Terazije

Terazije is the central town square and the surrounding neighborhood of Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Stari Grad. Today, Terazije has primarily function of the main transit square, surrounded by the important public buildings, cultural institutions, hotels, public monuments and parks. Though not classically shaped square, Terazije was historically important as the gathering spot and the former business and commercial center of Belgrade. With the Knez Mihailova Street, which extends to the northeast connecting directly Terazije and Belgrade Fortress, the square is one of the oldest and most recognizable ambience units of Belgrade. Due to its historical and cultural importance, Terazije was declared a protected spatial cultural historical unit in January 2020.

Despite the fact that many Belgraders consider the Republic Square or Kalemegdan to be the city's centerpiece areas, Terazije is Belgrade's designated center. When street numbers are assigned to the streets of Belgrade, numeration begins from the part of the street closest to Terazije. Terazije itself is also a short street, connected by the King Milan Street, the main street in Belgrade, to the Slavija square, by the Nikola Pašić Square to the King Alexander Boulevard, the longest street in Belgrade, by Prizrenska street to the neighborhood of Zeleni Venac and further to New Belgrade, and by the Kolarčeva street to the Square of the Republic. The neighborhood also borders Andrićev Venac and Pioneers Park on the southeast, Park Aleksandrov on the south and neighborhood of Varoš Kapija on the west. A small, covered square of Bezistan connects it to the Nikola Pašić Square.

With regard to the origin of the name Terazije, the historian and writer Milan Đ. Milićević wrote: "In order to supply Belgrade with water, the Turks built towers at intervals along the đeriza or an aqueduct, a water supply system which brought water in from the springs at Veliki Mokri Lug. The water was piped up into the towers for the purpose of increasing the pressure, in order to carry it further. Those towers were: one, where the Terazije Fountain is today (roughly at the small square between the [hotels] Balkan and Moskva; second was where the Ruski car Tavern is; and the third was where kafana Grčka Kraljica is now. The tallest of the three was the one at Terazije. That tower, beside its height, also stood on the spacious clearance, away from the surrounding houses and was taller than any of the neighboring buildings. All those towers were called "water terazije" by the Turks. Because of that, the entire neighborhood of the new section of Belgrade, especially the one between the Stari Dvor and close to the Stambol Gate, is today called Terazije". Today's central city square turned into the bog filled in sludge and covered with overgrowth. Local population visited the pond hunting for ducks. It was recorded that during the cold winters, wolves would reach the pond. The draining of the pond began in the 1830s, but the underground water from Terazije still soaks the land between Terazije and the Sava river. After the collapse of the First Serbian Uprising, the Ottomans regained Belgrade in October 1813, and their vanguards burned wooden hovels in Savamala neighborhood. When the main Ottoman army landed, a large number of people got stranded on the bank in Savamala, trying to flee across the Sava into Austria. Men were massacred, while women and children were enslaved. People were impaled on stakes along city's main roads so a rows of impaled people were placed from the Stambol Gate to Terazije, and nearby, along the Tsarigrad Road, from the Batal mosque to Tašmajdan. Terazije started to take shape as an urban feature in the first half of the 19th century. In the 1840s, Serbian ruling prince Miloš Obrenović wanted to resettle Serbian population from the old moated town where they had been mixed with the Turkish inhabitants, and from the neighborhood of Savamala on the bank of the Sava river in order to modernize it. He ordered Serbian craftsmen, especially blacksmiths, cartwrights and coppersmiths, to build their houses and shops on the location of the present square, an empty, inhabited area spreading in front of the Stambol Gate. Also, the move was intended to prevent the fires being lit all over the town and tone down the noise made by these specific types of artisans. Ilija Čarapić, the president of the Belgrade Municipality 1834–1835 and 1839–1840, had a special task of assigning the parcels in Terazije to these craftsmen and whoever accepted to fence the lot on his own, would have it for free. One of the lots was granted by prince Miloš to his favorite architect, Hadži Nikola Živković. Driving together in the coach one day, prince asked Živković to whom belongs one of the lots without the fence. Živković replied it was his, but the prince said: Well, now it's not yours anymore, when you failed to fence it all this time. The "Kasina" kafana and later hotel was built in 1858. It was named as the gambling was organized for the VIP members (female variant of the word casino). Clientele originally included members of the Serbian Progressive Party. National Assembly of Serbia was seated in the venue's hall for a while in 1918, and until 1920 the National Theatre held performances here, too. In 1860 the kafana "Kod Albanije" ("Chez Albania"), was opened. The clock in front of it was the first public clock in Belgrade, so it became the most popular meeting point in the city. It was demolished to make way for the Palace Albanija, which was finished in 1939. Up to about 1865, the buildings at Terazije were mainly single and double storied. The water tower was removed in 1860 and replaced by the drinking fountain, "Terazijska česma", which was erected in to celebrate the second rule of Prince Miloš Obrenović. During the first reconstruction of the square in 1911, the chestnut avenue was cut,

