the transport-ing of the soil
and removal of the bastions extended over a period of three years
(Figure 1 ). 3
2 Mahalle, Arabic word adopted in Turkish. 3 For further
discussion of the history of Belgrade, see, among others Vasa
Cubrilovic, ed., lstorija Beograda, vols. 1- 3 (Belgrade: Prosveta,
1974); Nikola Tasic et a/., eds., lstorija Beograda (Belgrade:
Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti/Draganic, 1995). For more about
the history of Belgrade 's architecture and urbanism, see Divna
Duric-Zarnolo, Beograd kao
Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade 77
Karaclorcle's Park
The Serbs conquered the Belgrade fortress for the first time in
the nineteenth century, in 1806. In the chronicle of the city this
event was permanently re-corded with the creation of a rather
ephemeral structure, the park named after the leader of the First
Serbian Uprising ( 1804-13) Dorde Petrovic Karadorde. Karadorde's
Park emerged in the area of the rebel camps, located two
kilo-meters from the Moat. Fifty of them died in the battles for
Belgrade and were buried in the area of the camp. Their tombstones
are located in the southern part of today's park and are
characteristic of Serbian gravestones of the eight-eenth and first
half of the nineteenth century. The top of the stone slab is
rounded and carved with stylized crosses and inscriptions (Figure
2).4 At the time, flowers and greenery were planted around the
graves and the space was enclosed. Although it was not the first
public park in Belgrade, it marks the origin of the creation of the
city's green public spaces.5 Moreover, it repre-sented the
designation of a specific area whose symbolic meaning resembled the
holy groves of Ancient Greece, which were intended to guard and
honor the memory of the heroic deeds of the past.
After the death of Karadorde in 1817 the park area was neglected
until 1848 when Prince Aleksandar (reigned 1841- 59), his son,
built a monument in this park to commemorate his father ' s
comrades- the rebels of 1806. It was among the first public
monuments in Belgrade. It was made of stone, meas-uring about 5.5
meters in height, with a base in the shape of a truncated pyra-mid.
The main section is in the form of squares and terminates in a flat
plate flanked by corner towers. The top of the monument contains a
cross with the engraved date-the year 1806.6 On the main body of
the monument there are
orijentalna varos pod Turcima, 1521- 1867 (Belgrade: Muzej grada
Beograda, 1977); Branko Maksimovic, !dejni razvoj srpskog
urbanizma: period rekanstrukcije gradova do /914. godine (Belgrade:
Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti , 1978); Branko Maksimovic,
ldeje i stvarnost urbanizma Beograda: 1830-1941 (Belgrade: Zavod za
spomenika kulture, 1983); Branko Vujovic, Beograd u proslosti i
sadasnjosti (Belgrade: Draganic, 1994); Bogdan Nestorovic,
Arhitektura Srbije u XIX veku (Belgrade: Art Press, 2006); Mirjana
Roter-Biagojevic, Stambena arhitektura Beograda u 19. i pocetkom
20. veka (Belgrade: Orion Art/ Arhitektonski fakulet Univerziteta u
Beogradu, 2006). 4 Today only 12 tombstones remain. During the
reconstruction of the park between the two World Wars, as weU as in
infrastructure works in the 1960s, these monuments were extracted
and moved, so it is considered that their current position does not
correspond to original disposition. Vujovic, Beograd u, 285- 86. 5
See Hranislav Milanovic, Zelenilo Beograda (Belgrade: JKP
"Zelenilo-Beograd," 2006), 180-87. 6 Vujovic, Beograd u, 287.
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78 Dragana Corovic
four plates engraved with dedications to the liberators of
Belgrade and to the founder of the monument. 7 The next decades and
political changes brought the decline of the park and the monument,
but in 1889, under the rule of King Aleksandar Obrenovic (reigned
1889- 1903), the neglected cemetery and monument were renewed. 8 At
that time this space had become a memorial park.9 The area
surrounding the graves and monument was designed with plantings of
acacia and lime trees. 10 There were also several species of North
American trees from the acacia family (Gleditsia Triachantos) which
would be considered as exotic for Belgrade's climate. Their
inclusion reinforces the conclusion that the intention of the
planners was the enrichment and beautifi-cation of the space in a
way that would emphasize its uniqueness.
