Палилула: история и современность белградского муниципалитета.

Palilula (Serbian Cyrillic: Палилула, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It has the largest area of all municipalities of Belgrade. The core of Palilula is close to the center of the city, but the municipality also includes sparsely populated land left of the Danube.

Palilula is located east of Terazije in downtown Belgrade. Like most of Belgrade's neighborhoods it has no firm boundaries and is roughly bordered by the Ruzveltova street and the municipality and neighborhood of Zvezdara on the east, the neighborhood of Hadžipopovac in its own municipality on the north, the neighborhood and municipality of Stari Grad and Jevremovac on the northwest (Jevremovac actually belongs to the neighborhood of Palilula, but administratively is part of Stari Grad), and the Tašmajdan and Bulevar kralja Aleksandra on the south, bordering the municipality of Vračar.

Six local communities, sub municipal administrative units, which make up the neighborhood of Palilula had a population of 36,216 in 1981, 35,579 in 1991, 34,559 in 2002 and 26,942 in 2011. Palilula in the narrowest sense (local communities of Stara Palilula and Starina Novak, excluding the neighborhoods of Tašmajdan, Hadžipopovac, Profesorska Kolonija and Bogoslovija) had a population of 12,638 in 1981, 12,178 in 1991, 11,590 in 2002 and 9,817 in 2011.

First houses in the area were built in the 16th century. In the direction from today's Tašmajdan and Cvijićeva street there were gardens, vineyards, pastures but also mills and summer houses of the wealthier citizens of Belgrade. The neighborhood originated in the first half of the 18th century, when the Habsburg monarchy occupied northern Serbia 1717–1739. The settlement, built as an outer suburb of Belgrade, was originally named Karlstadt and was known for agriculture and skilled crafts and was considered as the most beautiful part of Belgrade at that time. In the early 19th century, it became overwhelmingly populated by the Serbs and was described as "the village one quarter of the hour walk" away from Belgrade. At the time, the village was made of small huts and hovels and mostly populated by the inhabitants from eastern Serbia. In the 1830s, ruling prince Miloš Obrenović ordered his brother Jevrem Obrenović to resettle the Savamala neighborhood, located along the Sava river, and extending from the still Ottoman held Belgrade Fortress. Jevrem selected 30 families and settled them on the right bank of the Bulbulder stream. In 1840, villagers of Palilula rejected the regulatory plan of Belgrade, on the basis that projected new streets would be too wide, and later even tried to split from the municipality of Belgrade because of the city government's low funding for the village. However, in the late 19th century Palilula became part of the continuously built up area of Belgrade. The neighborhood was mostly residential, with commercial facilities closer to the center of Belgrade. When Belgrade was divided into six quarters in 1860, Palilula was one of them. By the census of 1883 it became the most populous one in Belgrade with 7,318 inhabitants, and that number grew to 10,563 in 1890.

A section of Palilula is dedicated to the hajduk Starina Novak. Features bearing his name include the street, a local community, an elementary school founded in 1922 and a park. Area occupied by the park today, bounded by the streets of Starine Novaka, Cvijićeva and Dalmatinska, was named Starina Novak Square until 1954. In October 2017 city administration announced that a monument to Starina Novak will be erected in the park. The park covers Pedestrian square along the Takovska Street has also been adapted into the Palilula Park, which covers The Starina Novak park was thoroughly rearranged in the fall of 2023. Area bounded by the streets of Stanoja Glavaša, Dalmatinska, Starine Novaka and Kneza Danila was, for the most part, occupied by the complex of the IKL factory. Before World War II, it was the Rogožarski factory, the first aircraft factory in Yugoslavia. After the war new Communist authorities nationalized the company, while the factory complex in Palilula was transformed into the IKL (ball bearing factory) in 1948. The complex was demolished and in 2015 construction of the residential and commercial neighborhood of "Central Garden" began. Apart from the commercial and business sections, it will have 400 apartments. In November 2017 a construction of the 16 storey "Business Garden Tower" was announced, with the deadline of 18 months. In September 2019 it was announced that the area of the former open air shopping mall (demolished in 2017), stretching between the Kraljice Marije and Knez Danilova streets, will be adapted into the Raša Popov Park. It is named after the children's author sr, who lived in one of the neighboring buildings until his death in 2017. His bust will also be placed in the park, which in total covers Citizen disproved the original design of "concrete park", asking for more green areas, so city changed the project. The park was scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2020. It was also decided to build a full, tall monument of Popov with book and umbrella, instead of a bust. The sculpture is made by Boris Deheljan, from steel bolts and nuts. It should be dedicated in July 2020. Deadline was then moved for September 2020 as city claimed the reconstruction is extremely complicated. The space was opened on 17 October 2020, but instead of the proper park it was adapted into the Plateau of Raša Popov.

Apocryphal, folk etymology stories claim that name palilula came from the expression pali lulu which in English means light a pipe. One anecdote goes back to times when Belgrade and Serbia were occupied by the Ottoman Empire and Palilula was the area where most crops were, so Turkish rulers banned smoking due to a few instances of accidentally setting crops on fire. In the late summer and early autumn when all the crops had been harvested, the smoking ban was lifted and locals announced this by calling neighbors, letting them know that pipes might be lit. Another explanation comes from the time of Prince Miloš Obrenović's rule; he banned smoking in Belgrade so people could only smoke outside the city gates. However, chroniclers claim that the origin of the name comes from the brickyards which were located along the right bank of the Bulbulder stream. After the mud for bricks was mixed, shaped in molds and dried in the sun, the bricks were stacked to form conical shapes. The straw was then placed beneath, and set on fire, to bake and harden the bricks. The smoke vents beneath the bricks were called lula ("pipe"), hence the name.

The idea of separating the area of former municipality of Krnjača start gaining momentum in the 2000s, this time under the name of Dunavski Venac. As procedure in the city statute provides that the municipal assembly (in this case, of Palilula) needs to start the motion in the city assembly, after years of public agitation, the municipal assembly of Palilula agreed to do so in summer 2005. However it did not officially do so, and the organization for the separation of Dunavski Venac announced it will go to court. The village of Čenta in the Vojvodina's municipality of Zrenjanin is located on the northern border of the municipality of Palilula. From time to time local residents have asked for Čenta to be annexed to the City of Belgrade. The majority of the population work in the territory of Belgrade and until recently, one regular bus line of Belgrade City public transportation connected Čenta to Belgrade.

With a population of 182,624 inhabitants, according to the 2022 census results, Palilula is the second most populous municipality of Belgrade (after Novi Beograd. The fastest growing population in the municipality is still the suburb of Borča.

Urban Palilula hosts some of the most important faculties within Belgrade University: the Technical Faculty, the Faculty of Law and the Mining and Geology Faculty. Also, the building of Radio Television of Serbia, St. Mark's Church, Tašmajdan Park, Pionir Hall for sports, and the stadium of the OFK Belgrade soccer team are all located in the municipality. Park "Đuro Strugar" is located between the streets Mitropolita Petra, Braće Grim, Jaše Prodanovića and Čarlija Čaplina, which is effectively split in two by the park. It is situated north of the "Rade Končar" school of electrotechnics and west of the Pionir Ice Hall in the Hall Aleksandar Nikolić complex. The park have a children's playground and basketball court and has been renovated in May 2017.

The spas of Višnjička Banja and Ovčanska Banja are not used or developed enough. Belgrade's largest kart racing track is located in Ada Huja. The future artificial island of Čaplja on the Danube is planned as a modern entertainment park, with aqua parks, golf courses, etc.