The changes in 1911–1913 were significant and the square was completely re arranged. With Léger, major work was done by the architects Veselin Lučić, who designed the project, and Jelisaveta Načić. Along the central part of the square regular flower beds were placed, surrounded by a low iron fence. Refurbishment included artistic candelabra, public three faced clock, a special kiosk in the Serbian Byzantine style, circle bars for the protection of the trees in the avenue and granite curbs. On the side towards today's Nušićeva street a large Terazije fountain was built in 1927. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Terazije was the centre of social life of Belgrade. In 1913, Davidović's city administration decided to change the name of the square into the Prestolonaslednikov trg ("Heir's apparent square"), referring to prince Alexander, future king Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Another decision was to build the fountain on the square which would include the monument to victory. The ideas came after the Balkan Wars and were triggered by the ceremonial entry of the Serbian army in Belgrade after the war ended, and the construction of the Karađorđe monument in Kalemegdan. Due to World War I which ensued shortly after, the decisions weren't fully implemented: the name wasn't changed, the monument was relocated to the Belgrade Fortress, while the short lived fountain was ultimately built. Načić designed the triumphal arch which was placed in Terazije in order to celebrate Serbian soldiers from the Balkan Wars 1912–1913. She placed an inscription "Not all Serbs are liberated" on the arch, pointing to the position of the Serbs in Austria Hungary. During the occupation in World War I, Austro Hungarian authorities arrested Načić and expelled her to the internment camp at Neusiedl am See. The neighborhood was damaged during the World War I, especially during the heavy Austro Hungarian bombardment in 1914–1915, prior to occupation. Terazije was described as desolate, empty and destroyed by the grenades. The ground cracked, underground canals collapsed, and the surrounding buildings were demolished. Serbian army had no proper ammunition to fight the Austrian gunboats, so they freely fired at the city from the Sava river. Resident Slavka Mihajlović wrote: "Terazije were completely dug up by the projectiles. Covered in mounds of cobblestone and concrete. Chestnut trees were laying on the ground, uprooted by the shelling. Not a living soul anywhere, like the town has died". Austro Hungarian army temporarily entered Belgrade, from 3 to 14 December 1914. Already on 4 December they erected gallows on Terazije for hanging civilians.