In the late nineteenth century, today's Karadorde 's Park was a
favorite destination in Belgrade, it was popularly referred to "at
the Monument." 11 Ro-tundas, connected by slightly curved paths,
became a basic concept of the park arrangement 12 in 1907 when the
citizens of Belgrade founded the Asso-ciation for the
beautification of the Karadordevic 's monument, the park, and its
surrounding. In addition to raising money, organizing the planting
of coni-ferous , building pavilions on an artificial earthen hill,
and creating paths and lawns in the park, as well as undertaking
the maintenance, the Association celebrated, annually, the heroic
ventures that had taken place at the beginning of the nineteenth
century (Figure 3). 13
The park also has another monument dedicated to the defenders of
Bel-grade, during the period of wars between 1912 and 1918. This
monument, which is in the northern part of the park, measures 4.7
meters in height from the base. It is set off by the surrounding
flowerbeds in the center of one of the
7 The huge base of the monument is its "major symbolic element."
More about Karadorde's Park and its monuments, see Miroslav
Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocirna Beograda 1806," Nas/eiJe 5
(2004): 9-34, at 21. 8 A metal fence was placed around the
monument, and it also had got a board with the inscription about
the restoration carried out by King Aleksandar Obrenovic. 9 See
Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocirna," 22. 10 See Zivorad P.
Jovanovic, /z starog Beograda (Belgrade: Turisticka stampa, 1964),
67- 68; Milanovic, Ze/eni/o, 180-87; Vojislav Z. Misic, "lz
proslosti Karadordevog parka," Hortikultura 37, no. 4 (1970): 117.
11 Milan.ka Ojdanic, "Postojece stanje zelene povrsine Karadordev
park u Beogradu," in Zelenilo u urbanistickom razvoju grada
Beograda, zbomik radova (Belgrade: Udru:lenje infenjera Beograda,
1994), 255-61. 12 It is shown in the Plan of Belgrade ( 1909)
where, probably for the first time, the park was entirely
graphically displayed . See Maksimovic, ldejni razvoj, 146-47. 13
See Sava Dubljevic, "Karadordev park," Beogradske opstinske novine
52, no. 7- 8 (1934): 532- 33 .
Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 79
park's compositional elements, a circular square or a rotunda of
the park. Sculptor and writer Stamenko f>urdevic created the
figure of a Serbian soldier standing guard. Sporting a mustache, he
is dressed in an overcoat and wears a folk hat called sajkaca.
These details define him as representative of the many warriors who
were killed in the First World War during the battle of Kolubar-ska
in 1914 (Figure 4). The story of the monument reflects the
turbulent fate of the region. The sculpture was to be a part of a
memorial fountain 14 that was erected at the time in Bulbulder
(Nightingale's Stream in Turkish), in a differ-ent quarter of the
town, but, although unfinished during the war, the sculpture ended
up in Vienna, where it was found in 1918 in a park of the city and
re-turned to Belgrade. The monument has stood at its present site
since July 1923, when it was unveiled by its sculptor.15
In Karadorde's Park there is also a monument dedicated to the
French poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine, with an
inscription: "To Lamar-tine, the prophet of Yugoslav unity." The
2.6 meter bronze bust is the work of Lojze Dolinar. It was
dedicated in 1933 at the time during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in
memory ofthe centenary of Lamartine's peregrination through the
country. In the chapter "Notes on Serbia" in his book Journey to
the East (Voyage en Orient, 1835), Lamartine expressed confidence
in the unification of the South Slavs in the near future. On the
monument there is also a quota-tion from his book: "J'airnerais a
combattre avec ce peuple naissant pour la liberte." It says: "I
wish to fight together with this people who are born for freedom."
There is as well, in Karadorde's Park, the monument to the
Yugo-slav people who fought in the International Brigades during
the Spanish Civil War (1936- 39) and who were killed16 in the fight
against fascism. The white obelisk was made and placed in the park
in the middle of the twentieth cen-tury. It is near the Lamartine
bust, at the edge of the park, in the axis of the street that also
bears the name of the International Brigades.
