Skadarlija

Skadarlija
Скадарлија
Urban neighbourhood
Street in Skadarlija
Skadarlija
Location within Belgrade
Coordinates: 44°49′04″N 20°27′51″E / 44.8178°N 20.4643°E / 44.8178; 20.4643Coordinates: 44°49′04″N 20°27′51″E / 44.8178°N 20.4643°E / 44.8178; 20.4643
Country  Serbia
Region Belgrade
Municipality Stari Grad
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Area code +381(0)11
Car plates BG

Skadarlija (Serbian Cyrillic: Скадарлија) is a vintage street, an urban neighborhood and former municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad (Old town) and generally considered the main bohemian quarter of Belgrade, similar to Paris' Montmartre. After Kalemegdan, Skadarlija is the second most visited tourist attraction in Belgrade,[1] contributing to one third of the city's foreign currency income.[2]

Location

Skadarlija is located less than 300 metres (330 yd) north-west of Terazije, central Belgrade. It begins right below the Republic Square and stretches along the short, winding Skadarska Street. One of the most famous streets in Belgrade, it is less than 400 metres (440 yd) long. It connects the Despot Stefan Boulevard with the Dušanova Street, near the Bajloni open greenmarket and the Mira Trailović Square, where it extends into the neighborhood of Dorćol.[3]

Though today the term is mostly applied to the street only, Skadarlija is a former municipality of Belgrade and a wider quarter which includes some 20 neighboring streets.[2]

Administration

Skadarlija became a separate municipality of Belgrade in 1952, after the previous post-World War II division of Belgrade into raions from 1945 to 1952 ended. That municipality included a large portion of urban Belgrade, mainly the Danube oriented neighborhoods[4] like Dorćol, Jalija, Stari Grad, etc. By the 1953 census, municipality of Skadarlija had a population of 31,281.[5] On 1 January 1957 it merged into the new municipality of Stari Grad and Skadarlija became a "local community" (mesna zajednica), sub-municipal administrative unit, within the municipality. According to the censuses, the local community of Skadarlija had a population of 7,399 in 1981,[6] 7,074 in 1991[7] and 5,942 in 2002.[8] Municipality of Stari Grad later abolished local communities.

History

The history of Skadarlija began in 1830 with the settlement of Gypsies in the abandoned trenches in front of the ramparts.[9] The 1854 town plan of Belgrade reveals that the Gypsy hovels had been replaced by brick buildings into which artisans, caterers, petty clerks and others moved. The whole locality was referred to as the Gypsy Quarter, Gypsy Alley or Šićan Mala and remained a Romani settlement until 1870. In that period, the stream called Bibijin potok ("Bibija stream"), which originates under the modern Politika building in the Makedonska street, flowed down the alley, crossing it. The stream was named after Bibija, the Romani deity of salvation.[10][11] At the time, Belgrade was divided into quarters, and the stream was an administrative border between the quarters of Palilula and Dorćol (Stari Grad). As Palilula limited the playing of music to midnight, people would then jump across the stream in the Dorćol section to continue with festivities.[2]

An aqueduct was later constructed which conducted the stream underground, which still flows below the street. The largest arch of the aqueduct was named Skadar, after the town, so in 1872 the street was named Skadarska ulica. Serbian for "Skadar street", it is still the street's official name.[10][11] As of 2018, Skadarska is among only 29 streets in Belgrade which never changed their names since the first naming of the city streets in 1872.[12]

Skadarlija began to acquire its bohemian character in the last few decades of the 19th century, and particularly after 1901, when the well-known Dardaneli inn, located where the National Museum in Belgrade is today, was demolished and its guests, prominent writers and actors, moved to the Skadarlija inns or kafanas.[1] In the early 20the century there were 15 kafanas in Skadarlija, including: Tri šešira ("Three Hats"), Dva jelena ("Two Deer"), Zlatni bokal ("The Golden Chalice"), Bandist, East, Guild, Vuk Karadžić, Bums keler, Miloš Obilić and The two Sergeants. The first three of these still survive today, accompanied by some new restaurants like Ima dana ("There will be days"), Skadarlija (demolished in 2006), Dva bela goluba ("Two White Doves"). In the late 19the century, the beginning of the street was a location of "Pašonin bulevar", the very first Belgrade's music hall.[13]

