Белградтағы «Албания» сарайы: тарихы мен архитектурасы

High rise building in Belgrade, Serbia

Palace Albanija (, Palata Albanija, literally "Palace Albania") is a high rise building in Belgrade, Serbia. Important construction and architectural innovations were incorporated into the project, which made Albanija an exceptional building endeavor in the Balkans. Palace Albanija was declared a cultural monument in 1984. As for its importance for Belgrade, it was built on the pronouncedly dominant architectural position, marking the spatial urban accent of Terazije square, which made it one of the most recognizable symbols of Belgrade. The buildings officially has three addresses in two streets: 2 Knez Mihailova, 4 Knez Mihailova and 12 Kolarčeva streets. It was a small, unsightly, crummy house, yet the venue was very popular. The kafana was built in oriental, Turkish style, with yellow façade and its original clientele included Ottoman seymen, merchants, hirelings, Serbian guardsmen, etc. The clock in front of the kafana was the first public clock in Belgrade. As such, it became the most popular meeting point in the city. According to the Belgrade's first general urban plan, from 1924, the location was planned for the Belgrade Stock Exchange Building. The owners, descendants of Krsta Tomović, were refusing to sell the lot by asking too much money for the parcel's In 1936, the Mortgage Bank of the Merchant's Fund paid 8.5 million dinars for the lot, which was enough money to purchase 7 one floor villas in the city's affluent villa populated neighborhood of Krunski Venac. The bank was drained so much by this transaction, that it took two years for it to recuperate, announcing the architectural design competition on 14 January 1938, with extremely short deadline, set for 28 February same year. Despite its shabbiness and lack of sanitary and safety conditions, it existed on this location for almost 80 years. One of the regular customers was writer Branislav Nušić, who wrote about the kafana. Another reason for the protests was that the source for the new building's design was Germanic. Parts of the public opposed the project citing reasons other than just the kafana demolition. Some reports claimed that such a large building, made of reinforced concrete, can't be supported by the settling ground below, so they predicted the building would collapse, so as the neighboring buildings. Others debunked the new, highly progressive construction techniques. Cases of residents from the surrounding building, who sold their apartments in the fear of possible collapse, were recorded. Newspapers described the repeated design competition as "anything goes". In the relatively shallow depth, just below the old foundation, a well preserved skeleton of a mammoth was excavated in 1938, below the former door of the kafana. It was estimated to be 2 million years old, when the area of Belgrade was the edge of a Quaternary lake. The skeleton was almost undisturbed, with especially well preserved mandible with teeth, which were used to identify the species. The ribs and femurs were also in excellent shape. The bones were transported to the Museum of Serbian Land. Engineer Đorđe Lazarević, expert on statics, applied state of the art technics at the time. In the concrete supporting columns, he built it the expensive steel reinforcement, high above the standards in Belgrade in this period. Other above standard solution included the high strength concrete.

The building was hit during the heavy „Easter bombing“ of Belgrade by the Allies on 16 April 1944. Germans defended it fiercely during the 1944 Belgrade Offensive against the Red Army and Yugoslav Partisan forces. In the evening of 19 October 1944, 22 years old Partisan Mladen Petrović placed the Yugoslav flag with red star on the top of Palace Albanija. Petrović was wounded while bringing the flag to the top of the building, but recuperated enough to participate in Syrmian Front, where he was killed, together with his brother. Taking over the building opened the way for the Partisan army to the Belgrade Fortress and allowed the charge which liberated the wider area surrounding the Belgrade Main railway station, so just one day later the entire Belgrade was liberated. After the war, engineer Lazarević participated in the reconstruction of the building. As the city is not the owner of the building, the complete reconstruction is not an option, but in December 2019 city announced reconstruction of the façade, which should be finished in 2021.

The twin building of Albanija, colloquially styled "Little Albanija" (Mala Albanija), is located at the corner of the Pop Lukina and Kosančićev Venac streets. It was also designed by Miladin Prljević. Though originally only one skyscraper was planned, it was later decided that three buildings will be built, sharing the same or similar appearance and characteristics. The architectural design of the Little Albanija is patterned after the Palace Albanija and represents its smaller version. The building is officially known as the "House of Siniša Zdravković" or the "House of the Brothers Zdravković". It was finished in 1940, immediately after Palace Albanija. It is not protected by itself, but it is a part of the Kosančićev Venac historical spatial unit which is protected by the law.

Third twin was to be built on the Slavija Square. It was to be built on the land purchase in 1935 by the major merchant Vlada Mitić, one of the richest people in Belgrade at the time, and was announced as the "Mitić Warehouse" or the "Mitić Tower", the largest department store in the Balkans. Mitić announced his idea in 1940 and the works should have been finished in two years. With 14 floors and the height of , the planned building was to be taller than the Palace Albanija itself. Patterned after the German department stores, it was envisioned as the "vertical commercial city". Prljević and Lazarević, who already worked on Albanija, cooperated with the German architect Schäfer and followed the design of Albanija itself. The only difference was to be on top of the structure, where a specific tower with gallery lookout was planned. The ambitious project included previously unseen innovations in Serbia, like the automatized parking platforms, escalators and the cutting edge fire protection system. Then mayor of Belgrade, Bogdan Bogdanović decided to put a large sundial in the place in the first half of the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Dafiment banka, one of the major Ponzi schemes of the Milošević's regime, bought the lot and announced a monumental shopping mall, but after the scheme failed completely, the lot was fenced and turned into the dump. After the regime change in 2000, the area was cleaned and a temporary park with children playground was built instead. The failed projects continued, including the ultra modern, gigantic shopping mall by the Israeli investors which turned out to be a complete hoax.