There is also one memorial in Karadorde's Park. It is a black
granite slab, measuring 0.7 x 0.7 meters and set on tapered base,
0.5 meters high. It was constructed in 1975 as a reminder of the
192 Belgrade citizens who perished in the underground shelter of
this park during the German bombardment in 1941. Two-thirds of the
park, which is slightly less than three hectares, 17 are under
grass, while approximately one-third contains paths and other
paved
14 See Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocima," 24. 15 Milanovic,
Zelenilo, 186. 16 Eight hundred of the seventeen hundred Yugoslavs
who fought in the International Brigades were killed in the Spanish
Civil War. 17 According to Genera/ni plan Beograda 2021 (Belgrade:
Sluzbeni glasnik Republike Srbije, no. 47/2003), 83 .
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80 Dragana Corovic
surfaces. Of about 350 trees in the park, half belong to two
species, horse chestnut and silver linden. There are also lawns,
shrubs, roses, and flowerbeds around the monuments. The park is now
in the midst of an urban fabric, ex-tending along one of the
busiest city streets, close to many important build-ings, such as
the Temple of St. Sava and the National Library of Serbia.
Al-though it occupies an area much smaller than other
nineteenth-century green spaces, Karadorde's Park is significant in
a symbolic way, as it connects dif-ferent cultures and traditions
and embodies the city's history. From an envi-ronmental point of
view, this green space is also important as it serves as a vacuum
breakpoint, which allows one to pause in the hectic bustle of the
me-tropolis and to "feel" the two centuries of its history.
Topcider
The process of building New Belgrade, outside the Moat, started
in 1830. The soul of this process was the absolute ruler of Serbia
and leader of the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815- Prince Milos
Obrenovic (reigned 1815- 39; 1859-60). He had a clear idea about
what Belgrade should become and be carried out that plan through
shrewd and resolute actions, although the process itself was
characterized by rather modest resources, weak economic power, and
insufficient knowledge needed for creating a modern city. The
overwhelming desire and ambition of the ruler was directed toward
the creation of the Ser-bian capital, which was supposed to remove
the image of the Oriental com-munity- as Belgrade itself had been
ever since the sixteenth century- from both, memories and reality.
Prince Milos managed to populate Belgrade with the Serbs living
abroad, as well as with the population from the country, in order
to create a capital in which his subjects would be engaged in trade
and handicrafts, and live in the new-founded settlements far beyond
the range of the cannons from the Belgrade fortress , which still
belonged to the Turkish army. Milos imposed various decrees, as
well as force, in order to populate the parts of Belgrade outside
the Moat with the Serbian population. He would define the position
of new urban zones and direction of new roads within the
agricultural land, as it was at that moment, outside the defrned
urban core, while building crucial state facilities required of a
future modern state. At the same time, in 1831 near Kosutnjak
forest in Topcider, the suburb about five kilometers away from the
city, Prince Milos began to build another lodging known as Milos's
Residence (Milosev konak), as a matter of fact, the residen-tial
complex where be felt safe and where, as it would be revealed
later- be spent most of his time (Figure 5). It is impossible not
to draw parallels with another absolute ruler, French King Louis
XIV, who moved all the institutions
Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 81
of government from Paris, where be felt uncomfortable and
unsafe-to Ver-sailles.t8 In the eighteenth century, in the area
ofTopcider there were Austrian hunting lodges and summerhouses, and
also several German settlers' villages. It used to be a field
surrounding a stream meandering through the marshy valley.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, TopCider, which
means "can-non valley" in Turkish and Persian, was the area where
the Turkish artillery units used to perform training practice; it
was also used for cair-the field for grazing the horses. Turkish
prelates used this area as a resort and hunting ground, too. For
the purpose of the construction of his lodging and entire court
complex around it, Prince Milos succeeded in displacing the
villages that had eristed there, as well as denying the Turkish
right to graze their horses. Apart from these lodgings at the foot
of Topcider hill, Prince Milos built the Church of St. Peter and
Paul, a church bouse, a small residence (Mali konak), barracks,
lodgings for officers, and many economic facilities, such as:
magaza (store), sheds, stables, tanneries, an army boot factory,
mills, grinders, and more.