The end section of Skadarlija is known as the Skadarlija atrium. It is mostly occupied by the brewery that belonged to one of the most distinguished Belgrade families before World War II, the Czech-originating Bajloni family. It produced "Aleksandar" beer, made from thermal waters that spring out in the brewery's backyard. When Bajloni began digging for the foundations of his brewery in 1892, he discovered the bones of the mammoths and skulls of the Neanderthal Krapina man.[14] The well is located 80 to 300 meters (250 to 1000 feet) under the surface. After 1945, the brewery became part of the "BIP" brewery, but was later closed. The spring water was bottled for drinking until the early 2000s. Under the brewery is a complex of lagums (subterranean galleries or catacombes), which were used as a storage rooms for the beer barrels. By 2008, the entire inner complex is abandoned and slated for demolition. However, as the project of massive reconstruction failed, the brewery became home for many coffeehouses and clubs.[15]

The house of Đura Jakšić, a well-known writer and painter who lived and died in Skadarlija, has been turned into a meeting place for the poets participating in the Skadarlija Evenings event. Its renovation and restoration began in 1968[1] in accordance with the designs made by a group of prominent artists: architect Uglješa Bogunović (1922–94), writer and painter Zuko Džumhur (1921–89), painter Mario Maskareli (1918–96), sculptor Milica Ribnikar-Bogunović (1931), painter and writer Momo Kapor, among others. They managed to preserve its existing values and introduce modern facilities without interfering with its historical features. In the late 1960s, Skadarlija regained fame as the center of youth and bohemian artists of Belgade.[16] Plans for further adaptations were made in 1977, but remained on paper until 2008.

In 1985 theatre director Zorica Jevremović Munitić founded Children's Street Theater /Ulično dečje pozorište/ in Skadarlija. The core of the troupe was made up of Romany children who lived in Skadarlija, 'white' children' from Dorcol (a nearby prestigious Belgrade neighborhood), Romany children from the favelas of the Belgrade suburb of Mirijevo (who sell flowers in Skadarlija), professional actors and painters who live in Skadarlija, a Skadarlija fortune-teller, clowns, fire eaters, and alternative artists (musicians, painters).

Characteristics

Tri šešira restaurant

The present Skadarlija, a short and curved street, is a remarkable Belgrade tourist attraction. It includes well-known restaurants, hotels (e.g. Le Petit Piaf), art galleries, antique and souvenir shops. At the end of the street there is the Sebilj fountain. It is an ornamented drinking fountain, copy of the fountain in Baščaršija in Sarajevo, and gift from Sarajevo to Belgrade.[17]

Groups playing Serbian brass or traditional urban music and actors dressed in traditional Serb costumes perform down the street. Unlike other similar and popular places in Belgrade that are considered posh, Skadarlija is known as a place visited by young couples and entire families with children. Restaurants offer the typical national cuisine, most notably the roštilj (grilled meat) with pivo (beer). Skadarlija's cafés, restaurants, art exhibits and cobblestone (kaldrma) promenade attract up to 20,000 people daily. The street is a car-free zone but it would be unsuited for traffic anyway because it is too narrow and with bumpy cobblestones.

Bohemian life

Putujući glumac restaurant along Skadarska street.

Well-known but mostly poor poets and writers became regular visitors of Skadarlija in the early 20th century, not just from Serbia but from the wider Yugoslav areas, even before the Yugoslav state was formed as such in 1918. The most prominent residents and visitors in Skadarlija's Bohemian history include Đura Jakšić, Dobrica Milutinović, Žanka Stokić,[10] Ilija Stanojević,[10] Tin Ujević, Gustav Krklec, Stevan Sremac, Antun Gustav Matoš, Zuko Džumhur, Momo Kapor and Silvana Armenulić.[18]

My name is Skadarlija...or Skadarska street, however you like it. I am no boulevard...or avenue...or highway. I am common steep curved alley in the middle of Belgrade. And that would be everything meaningful to be told about me if it wouldn't be for my bohemian history, my crumbling roofs, my shaking chairs...

— Zuko Džumhur[19]

After decades of performing in Skadarlija's restaurants and outdoors, some singers and performers became synonymous with Skadarlija: singers Šaban Šaulić, Toma Zdravković, Olga Jančevecka, Divna Đokić, Sofka Vasiljković, Mila Matić, actress Ljubica Janićijević who impersonated Gypsy fortune-tellers, and Radomir Šobota as a drummer.[20]

