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Vracar
Vracar (Serbian,
Врачар, Vračar. Vracar is the smallest of 17 municipalities
of Belgrade.
It has 69,000 residents, area of less then 3 square kilometers and lies in
beetwen the three boulevards: Boulevard of King Alexander
Obrenovic(Serbian
Kralj Aleksandar Obrenović),Boulevard of Liberation-former Yugoslav Army's
and The Southern. It stretches beetween Beogradjanka
the highest building in Belgrade
and Vojislav
Ilic's school of architecture.
History
Vracar is geographical toponym which denotes the huge region from the Danube
to the Topcider
river around the moat of the medieval Belgrade
fortress- Kalemegdan,
city and villages Savamala
and Palilula
next to it. Etymologically, the word Vracar is of Slavic origin and older
then Belgrade,
but it's meaning is unclear. It's highest point is
Vracar's platau on Savinac
and on East
Vracar.(present Vracar municipality).
The terms Vracar and Vracar's platau were first
mentioned in 1492,
in Turkish
documents. Some other from 1560,
describe Vracar as Christian settlement with 17 houses.
At the beginning of the XIX
century by order of Prince Milos
Obrenovic (Serbian
Knez Miloš Obrenović), new alternative city centre with western
characteristics was designed and built here while city of Belgrade
was still under Turkish
rule and for three quarters an oriental town with all the characteristics
of the Islam
architecture. On the other hand, Vracar was built with broad streets and
boulevards, first parks and monuments. It was housing all Serbian
public buildings and state institutions. The London "Times"
on 17
October 1843,
published a text full of exultations. "Four years have passed since the
time when I was last here, and how Belgrade
has changed! I have hardly recognised it.
The high belfry on the church (Cathedral) now screens by its shadow the
Turkish
mosques; many shops are now provided with new doors and glass windows,
oriental clothing is more rare and houses with several storeys, in European
manner, are being built everywhere".
Many architects-baumeisters (builders) Germans, Czechs, Italians and
the Serbians who appeared only at the end of the '60s of the XIX century
built new Serbian
Belgrade
in Vracar. After 1867,
when Turkish
military garrison left the Belgrade
fortress Kalemegdan
they extended their architectural activities on the ruins of the Turkish
houses (Stambol
gate, Dorcol,
Palilula)
and on the ruins of the Serbian
huts in the Sava
port.( Savamala)
The center of new Serbian
Belgrade
was in West
Vracar: From the crossroad of the streets Prince Milos
Obrenovic's Street)("Setulja"-Main walking street) and Queen Natalia
Obrenovic (SerbianKraljica
Natalija Obrenović's street)(Abadzijska-main commercial street)-Narodnog
Fronta to the crossroad of the Prince Milos
Obrenovic's Street.
and Nemanjina street(the town's main traffic arteries especially after
the completion of the railway station in 1884.)
In the centre of West
Vracar of that time was the Residence of the Prince Michael
I of Serbia surrounded by Financial
Park, the first National Parliament, Military Academy, Ministry of
Finance, Ridding school, Voznesenska-Military church, etc. The monumental
buildings of Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Government
of Serbia and General staff were added here as well, but much
later.
Ministry of Finance in 1838
East
Vracar started to be built since 1880
when a well-known Scottish
businessman and nazarene
Francis
Mackenzie bought a large piece of land nearby (Englezovac),
parcelled it out into lots for selling and donated a piece of land to Serbian
Orthodox Church for the construction of Temple
of Saint Sava.
Old hotel "Slavia" - Slavija Square
Later, East
Vracar extended to Grantovac-piece
of land belonging to American
consul Edward
Maxwell Grant and Krunski
Venac around Krunska
street-one of the most beautiful streets of Belgrade
starting from the Royal
Park and ending with Kalenic's
market-largest Belgrade
's open air market and commercial centre of East
Vracar.
After the Second
World War, territory of Vracar was split by municipalities of Savski
Venac and Zvezdara.
Nowadays, the remnants of East
Vracar comprise the smallest municipality of Belgrade,
thus loosing any of it's historical or economic importance.
Gallery
Knez-Prince Milos
Obrenovic's Street(High street of Belgrade in XIX
century
Hystorical references
-Beograd-Izdanje
opstine beogradske 1911. -Zapisi starog Beogradjanina 2000. -Iz starog
Beograda - Zivorad P. Jovanovic,1964. -Siluete starog Beograda - Milan
Jovanovic - Stojimirovic,1971. -Uspon Beograda, Milivoje M.Kostic,2000.
-Beogradske gradske pijace,JKP Beogradske pijace,1999. -Vracarski
glasnik,1997-2004
External links
Page Updated: Mon Jun 6 14:12:51 2005
This article is from
Wikipedia.
Copyright (c) 2005 Milorad Pavlovic
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
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".GNU Free Documentation
License". | GFDL
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