According to legend, a Frenchman was engaged to arrange and
shape the park; yet, the facts reveal that not until 1842 did the
formation of the park be-gin.19 That very year Atanasije Nikolic,
an engineer educated in Vienna, took to this job. Nikolic, who was
both professor and engineer, founded a seed-plot in Topcider, as
well as the School of Agriculture, the first of its kind in the
Balkans. The first planting of acacia and oak trees around Prince
Milos ' s lodgings began by the middle of the century (Figure 6).
In 1850 seedlings of spruce, pine, and fir, and also, maple,
Turkish hazel , and smoke bush, were brought from Tara and other
Serbian mountains to Topcider. From Italy, Austria, Germany, and
France came the seeds of various grasses, flowers , and ornamental
shrubs.
The park in Topcider was the first Serbian park system created
based on European models of the palace complex located in the
"natural, yet cultivated environment."20 Topcider Park, along with
some classical elements, replicates the English garden style with
its meandering paths, lush vegetation, and the abundant presence of
still water as well as several aquatic devices. The most
18 For more about the palace complex in Topl!ider, see a
comprehensive study in Katarina Mitrovic, Topcider-dvor kneza
Milosa Obrenovica (Belgrade: lstorijski muzej Srbije, 2008). 19 See
Svetislav Vladisavljevic, "0 pol!ecima uredivanja Topl!idera za
izletnil!ku i park sumu," GodiSnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 36 (
1989): I 05- 22. 20 Hranislav Milanovic, ed., Zasticena prirodna
dobra Beograda (Belgrade: Gradska uprava, Sekretarijat za zatitu
prirodne sredine/Belgrade: Zavod za zastitu prirode Srbije, 2008),
78- 81, at 79.
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82 Dragana Corovic
famous element of the park in Topcider is certainly a giant
plane-tree (Plata-nus acerifolia Willd. , or London plane tree)
that was planted in front of the Residence in 1866, after it bad
been imported from Vienna along with 350 trees of the same species.
21 The giant plane-tree in Topcider Park is under na-tional
protection as a natural landmark (Figure 7). Today, its crown,
which measures 49 meters, is supported by 18 metal poles. The
circumference of the trunk at 1.3 meters above ground is 7.35
meters. The height of the tree is 34 meters .
In addition to the plantings, the park features monuments and
sculptures. The Harvester, a sculpture representing Ceres, goddess
of agriculture, was created in the academic neoclassical style
(Figure 8). This is the only pre-served and oldest example of
nineteenth-century decorative park sculpture in Belgrade. Cast in
1852 in Vienna, the work of sculptor Christof Fidelis Kim-mel, it
was placed in Topcider in the second half of the nineteenth
century. In the main alley, in the oldest part of the park, there
is an obelisk, erected in 1860,22 in honor ofthe second rule
ofPrince Milos.23 It is a simple stone-trun-cated pyramid expertly
decorated with a garland rendered in profile and heral-dic fields
near the top of the monument, which supports a sculpted stylized
vase (Figure 9). The obelisk was made by stonecutter Franc Loran,
who also worked on the Terazije Fountain, erected in the middle of
a new important square in Belgrade, Terazije, in 1860. However,
from 1911 until 1975 the Terazije Fountain was moved from the
Terazije square and was located in the courtyard of the church in
Topcider. In 197 5 it was relocated to Terazije, again, where it
stands today.
