Stari Grad, Belgrade

Stari Grad
Стари Град
Municipality

Coat of arms

Location of Stari Grad within the city of Belgrade
Country  Serbia
City Belgrade
Status Municipality
Settlements 1
Government
 • Municipality president Marko Bastać (Čuvari Starog grada)
Area
 • Total 5.38 km2 (2.08 sq mi)
Population (2011)
 • Total 48,061
 • Density 8,900/km2 (23,000/sq mi)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code 11000
Area code(s) +381 11
license plates BG
Website www.starigrad.org.rs

Stari Grad (Serbian Cyrillic: Стари Град, pronounced [stâːriː ɡrâd]) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It encompasses some of the oldest sections of urban Belgrade, thus the name (‘’stari grad’’, Serbian for “old city”). Stari Grad is one of the three municipalities that occupy the very center of Belgrade, together with Savski Venac and Vračar.

History

Despite some of the oldest sections of Belgrade belong to Stari Grad, the municipality itself is among the latest urban ones formed administratively. It was formed by the merger of the municipality of Skadarlija and part of the municipality of Terazije on January 1, 1957.

Geography

Stari Grad occupies the ending ridge of Šumadija geological bar. The cliff-like ridge, where the fortress of Kalemegdan is located, overlooks the Great War Island and the confluence of the Sava river into the Danube, and makes one of the most beautiful natural lookouts in Belgrade. With Novi Beograd, it is one of 2 municipalities of Belgrade (out of 17) which occupy the banks of both major rivers in Belgrade, the Sava and the Danube (Zemun was the third, but when the municipality of Surčin split, Zemun was left with the Danube, and Surčin with the Sava bank).

The municipality of Stari Grad covers an area of just 7 square kilometers (2.7 sq mi) (second smallest in Belgrade, after Vračar) and borders the municipalities of Paliula on the east, Vračar on the south-east and Savski Venac on the south. The Sava makes a border to the municipality of Novi Beograd (west) and the Danube to the municipalities of Zemun (north-west) and the Banat's section of Palilula.

The riverside of the Danube has two distinct artificial bays, the small marina (Marina Dorćol) and the Port of Belgrade.

Neighborhood

The neighborhood of Stari Grad is not generally considered by the Belgraders as one single definitive neighborhood. Area which Stari Grad covers is either simply styled "downtown" or by the names of the more established neighborhood which it overlaps: Two parts of Dorćol separated on social-difference and architecture basis, It spreads from the bank of Danube by the Kalemegdan fortress to the Republic Square also known as "The Horse". Downtown Belgrade is most populated area which makes it the heart of the city, it spreads from Terazije down to Despot Stefan Boulevard. Tasmajdan neighborhood is along with Šipka the on the east side of Stari grad next to municipality of Palilula.

This is a list of the neighborhoods in the municipality:

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
194867,675—    
195381,311+3.74%
196196,517+2.17%
197183,742−1.41%
198173,767−1.26%
199170,791−0.41%
200255,543−2.18%
201148,450−1.51%
Source: [1]

Like the other two "old" municipalities of central Belgrade (Savski Venac and Vračar), Stari Grad for decades is a highly depopulating municipality, but being a central municipality and small in area, it remains one of the most densely populated municipalities in Serbia. There were 48,450 inhabitants according to the 2011 census or 6,921/km2 (17,930/sq mi), compared to a population of 96,517 with a density of 13,788/km2 (35,710/sq mi) back in 1971.

Even though residential areas are much densely compact compared to Vračar, the latter is densely populated because almost one third of Stari Grad, even though it is "heart" of Belgrade is not inhabited (mostly the large park of Kalemegdan and the highly industrialized riverside of the Danube, with dozens of factories and spacious hangars and depots). However, a number of people working on the territory of the municipality doubles its own population and makes possible for the municipality of Stari Grad to achieve GDP per capita 6 to 8 times higher than the average in Serbia.

Ethnic structure

The ethnic composition of the municipality:[2]

Ethnic group Population
Serbs43,208
Yugoslavs613
Montenegrins441
Croats268
Macedonians203
Gorani156
Romani116
Muslims97
Slovenians84
Russians68
Albanians63
Hungarians53
Bosniaks40
Romanians35
Slovaks34
Germans31
Bulgarians28
Others2,912
Total48,450

Administration

Recent presidents of the municipality:

  • 1992 – 2000: Jovan Kažić (b. 1937)
  • 2000 – 2012: Mirjana Božidarević (b. 1954)
  • 2012 – 2016: Dejan Kovačević (b. 1966)
  • 2016 – present: Marko Bastać (b. 1984)

Economy

The following table gives a preview of total number of employed people per their core activity (as of 2016):[3]

Activity Total
Agriculture, forestry and fishing64
Mining19
Processing industry3,752
Distribution of power, gas and water1,143
Distribution of water and water waste management199
Construction1,830
Wholesale and retail, repair7,665
Traffic, storage and communication3,140
Hotels and restaurants3,903
Media and telecommunications6,082
Finance and insurance3,657
Property stock and charter453
Professional, scientific, innovative and technical activities7,278
Administrative and other services7,095
Administration and social assurance3,944
Education4,980
Healthcare and social work2,291
Art, leisure and recreation3,208
Other services2,380
Total63,083