Despite complete urbanization, local farmers, up to the 1920s, were illegally selling goods of the ox carts on and around Terazije. It was one of the reasons for city administration to build a large Zeleni Venac farmers market, on Zeleni Venac, below Terazije. This was period of building various highrise buildings ("palaces"). At No. 10, a Modernist building was constructed in the mid 1930s. It was designed by Đorđe Đorđević in pure style, with the typical geometry of Modernism represented by the step like risalit. while Palace Albania was finished in 1939. They were arrested, accused of alleged terrorist activities and brutally tortured before being shot in the yard of the Gestapo headquarters. The entire ordeal happened on 17 August 1941. Their corpses were then hanged on the light poles on Terazije. For a long time, it was claimed that bodies were left for days, while the Belgraders were "sitting in restaurants and drinking cold beer". Historian Milan Koljanin wrote that this was a negative stereotype pushed for a decades. Police reports from the period say that some citizens calmly paid respect, but others gathered, with parents bringing children and professors their students, showing to them what the "new German culture" actually looks like. As the hanging was announced by the Germans in the press, and the news and photos were published, the bodies were removed on the evening of the same day. On the same day, a procession of the Volksdeutsche units marched next to the hanged victims, marking the 224th anniversary of Prince Eugene of Savoy taking Belgrade in 1717. A monument to commemorate the crime was erected in 1981 by the city. Titled "Monument to the hanged patriots" and sculptured by Nikola Janković, the obelisk shaped monument is tall with a diameter of It is posted on the marble pedestal and has carvings representing the scenes of the hanging and commemorative lyrics by the poet Vasko Popa. In 1983 a memorial bronze plaque, work of Slave Ajtoski, was added. It contains names of the victims and an epitaph: "To freedom fighters who were hanged by the Fascist occupiers in Terazije on 17 August 1941", signed by "citizens of Belgrade". The plaque got damaged in time and was removed in 2008, during the reconstruction of Terazije, for restoration. It was returned on 28 May 2011. Also, the neutral countries protested because of these public hangings, so in the end the Austrians moved dead bodies to the Belgrade New Cemetery. Due to the history of this type of executions, the phrase "hanging at Terazije" entered the Serbian language. It can be variously used in different context: as a threat, offering self sacrifice or protesting one's innocence. The square and the Palace Albania were hit during the heavy "Easter bombing" of Belgrade by the Allies on 16 April 1944. The palace was fiercely defended by the Germans during the 1944 Belgrade Offensive against the Red Army and Yugoslav Partisan forces. In the evening of 19 October 1944, a Partisan soldier Mladen Petrović placed the Yugoslav flag with red star on the top of the building. 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.

Bezistan is a shopping area in an indoor passage that connects Terazije and the Square of Nikola Pašić. Originally, it was a location of Hotel "Pariz", which was built in 1870 and demolished in 1948 during the reconstruction of Terazije. Passage has been protected by the state as a "cultural property", though still under the "preliminary protection", and was nicknamed by the architects as the "belly button of Belgrade". It is part of the wider protected Spatial Cultural Historical Unit of Stari Grad. Since the 1950s, the covered square was a quiet corner in sole downtown, with mini gardens and coffee shops and a popular destination of many Belgraders, but in the recent decades mainly lost that function. In 1959 a round plateau with the fountain and a bronze sculpture, called "Girl with the seashell", sculptured by Aleksandar Zarin, was built. A webbed roof, shaped like a semi opened dome, made of concrete and projected by Vladeta Maksimović, was constructed to cover the plateau and the fountain. Because of that feature, and a small shops located in it, it was named "Bezistan", though it never functioned as the bezistan in its true, oriental sense of the term. Revitalization and reconstruction was projected for the second half of 2008, but the only work that has been done was the reconstruction of the plateau and the fountain in 2011. A popular disco club "Bezistan" was opened in the 1980s. It was located in the basement of the venue which was later adapted into the McDonald restaurant. It was different from other discos of the era, and was the only "dancing club" in the city. When the popularity of the Italo disco reached Belgrade, the club organized dance competitions for participants from the entire Yugoslavia. Band Zana was promoted for the first time here, while band Aska practiced its choreography for their performance at the 1982 Eurovision song contest. The venue was closed in 1989. Bezistan covers an area of It has been left in that condition ever since. Bezistan had candy and souvenir shops on one side, and modernistic section on other side, with McDonald's restaurant, modern coffee shop and "Reiffeisen bank", but as of 2018 it looks like nothing more than a neglected, empty passage. New possible reconstruction was announced in April 2017, After the reports of further deterioration of the ceiling in January 2021, city announced that Bezistan will not be renovated in 2021 either, even though it became part of the Terazije protected area in January 2020.