A distinct feature of the park is the Topciderska River, which
flows through the park. Its path was regulated in 1863 under the
supervision of en-gineer Jakov Slivic. Swimming areas were
designated along the sandy beach of the river. The park also
contained a steam bath. In the 1880s, at the time of King Milan
Obrenovic (reigned 1872- 89), a fountain was built between the
park's obelisk and the glasshouse. The fountain had a decorative
bowl in the center of a basin containing exotic aquatic plants and
the sculpture of a boy
21 See Jovanovic, lz s/arog Beograda, 167; Branislav Kojic,
"Topl!ider i Topl!idersko brdo do 1914," in Beograd u sel:anjima,
1900-1918 (Belgrade: Srpska knji:tevna zadruga, 1977), 141-50;
Branko Maksimovic, "0 zelenilu Beograda," GodiSnjak Muzeja grada
Beograda 3 (1956): 325-66; Milanovic, Zeleni/o, 134-49; Milanovic,
Zastil:ena prirodna, 78- 81. 22 See Mitrovic, Topcider-dvor, 130.
23 According to certain authors, this obelisk was erected in 1965
to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Serbian Uprising,
although there is the year 1859 engraved on the body of the
monument. See Milanovic, Zelenilo, 146.
Three Parks in N ineteenth-Centu 83
with a heron, 24 however, it no longer exists. Prince Milos died
in Topcider in 1860, of natural causes. His son, one of the most
educated rulers of Serbia, Prince Mibailo Obrenovic (reigned
1839--41 ; 1860-68), was assassinated in 1868, in the forest of
Kosutnjak. This memorial place is now fenced with low stone pillars
and chains strung between them. Prince Milos had wanted to cre-ate
his own Belgrade, and each one of his actions was aimed at
realizing that goal which included establishing the official state
complex within a beauti-fully designed park in Topcider.
Today, Topcider Park, with its area of 12.8 hectares,25 is one
of the favor-ite recreation areas of Belgrade. It has three parts:
the part near the glasshouse and the drinking fountain that bears
the name of Prince Milos, with an area of 2.5 hectares; the park
around Prince Milos's Residence, with ornamental flower beds
parterre, 7.1 hectares; and last, the part with a surface of 3.2
hectares with playgrounds for children and an artificial lake
constructed in the second half of the twentieth century. The park
has more than a thousand trees, of which 65 percent are deciduous.
There are over one hundred different species of trees and shrubs,
among them ten different kinds of flowers. The park in Topcider,
along with the forest of Kosutnjak, is a unique complex from a
natural , ambient, cultural, and historical point of view.
Kosutnjak was once the hunting grounds of the Obrenovic dynasty,
and today, with an area of 267 hectares,26 it serves as the link
between an urban and suburban green, and a reservoir of fresh air
that reduces climate extremes and affects the climate of the city.
Kosutnjak is an important point in the environmental infrastructure
of the city, and, along with the additional aesthetic and visual
qualities of Top-cider Park, it significantly contributes to the
quality of the urban landscape of Belgrade.
The City's Private Ga rdens and the Green Belt
The symbolic act of handing the keys of the Belgrade fortress to
Prince Mi-hailo Obrenovic in April 1867, represented the moment
when Belgrade liber-ated itself from the Turkish military siege.
Divided between Turkish and Ser-bian authority, Belgrade remained
in this antagonism of parallel worlds for almost four decades. The
migration of the Turkish families living in the city, within the
Moat, was taking place at the moment when: "Belgrade( ... ] is
get-ting more and more filled with some new elements and it is
losing its previous
24 bid., 147. 25 Generalni plan, 83 . 26 Milanovic, Zastil:ena
prirodna, 83- 85 .
-
84 Dragana Corovic
character of the oriental city."27 The Oriental character of
Belgrade in the first half of the nineteenth century was also
created by the gardens arranged around private houses. In Islamic
culture the garden is an integral part of the home, and no matter
how modest the garden, it is created in order to resemble a real
paradise- jennet. The bliss of these gardens was noticed in the
seven-teenth century by Evliya
-
86 Dragana Corovic
Kalemegdan
The word Kalemegdan in Turkish means a fortress field .