Restaurants are proud of their lists of worldwide celebrities and epicurians who visited them over the decades. Even Alfred Hitchcock ended his diet in Skadarlija . Often, they post photographs of their visits on the walls. For example, over the years, Tri šešira welcomed numerous famous guests such as guitarist Jimi Hendrix, politicians George H.W. Bush, Josip Broz Tito, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Sandro Pertini, and chess player Anatoly Karpov. Other celebrities who visited Skadarlija include queen Elizabeth II, politicians Willy Brandt, Gianni de Michelis, Helmut Kohl, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Yevgeny Primakov, Igor Ivanov and Margaret Thatcher, author Alberto Moravia, actors Burt Lancaster, Vladimir Visotsky, Gina Lollobrigida, Alain Delon, film director Nikita Mikhalkov, etc.[2][11][13] Visitors from the later period include Joe Biden and Johannes Hahn.[10]

As similar Bohemian quarters, Skadarlija and Parisian Montmartre are twinned. Two identical plaques, commemorating the event, are placed in May 1978. In Montmartre, the plaque is placed on the building of the Free Commune of Montmartre while artist Branimir Bane Minić, who authored the plaque, was dubbed the Knight of Montmartre. In Belgrade, the plaque is placed across the house of Đura Jakšić.[21]

Since 1993, the official opening of the summer season in Skadarlija (restaurants are open the entire year) has been marked by rising a "bohemian flag".[22] The flagpole is located in front of the Zlatni bokal restaurant. The ceremony is always attended by celebrities, including popular and opera singers, actors, and artists. The season usually begins in the late April/early May.

There is a special code of conduct for the restaurants and their employees. The code was rescinded in 1975 but was reintroduced in 2010. It includes the types of dishes that can be found on the menues, what types of uniforms, table clothes or music are allowed and the knowledge of foreign languages.[1]

The entire season consists of a series of festivities and celebrations: Summer Saint Nicholas Feast, Skadarlija Fest, Flower Festival (Festival cveća), Hat Fesival (Šeširijada), Tamburica Fest, Miss Skadarlija Paegeant, children's cooking festival Varjačići (visited by Jamie Oliver), wine exhibitions, painting and poetry evenings, theatrical shows, Snail Race for choosing the slowest bicycle rider, dancing shows for the old-style dances, etc.[2]

The symbol of Skadarlija is a Fedora-type hat. There are numerous folk songs which mention the hat, they are dedicated to it or named after it. This especially goes for the songs in the style of starogradska muzika, which is another emblematic feature of Skadarlija.[2]

Greenmarket

At the end of the street, across the Dušanova Street, there is an open greenmarket, officially named Skadarlija Greenmarket. It developed spontaneously in the 19th century for the customers from the lower Dorćol neighborhood, for whom the central city market, the Great Market, was too distant and uphill. It was established on an empty lot in front of the Filip's Brewery, which was later renamed to Bajloni Brewery and the market became known as the Bajloni Market (Bajlonijeva pijaca).[23] In 1926 the Great Market was finally closed and city founded several new markets throughout the city, further from the downtown: Zeleni Venac, Kalenić and Jovanova market.[24][25] In the process, the Bajloni market was also adapted that year: it got new market stalls, a fence, quality stores for the meat, eggs and dairy products and improved hygiene. Though officially named Skadarlija today, the citizens refer to the market only as Bajloni.[23]

21st century

In February 2008, plans were announced for the complete reconstruction of the lowest section of Skadarlija (Skadarlija atrium, an area of about 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres)) bounded by the streets of Skadarska, Zetska, Cetinjska and Dušanova.[26] Works are scheduled to begin in September 2008 and due to be finished by December 2010. A new multi-functional center will include two hotels, subterranean garage, restaurants, museum and a new pedestrian zone comprising a wide promenade between the Skadarska and Cetinjska streets. The restaurant Stara Skadarlija, two authentic walls of the brewery, the old tower and shopping mall, boiler room and lagums will be preserved but with additional functions. The tower will be illuminated and visible from the city neighborhoods below. The shopping mall's higher floors will be turned into a hotel. Lagums will be open for the public and turned into souvenir and gift shops. The atrium will be turned into a new commercial shopping mall and a hotel with subterranean garage of 1,000 parking spaces. Water springs will be co-opted and protected, and new drills will be added to the existing three springs, as a sort of a tourist attraction. The most controversial aspect at the moment appears to be the concept of a glass box-shaped membrane, lit from the inside, which is supposed to engulf the Stara Skadarlija restaurant. The idea is opposed by the local population.[27] Except for Stara Skadarlija, changes will mainly occur in the side from the Cetinjska street which is considered a low preservation urban area, unlike the Skadarlija side, which is protected by the law and no new construction works will be allowed. As the altitude difference from top to bottom of the projected area is 17 metres (56 ft), it is de facto going to be step-like dug into the ground for almost three floors. The project was scrapped in the later years due to the unsolved property ownership issues,[15] as the BIP sold the brewery to the Italian company "Star Immobiliare" in 2006 which in turn sold it to the British "Invest Balkan Properties PLC" in 2007. Company "Elgin" acquired the building in 2010. They claimed that by the end of 2011, they will announce which of the world-famous hotel chains will build a hotel but nothing happened.[28]

