Nemanjina Street

Street in Belgrade, Serbia

Nemanjina Street ( / Nemanjina ulica, ) is a very important thoroughfare in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, in the Savski Venac municipality. After the completion of the construction of the Railway station in 1884, it became one of the city's main infrastructure links, a "location where traffic arteries of the capital intersect". The street got its name in 1896, when it was named after a Serbian ruler from the 12th century, Stefan Nemanja.

The street stretches from the Slavija Square, downhill to the Savamala neighborhood. It passes through the neighborhood of West Vračar, next to the parks of Manjež and Park Gavrilo Princip and numerous administrative buildings including the government, ministries, army headquarters and hospitals. On the lower end it finishes at the Belgrade Main railway station. It crosses several other important city streets, like Kneza Miloša street and Balkanska street.

Originally, direction of the future street, due to its steepness, was a creek through which the pond on Slavija drained down into the Gypsy Pond in Savamala. The stream was named Vračarski potok. One of the first permanent cinemas in Belgrade, in the kafana "Crna Mačka" (Black Cat), was opened in the Nemanjina Street after 1909. During the major, catastrophic hailstorm which engulfed the entire Belgrade on 11 September 1967, the torrent formed down the street, recreating the former stream. Even the waves formed on the street, which were turning cars upside down and breaking off the entire blocks of cobblestone.

In the winter of 2005, the reconstruction of the street began. It was one of the most important projects for the City of Belgrade. Not only did it have to close one of the most populous streets, but workers had to work at great speeds to complete the projects. It was an unprecedented case that such a massive work was done during the winter. The closing of the Nemanjina caused a major disturbance in the traffic, especially in the routes of the public transportation lines. After 5 months, when the project was finished in the spring of 2006, the new tram rails have been put in, the new pathways constructed, a new parking lot was opened in the street, and the drainage underneath the street was changed and modernized.

Nemanjina Street is located in one of the most important places in Belgrade. It connects Belgrade's main railway station with the popular Slavija Square. Many of the most important administrative buildings in Belgrade are located in Nemanjina Street. The Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building that was bombed in 1999 during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as well as the new building of the National Bank of Serbia are placed here. The building of Serbian Government in front of which Serbian prime minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated 12 March 2003 is also located in this street.

In December 2015, prime minister Aleksandar Vučić encouraged the local authorities to build a monument to Stefan Nemanja at Manjež park, which is located at the central part of the street. Promptly, in less than two weeks, city hall voted to construct the monument and even formed a committee for this specific monument. Dedication was scheduled for 2016 or early 2017. In April 2017 it was announced that the monument would be located down the street, in the clearing in front of the demolished Yugoslav Ministry of Defense building. International design competition was also announced. In September 2017, the city administration decided that the monument would be located at the lower ending section of the street, on the square of Savski Trg across the Main railway station which is envisioned as the future Museum of Medieval Serbia. International design competition was finished only in March 2018 and the winner was Russian sculptor Aleksandr Rukavishnikov. The monument was officially inaugurated on 27 January 2021.