Functionally and institutionally Kalemegdan Park today forms a
whole with the Belgrade for-tress. The park covers an area of about
60 bectares36 around the castle and includes: Small and Great
Kalemegdan, Upper and Lower Town, and the Sava and the Danube
slope. Kalemegdan Park bas been continuously maintained for 143
years and it is one of the oldest parks that preserves the basic
features of its original design (Figure II). Emilijan Josimovic was
the first to suggest, in his book, that Kalemegdan, the rusty area
surrounding the Belgrade for-tress, be turned into a public park so
that the view of the Pannonian plains and the Sava and the Danube
Rivers would be an integral part of the landscape along with the
rerouting paths and forestation of the area. The aesthetic and
functional quality of the greenery was thus to have special
consideration. In contrast to the idea of forming a green belt
around the city, his idea of a park in the city field found more
success in 1869 when the process of forestation began. The first
planted tree was taken from the nursery garden in Topcider and the
activity was monitored by a colonel of the Serbian army and the
commander of Belgrade fortress, Dragutin Zabarac.
The first document concerning the planning of Kalemegdan Park
dates from 1870. It shows a plan of curvilinear paths in Great
Kalemegdan. The next large-scale forestation took place between
1873 and 1875. The Sava promenade was formed in 1886, by cutting a
lane and planting trees of Euro-pean Black Pine (Pinus Nigra).
Today it is one of the most beautiful parts of Kalemegdan Park,
which was reconstructed in several phases until 1933, and again
mid-century after the Second World War. The regulation of the Great
Kalemegdan was under military rule until 1890, when the Belgrade
munici-pality took over the jurisdiction. The municipality managed
to provide a loan, collecting significant funds for further park
beautification. Thus, the previ-ously abandoned field was turned
into a beautiful urban promenade and a park.
The first design for the park composition of the Great
Kalemegdan was prepared by an architect and professor Milan
Kapetanovic.37 The present-day appearance of this part of the park
represents the work of landscape architect and professor Aleksandar
Krstic. It was completed between two World Wars. Krstic's
preliminary design includes the extension of the Sava promenade to
the lower level with linkage to the old part of the promenade via
the construe-
36 Generalni plan, 83. 37 See Maksimovic, /dejni razvoj,
145.
Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 87
tion of a monumental staircase, known as the Great Staircase.38
The main architect of this project and the creator of the stairs
was Ukrainian, Borde Kovaljevski .39 Besides the Great Staircase in
Kalemegdan Park, there is also the Small Staircase that leads from
the Sava promenade to the Paris street which represents a contact
zone between the park and the city. The Small Staircase was built
in the beginning of the twentieth century, and was de-signed in the
neo-Baroque style by Serbia's first female architect, Jelisaveta
Naeic.40 Herbert Vivian, an English journalist, wrote in 1897 that
he had never seen a more joyous place. From Kalemegdan, he said,
one could see a magical landscape that would inspire and heal a man
.41
At the beginning of the twentieth century, on Sundays and
holidays, there were performances of military music and arias from
famous opera works, and it was said that- "all our public life was
moved and presented here"42 in Kalemegdan Park. In the following
years, the seed-plot and amusement park were built in Kalemegdan;
there was a cinema under a tent and the first zoo was built later
on and opened in 1936 in the Small Kalemegdan. The regula-tion of
this part of Kalemegdan Park was the subject of a public
competition in 1898, the first of a kind held in Serbia for a
design of an urban area. The first project for this part of the
park was undertaken by Jelisaveta Nacic. It was based on the
competition entry of Dimitrije T. Leko, professor and ar-chitect.
In his project, Leko formed the park composition according to the
re-liefofthe terrain and the proximity ofthe walls ofthe Belgrade
fortress.
This part of Kalemegdan owes its main features and present
appearance also to Aleksandar KrstiC's design in 1931. At the time,
a large-scale recon-struction of the park was being carried out.
They had planted a 4.5 hectares area, introduced the lighting, the
water and sewerage networks in this part of the park, and paved an
area of 1.5 hectares for trails. Then, water devices (ar-
38 More about the Great Staircase, see Radojka and Marko
Popovic, "Savsko sa Velikim na Kalemegdanu," Nas/ede 2 (1999): 53-
71 . 39 He was the chief of the Technical Office of the Belgrade
municipality which designed the Master Plan of Belgrade in 1923. 40
See Milan S. Minic, "Prva Beogradanka arhitekt- Jelisaveta
Godisnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 3 (1956): 451 - 58; Jovanovic, lz
starog Beograda, 5- 10; Maksimovic, "0 zelenilu," 325-66;
Milanovic, Zelenilo, 114- 33 ; Vojislav Z. "Kalemegdan- njegov
postanak i razvitak," Hortiku/tura 38, no. 3 (1971): 88- 90. 41
Herbert Vivian, "Srbija-raj siromMnog in Beograd u devetnaestom
ve/>.1.1 (Belgrade: Muzej grada Beograda, 1967), 149- 80.