Features

Administration

Belgrade City Assembly
Presidency of the Republic

Economy and tourism

  • Port of Belgrade; City's general urban plan (GUP) from 1972 projected the removal of the Port of Belgrade and the industrial facilities by 2021. The cleared area was to encompass the Danube's bank from the Dorćol to the Pančevo bridge. At that time, the proposed new locations included the Veliko Selo marsh or the Reva 2 section of Krnjača, across the Danube. When the GUP was revised in 2003, it kept the idea od relocating the port and the industry, and as the new location only Krnjača was mentioned. There was an idea that the already existing port of Pančevo, after certain changes, could become the new Belgrade's port, but the idea was abandoned.[4]
  • Large industrial zone on the riverside of the Danube, surrounding the port
  • BEKO clothing factory
  • Belgrade Fortress with the Kalemegdan park
  • Botanical garden of Jevremovac
  • Belgrade Zoo
  • Prince Michael Street
  • Bohemian quarter of Skadarlija
  • Aleksandar Palas[5] *****
  • Hotel Majestic ****
  • Hotel Palace ****
  • Le Petit Piaf[6] ***
  • Hotel Royal ***

Culture

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
View of Stari Grad

As a curiosity, Stari Grad is the location of two shortest streets of Belgrade, Marka Leka and Laze Pačua, which are 45 and 48 meters long, respectively.[12] Despite being in the sole downtown and densely populated urban section, they have no numbers as all the buildings located in them are numbered from the neighboring streets.

Education

  • Elementary school "Stari Grad"; founded in 1961 and originally named "1st Proletarian Brigade", with 1,300 pupils it was the largest school in this part of Belgrade. It was among the first schools in Belgrade which got a large library, day care, electronic classrooms, etc. As the population of Stari Grad dwindled, so did the number of pupils. Since the early 2010s, city administration considered to close the school. In March 2016 city announced the closing which provoked opposition from the pupils who organized petition in downtown to keep the school, followed by the joint protests of the pupils, their parents and teachers. The school was preserved for a year, but as the number of pupils fell to 142, in June 2017 city finally decided to resettle the pupils in the neighboring schools and to move the Sports Gymnasium in its building.[13]

Dva Bela Goluba

Jovan Kujundžić, a tailor (terzija, tailor of the cloths) had a ground floor house at the crossroad of the Makedonska, Svetogorska, Hilandarska and Cetinjska streets. He switched to the catering business and founded a kafana Dva bela goluba ("Two white doves"). The kafana became so famous, that the entire neighborhood and the modern Svetogorska Street, were named after it. In the late 1920s, the Artisan Guild purchased the house and the surrounding lot in order to build the Home of the Artisans, which is today the building of the Radio Belgrade. Kujundžić had one condition, that the name is to be preserved. Because of that, above the entrance into the building, the sculptural composition was carved. It shows two persons with an anvil (symbol of artisans), next to the anvil are scissors (symbol of tailors), with two white doves. The kafana was moved to the Bohemian quarter of Skadarlija and the name for the neighborhood fell into oblivion.[14]

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Stari Grad is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Serbia" (PDF). Stat.gov.rs. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "ETHNICITY Data by municipalities and cities" (PDF). stat.gov.rs. Statistical Office of Serbia. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "ОПШТИНЕ И РЕГИОНИ У РЕПУБЛИЦИ СРБИЈИ, 2017" (PDF). stat.gov.rs (in Serbian). Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  4. ↑ D.B. (3 March 2009). "Uskoro dogovor o vlasništvu nad zemljištem Luke Beograd" (in Serbian). Politika.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "Hotel Le Petit Piaf - Dobrodošli". Petitpiaf.com. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  8. ↑ "Pedagogical Museum". Град Београд - Званична интернет презентација - Pedagogical Museum. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  9. ↑ "乳酸菌が生きているとは". Jim-bg.org. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  10. ↑ "Museum of Automobiles". Град Београд - Званична интернет презентација - Museum of Automobiles. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  11. ↑ Dejan Aleksić (22 April 2018). "Zaboravljeni srpski Gaudi" [Forgotten Serbian Gaudi]. Politika (in Serbian).
  12. ↑ Politika, April 26, 2008, p.30
  13. ↑ A.Jovanović, D.Aleksić (7 June 2017), "OŠ "Stari grad" definitivno se gasi posle 56 godina", Politika (in Serbian), p. 17
  14. ↑ Dragan Perić (29 October 2017), "Nerandža i "Dva bla goluba"" [Nerandža and "Two white doves"], Politika-Magazin, No. 1048 (in Serbian), p. 25

Coordinates: 44°49′09″N 20°27′26″E / 44.8191359°N 20.4572362°E / 44.8191359; 20.4572362

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