In the early 20th century, a section behind the main square became a hub of commercial and craft shops. After the owner of the lot, quite big for the central urban zone of the city, Živko Kuzmanović, the area became known as the Kuzmanović Alley, or Kuzmanović Yard. Initially, quite a successful business area, by the 1930s the shops went bankrupt and were closed. The alley was transformed into an informal settlement. In the reprint of its article from 13 March 1937, daily Politika writes about the city's decision to tear down the Kuzmanović Yard: It seems that another disgrace will disappear from Belgrade, but much larger and more dangerous for the health and lives of the people than that eyesore that "Albania" was. A row of shacks and hovels in "Kuzmanović yard", which altogether cover an area of 4.000 m2 between the streets of Dečanska, Pašićeva nad Kolarčeva, will disappear. Belgrade municipality sent its commission yesterday to check the condition of the "Kuzmanović yard". The commission established that the shanties and burrows are prone to collapse any minute and that it will advocate for them to be demolished, in the interest of health and lives of the tenants. In 1989, the first modern shopping mall (concurrently with the Staklenac on the Republic Square) in Belgrade was opened in Čumić Alley, colloquially shortened only to Čumić. It soon became one of the elite shopping locations in Belgrade, with numerous cafés, galleries and clubs in addition. It is also the shortest passage between the squares of the Republic and of Nikola Pašić. By the late 1990s, when other shopping malls started to open around the city, the decline of Čumić began. By 2010, the district was almost completely abandoned, becoming a ghost town. Then a group of young designers moved into the empty shops and began selling their homemade crafts, forming a Belgrade Design District with over 100 shops. In 2018 city administration stepped in with plans of creating a full artistic quart in the future. Nothing has been done by August 2022, when the reconstruction of the upper section of the Nušićeva Street was announced, which should include the access section of the Čumić Alley.

Sremska is a short, curved street which connects the section where the Knez Mihailova and Terazije meet and the Maršala Birjuzova street, making a pedestrian connection between Terazije and Zeleni Venac, and, further down the Maršala Birjuzova, with Varoš Kapija. Sremska is known for the shopping mall on its right side. On the left side, the tall building of "Agrobanka" was built from 1989 to 1994, and as a part of the project, a barren concrete plateau was built right above the Terazije tunnel. Since the 1990s it was used as a location for the small flea market. In 2005 the market was removed and from December 2010 to April 2011 the concrete slab was turned into a mini square (piazzetta) with small, mobile park, in the form of the roof garden. The urban pocket has lawns, flowers and evergreen shrubs. It is also Belgrade's first public location in the past 100 years that had a mosaic done on the floor. Materials used include the porous concrete, movable metal construction on which the grass turfs are planted and the drip irrigation system was installed. With Terazije, it is part of the "Stari Beograd" ("Old Belgrade") cultural unit, which is under protection. In time, due to the poor maintenance, by 2019 the piazetta deteriorated again. The inclined street is long, and covers an area of In the first half of 2019 the reconstruction of the street was announced. Reconstruction began in June 2022. The street will be adapted into the extension of the Knez Mihailova's pedestrian zone. The asphalt concrete will be replaced with granite slabs, with added benches, candelabra, pergolas and jardinieres.