[Original edition: Herbert Vivian, Servia, the Poor Man 's Paradise
(London, 1897)]; see also Herbert Vivian, Servia, the Poor Man 's
Paradise, etc. (London: British Library, Historical Print Editions,
20 II). 42 See V. Tripkovic, "0 batenskim postrojenjima, skverovima
(igralitima) nae prestonice," Srpski tehnicki list 18, no. 6
(1907): 45-47, at 47.
-
88 Dral!ana Corovic
tificial spring, streams, and lake), that were part of Leko's
design but do not exist today, were incorporated into the park.
Kalemegdan Park is the area of permanent vegetation conversion.
Today it has 80 different species of trees, 28 of shrubs, and 40
species of flowers . There are almost 3,500 trees and one third of
them are coniferous. The area of Kalemegdan has 16,000 shrubs and
flowerbeds on about 0.2 hectares. Ka-lemegdan Park shares the
compositional characteristics of an English garden, combined with
certain classical elements, such as geometrically composed
ornamental parterre with flowerbeds near the memorial Gratitude to
France, erected in 1930.
The bronze figure of a woman in a combat sweep is the work of
Ivan Me-strovic. Measuring nine meters in height, it personifies
French aid to Serbia during the First World War. The Victor
Monument (Pobednik), also the work of Ivan Mestrovic, is a bronze
sculpture of a nude male figure with a sword and eagle, and
measures 14 meters. This is one of the symbols of Belgrade. It was
placed in the western part of the Upper Town in Kalemegdan in 1928,
in honor of the tenth anniversary of the breach of the Thessaloniki
Front, al-though, the figure was made in 1913 for a different
purpose and place. 43 The first monument was set in the area of
Kalemegdan 121 years ago. It was the bronze bust, total height 2.76
meters, of a literate and philologist Dura Da-nicic. The bust is
the work of a sculptor and painter Petar Ubavkic. He was one of the
first sculptors in Serbia in the second half of the nineteenth
century.44
Since 1891, this sculptural tradition bas not been interrupted,
so there are monuments dedicated to the artists and prominent
figures in Serbian history, such as: Jovan Skerlic, Dura Jaksic,
Radoje Domanovic, Bora Stankovic, Mi-los Crnjanski, Milos N. Durie,
Milan Rakic, and Stevan Raickovic, to name a few. Other art works
in Kalemegdan Park include Simeon RoksandiC's 1906 sculpture,
Fight. It is located in the center of the plateau surrounded by 30
trees of horse chestnut, in the basin of a fountain (Figure 12).
Cast in bronze, it is a 1.5 meter high figure of a fisherman
struggling with a snake. This foun-tain was placed in the park in
1912 and the same cast also exists in Zagreb. 45
43 Metrovic's sculpture was to be placed in a memorial fountain,
in the Terazije square, after the First Balkan War (1912- 13), in
honor of the victory of Serbia. Jelisaveta Nacic had developed the
project for the Terazije square according to the competition
winning solution. Setting up the fountain was hampered because of
the beginning of the First World War. After the War the public was
against placing a nude male figure on the central city square. See
Vujovic, Beograd u, 96; Minic, "Prva Beogradanka," 455. 44 Dorde
Jovanovic, Petar Ubavkic, and Simeon Roksandic were the first
Serbian sculptors. 45 The Fight was sent to the Balkan exhibition
in London in 1907. Erroneously, the news arrived that the ship
sank, and the figure was lost. Simeon Roksandic made another,
identical
Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 89
Life in Belgrade was taking place on the border of the two
worlds of op-posing powers, conflicting political ambitions within
the internal affairs of the country, in the clash of Christian and
Muslim tradition, and even in the clash of male and female
principles. The origin and development of green space is closely
connected with the history in which a new level of the city memory
would replace the previous one. For those creating green space in
Belgrade, the luxury of forming high-quality spaces was not the
question of possibility, but the question of both necessity and
purpose-the same ones that had moti-vated the enthusiasts to build
the first schools and hospitals. The examples presented in this
text have different origins, Karadorde' s Park was formed as a
sacred grove and memorial place. Like French Versailles, Topcider
Park was also the seat of the government. Kalemegdan Park is an
early example of the restoration of a devastated landscape. In this
sense, each has also a specific educational value. Regardless of
the position, size, structure, and significance of the green spaces
in Belgrade, they established an important framework for further
development of these luxurious but necessary areas of a city.