2016-17 reconstruction

Instead, reconstruction of the street was announced by the city government in October 2016, as the cobblestones and the façades became damaged in time. Works were scheduled for the spring of 2017, but were moved to October 2017,[13] as the city decided to accept the proposition of the kafana owners to postpone it until after the touristic season is over. However, they decided to renovate the drinking fountain, which was to be finished in July 2017. As the fountain is at the beginning of the street, the tourists routinely avoid the street thinking it is completely closed, while those who enter the restaurants' terraces and gardens often leave as the dust is everywhere, especially in the initial section of the street. The number of visitors dwindled and the restaurateurs accused the city administration of "ruining the 2017 season".[29] The fountain was restored according to the original 1966 project of Bogunović and Ribnikar, and the works were finished on 7 July 2017, 10 days ahead of the schedule.[30] The stone fountain, which was built on the location of an old, one-pipe fountain from the Ottoman period, was fully renovated and the stone bench made of the yellow Ljig sandstone, which was projected in 1966, was finally built.[31] Further reconstruction began on 16 October 2017 and was projected to last until the spring of 2018.[32]

In November 2017 photos appeared showing that the trademark stone kaldrma has been removed and that street was paved with the asphalt concrete. It prompted a major public outburst and protests, so the city authorities explained that the asphalt is just the substrate and that stones will be washed and placed on top of the asphalt. As the works were under the tougher public scrutiny since then, it was obvious that the old stone was replaced with the new, imported one, produced in Greece in 2016. City then announced that the old and new stones will be mixed, but instead of a colorful stones of the old kaldrma, the new one is uniformly gray, described as the "dark shroud, in contrast to the previous playful and diverse one, which took [from Skadarlija] its joy and vibrancy and killed its Dionysian spirit". In the lower half, which was done by December, only the new stones were used. The customs paper show that the stone was imported only after the asphalt pavement was finished and public protests.[33][34][35][36][37][38]