Terazije Terrace is a sloping park coming down from the high Terazije Ridge (on top of which Terazije is built) to the right bank of the Sava river, but more specifically coming down to the Zeleni Venac market. It covers area of Geographically, it is a part of the larger, long Sava Ridge. The top of the area is an excellent natural lookout point to the Sava river valley, Novi Beograd and further into the Syrmia region. The future of the terrace is a subject of public and academic debate ever since the 19th century. The urban arrangement of the area "behind the Prince Miloš fountain" was tackled for the first time in 1867, by the city's first urbanist Emilijan Josimović. Architect Andra Stevanović in 1897 suggested the transformation of the area into the scenic viewpoint, which would "open view on the Sava river and the Podrinje mountains". His colleague, Dimitrije T. Leko suggested Terazije Terrace as the location of the new National Assembly of Serbia building. Engineer Jevta Stevanović proposed in 1910 for the Belgrade Municipal Hall to be built here. First general plan for it is from 1912 by the French architect Alban Chamond which envisioned it as the cascades of trapezoid piazzetas with flowers and fountains, leaving the panoramic view intact. In 2015, city urbanist Milutin Folić announced plans to reactivate and adapt Redžić's project and asked for the donations of €3 million. By this time, urbanists and other architects began to criticize all the projects as wrong, starting with the Dobrović's design and all the other which all followed his basic idea which includes, in different variants, concreting of some , construction of the pointless monumental stairways under which the "tunnel" will host just another shopping mall. Instead, some proposed ditching of all those projects and construction of a proper, modern park, which would descent down to the Sava bank and help conduct fresh river air directly into the overheated city downtown. In June 2022, Stojčić stated that he awarded the entire project to Redžić, who will do it in three phases, bordered by the streets: Balkanska Kraljice Natalije, Kraljice Natalije Lomina, and Lomina Gavrila Principa. The park should be on top of the Sava Danube tunnel. Construction of this tunnel was tentatively scheduled for 2023, when the first phase of the terrace should also start. Phase two should be finished in 2025. The project should have much more greenery than any of the previous designs and the previously planned of constructed area and parking lots, will be cut in half. Idea of making the terrace into the scenic viewpoint again, with or without other phases of reconstruction, was discarded by architect and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts sr, who stated that "(this idea) is completely disavowed in our time by the gigantic structures in Belgrade Waterfront, erected right between the terrace and the Sava.

Terazije Tunnel is a traffic tunnel which passes right beneath Terazije in the east–west direction. The eastern entry point is at the intersection of the Dečanska and Nušićeva streets, while the western is the extension of the Brankova street. It is a direct and the closest link between downtown Belgrade and the Branko's Bridge and further to the New Belgrade and Zemun. In one of his projects, architect Dimitrije T. Leko envisioned the tunnel in 1955. In 1957 60 a building was constructed by Zagorka Mešulam which is located at the future entry point from the Nušićeva street. An elevated empty space in the base of the building was built to keep and area for the future descent into the tunnel. The space was hidden behind the wall before the tunnel was built. The tunnel was projected by the Ljubomir Porfirović and Milosav Vidaković and was officially opened on 4 December 1970 by the President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito and the first lady Jovanka Broz. It was part of the four major official openings on the same day, which also included the Mostar interchange, the highway through Belgrade and the Gazela bridge. Today Terazije tunnel is known as one of the busiest traffic routes in Belgrade and even a short stoppage in it causes widespread traffic jams all over the downtown. On the same day, the pedestrian underground passage in Nušićeva street, at the entrance into the tunnel, was also opened. First 24/7 supermarket in Belgrade, (in Serbian: dragstor), was opened in the passage. Since then, it deteriorated quite a bit, with only few shops working, despite a partial reconstruction in 2009. During the planning, it was envisioned that two old buildings at the Zeleni Venac entrance will be demolished. One is located at the corner of the Prizrenska and Sremska, and another at the corner of the Sremska and Maršala Birjuzova. The latter had a distinction of surviving World War II, though damaged, even though the surrounding area was so badly ruined that it had to be leveled to the ground after the war. Post war urbanists planned to demolish it, too, but it survived. In the end, one wing of the building in the Prizrenska had to be demolished, while the building in the Maršala Birjuzova survived again. Earning a moniker of "tunnel sentinel", its façade was fully renovated in 2019. Already in the 1970s it was evident that the tunnel is not adequate for the amount of traffic. A "twin tunnel" for the traffic from the opposite direction was planned. It was to connect the Bulevar kralja Aleksandra and the Branko's Bridge. According to the proposed plans, the traffic would descend underground between the bridge and the Republic Square. In time, several other routes were proposed, like the Branko's Bridge Bulevar Despota Stefana (Palilula neighborhood), from the Pop Lukina Street at the bridge to the First school of economics at the corner of the Cetinjska and Bulevar Despota Stefana streets. Ultimately, the tunnel wasn't built. In the 2010s the idea of a tunnel resurfaced, but though the exit point at Palilula remained in the new plans, the entry point was moved to the west, near the Old Sava Bridge area.