dcorovic a rh .bg.ac.rs
sculpture. It turns out that the news was false. Zagreb and
Belgrade Municipality had bought two identical figures. Vujovic,
Beograd u, 96, 119- 25. Zora Simic-Milovanovic, "Simeon Roksandic,
1874-1943," Godi.Snjak grada Beograda 9- 10 {1962-63): 445- 78.
-
''.t t !:., ,.,,, ,,, .. .
Figure 1. Belgrade, Eighteenth Century [Source: National Library
of Serbia, Belgrade Digital Library: www.nb .rs]
-
,....::. M
J 0 00
-...._..,
00 I: ......
"' t: 0.
;:::J ...:.( :oaN' i">P...c;
Cl) "' N - Cl) " "E l:..t. 0 1i)
Cl) "0 . ....., - = C3 Cl) "0
Cl) "' "0 c:Q 0 e;.....o.D 0- 0
"'-cn.OCI) 5 6 ::>-. - 0 .0 i>-oB :-9] .....l P... Cl) -5
00 8 0 .......... - - ::I 5::::1...__, s.o ::I l:l 0
:::E Cl)
N Cl) loo = 01)
Figure 3. The Plan of Belgrade (1909) 1. Karadorde's Park and 2.
Kalemedgan Park
[Source: Milos R. Perovic, lstraiivanje strukture Beograda:
Multivariatna analiza i kompjuter atlas kontinualno izgradenog
podrucja (Belgrade: Zavod za planiranje razvoja grada Beograda,
1976), 043 , 044, 045 .]
-
Figure 4. The Monument to veterans killed in the wars between
1912 and 1918, unveiled 1923
Karadorde ' s Park [Source: Photo by Dragana Corovic, 201 0]
Figure 5. Topcider Park, air photo (1938) Red dot marks location
of Prince Mi los's Residence
[Source: Collection of the Belgrade Aviation Museum, Serbia
Courtesy of Predrag Lazetic]
,--,
-e
en
;--. - "0 -"' 0\ '"" -!:!l ..!
-
Figure 7. Giant plane tree in front of Prince Milos 's
Residence, Topcider Park [Source: Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic,
2012]
Figure 8. The Harvester, statue of Ceres ( 1852), Topcider Park
[Source: Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic, 2012]
-
........
0 1.0 00 .......
........
,........,
N 0 N ;;
Q.) :..=> > co
"' 0 0.. r::: 0 .... "'
.g-o Q.) - 0
.C >U ..0 E-< 0.. 0
B
Q.) J.o = 0 .c 0..
4.i :::l 0 (/)
.........,
---- - -- -=-- ... -- - -- - --
- - - -.;::: --:::---
Figure 10. Belgrade, the old town that lays in the Moat (1867)
1. Kalemegdan, before it became a park and 2. the line ofthe
Belgrade fortress ' s walls
[Source: Josimovic, Objasnenje pred/oga , 12.]
-
Figure 11. Kalemegdan, air photo (1930), View to the southwest
[Source: Collection of the Belgrade Aviation Museum, Serbia;
Courtesy ofPredrag Lafetic]
Figure 12. Sculpture Fight ( 1906), Kalemegdan Park [Source:
Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic, 2012]
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