The reconstruction was halted again in the spring of 2018 because of the opening of the touristic season, and will be continued in October 2018.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Daliborka Mučibabić (21 January 2010). "Skadarlija vraća izgubljeni boemski duh" (in Serbian). Politika.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Branka Vasiljević, Ana Vuković (30 April 2018). "Duša i gostoljublje Skadarlije" [Soul and hospitality of Skadarlija]. Politika (in Serbian). p. 18.
  3. ↑ Beograd - plan i vodič (III ed.). Geokarta. 2007. p. 21. ISBN 978-86-459-0297-2.
  4. ↑ Mala enciklopedija Prosveta. Vol. II (I ed.). Belgrade: Prosveta Publishing House. 1959. p. 562.
  5. ↑ Popis stanovništva 1953, Stanovništvo po narodnosti (pdf). Savezni zavod za statistiku, Beograd.
  6. ↑ Osnovni skupovi stanovništva u zemlji – SFRJ, SR i SAP, opštine i mesne zajednice 31.03.1981, tabela 018. Savezni zavod za statistiku (txt file). 1983.
  7. ↑ Stanovništvo prema migracionim obeležjima – SFRJ, SR i SAP, opštine i mesne zajednice 31.03.1991, tabela 018. Savezni zavod za statistiku (txt file). 1983.
  8. ↑ Popis stanovništva po mesnim zajednicama, Saopštenje 40/2002, page 4. Zavod za informatiku i statistiku grada Beograda. 26 July 2002.
  9. ↑ "Skadarlija". www.bg-info.org. 2014. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Branka Vasiljević (13 May 2017). "Počinje obnova česme i platoa u Skadarliji" [Reconstruction of the drinking fountain and the plateau in Skadarlija begins] (in Serbian). Politika. p. 15.
  11. 1 2 3 Ana Vuković (23 July 2017), "Očuvanje tradicije i duha boemske četvrti" [Preservation of the tradition and spirit of the bohemian quarter], Politika (in Serbian)
  12. ↑ Dejan Spalović (21 February 2009), "Knez Mihailova kroz vekove" [Knez Mihailova through centuries], Politika (in Serbian)
  13. 1 2 3 M.Janković (29 April 2017), "Otvara se letnja sezona u Skadarliji", Politika (in Serbian), p. 16
  14. ↑ Nikola Bilić (30 October 2011), "Putovanje kroz istoriju beogradskim metroom", Politika (in Serbian)
  15. 1 2 M.V. (1 March 2016). "Od Skadarlije prave Savamalu" (in Serbian). Večernje Novosti.
  16. ↑ Mala enciklopedija Prosveta. Vol. III (IV ed.). Belgrade: Prosveta. 1986. p. 400.
  17. ↑ Borislav Stojkov (24 September 2018). "Ругло и брука у центру Београда" [Eyesore and disgrace in downtown Belgrade]. Politika (in Serbian). p. 23.
  18. ↑ Newly Composed Folk Music of Yugoslavia; page 74. books.google.com. 2002. Retrieved 2012-12-20.
  19. ↑ "Duh boemije koji iščezava". Politika (in Serbian). 2008-04-28. p. 39.
  20. ↑ Skadarlija - duh boemije koji iščezava; RTS documentary on Skadarlija; 2008
  21. ↑ Branimir Bane Minić (January 2012), "Među nama – Plaketa na Monmartru", Politika (in Serbian)
  22. ↑ "Boemski barjak u Skadarskoj ulici". Politika (in Serbian). 2008-04-23. p. 23.
  23. 1 2 Dragan Perić (22 October 2017), "Beogradski vremeplov - Pijace: mesto gde grad hrani selo" [Belgrade chronicles - greenmarkets: a place where village feeds the city], Politika-Magazin, No. 1047 (in Serbian), pp. 26–27
  24. ↑ D.J.S. (13 December 2014), "Pijace slave Svetog Andreja Prvozvanog", Politika (in Serbian), p. 15
  25. ↑ Dragan Perić (23 April 2017), "Šetnja pijacama i parkovima", Politika-Magazin No 1021 (in Serbian), pp. 28–29
  26. ↑ "Skadarlija 2010 - novi život boemske četvrti". Politika (in Serbian). 2008-02-20.
  27. ↑ "Zasijaće Skadarlija". Večernje Novosti (in Serbian). 2008-02-23.
  28. ↑ Daliborka Mučibabić (31 October 2011), "Treća sreća za BIP-ovu Skadarliju", Politika (in Serbian)
  29. ↑ Večernje Novosti (14 June 2017). ""Ko je ovo odlučio - uništio nas u Skadarliji"" (in Serbian). B92.
  30. ↑ "Završena pre roka: Obnovljena česma na Skadarliji puštena u rad", Blic (in Serbian), 7 July 2017
  31. ↑ Branka Vasiljević (8 July 2017), "Obnovljena Skadarlijska česma", Politika (in Serbian), p. 14
  32. ↑ Milan Janković (16 October 2017), "Od danas radovi u Skadarliji" [Works in Skadarlija start today], Politika (in Serbian), p. 14
  33. ↑ S.Luković (13 November 2017). "Fotografije beogradske boemske četvrti pre nekoliko dana digle buru na internetu, a evo kako će Skadarlija od sada izgledati" [Photos of the Belgrade's Bohemian quarter raised a tempest on the internet few days ago - this is how the Skadarlija is going to look like] (in Serbian). Blic.
  34. ↑ ""Slučaj Skadarlija": kaldrma se vraća, čista i oprana" [Case of Skadarlija: kaldrma is being returned, clean and washed] (in Serbian). B92. 13 November 2017.
  35. ↑ Adam Santovac (25 November 2017). "Protest u Skadarliji: Umesto iz turskog doba, kamen iz Grčke" [Protest in Skadarlija: instead from the Turkish period, stone is from Greece] (in Serbian). Blic.
  36. ↑ "Vesić: Asfalt u Skadarliji je podloga za vraćanje kaldrme" [Vesić: the asphalt in Skadarlija is a substrate for the return of kaldrma] (in Serbian). Radio Television Serbia. 10 November 2017.
  37. ↑ Slobodan Giša Bogunović (2 December 2017), "Skadarlijska kaldrma - siva i trezna" [Skadarlija's kaldrma - gray and sober], Politika-Kulturni dodatak (in Serbian), p. 07
  38. ↑ I.Vlajković (24 November 2017). "Skadarlija zadržala staru kaldrmu, tamo gde je bila potrebna nova, ona je doneta iz Grčke" [Skadarlija kept the old kaldrma, where the new one was needed it was brought from Greece] (in Serbian). Telegraf.rs.
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