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SERBIAN STUDIES JOURNAL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCffiTY FOR SERBIAN STUDffiS Vol. 24 2010 Nos.l-2 Editors Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University, Co-Editor Lilien F. Robinson, George Washington University, Co-Editor Jelena Bogdanovic, Iowa State University, Associate Editor Vasa D. Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Book Review Editor Editorial Board Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Jelena Bogdanovic, Iowa State University Svetlana Tomic, University of Novi Sad Gojko Vuckovic, Los Angeles School District Gordana Pesakovic, Argosy University Borde Jovanovic, World Bank Marina Belovic-Hodge, Library of Congress

Dragana Corovic, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Tri Parka u Beogradu

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  • SERBIAN STUDIES JOURNAL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SOCffiTY FOR SERBIAN STUDffiS

    Vol. 24 2010 Nos.l-2

    Editors

    Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University, Co-Editor Lilien F. Robinson, George Washington University, Co-Editor Jelena Bogdanovic, Iowa State University, Associate Editor Vasa D. Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Book

    Review Editor

    Editorial Board

    Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Jelena Bogdanovic, Iowa State University Svetlana Tomic, University of Novi Sad Gojko Vuckovic, Los Angeles School District Gordana Pesakovic, Argosy University Borde Jovanovic, World Bank Marina Belovic-Hodge, Library of Congress

  • North American Society for Serbian Studies

    N SAS s

    Executive Committee President: Nada Petkovic-Dordevic, University of Chicago Vice President: Dusan Danilovic, Iowa State University Secretary: Slobodan Pesic, American Public University Treasurer: Sonja Kotlica

    Standing Committee Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh Slobodanka Vladiv-Giover, Monash University, Australia Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George Washington University

    Past Presidents Alex N. Dragnich, Vanderbilt University Vasa D. Mihailovich, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill George Vid Tomashevich, New York State University, Buffalo Biljana Sljivi6-Simsi6, University of Illinois at Chicago Dimitrije Djordjevic, University of California, Santa Barbara Sofija Skoric, Toronto University Jelisaveta Stanojevich Allen, Dumbarton Oaks Ljubica D. Popovich, Vanderbilt University Thomas A. Emmert, Gustavus Adolphus College Radmila Jovanovic-Gorup, Columbia University Julian Schuster, Ham/ine University Dusan Korac, Catholic University Lilien Filipovitch-Robinson, George Washington University Ruzica Popovitch-Krekic, Mount St. Mary's College Ida Sinkevic, Lafayette College Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh

    1978- 80 1980-82 1982- 84 1984-86 1986- 88 1988- 90 1990-92 1992- 94 1994-96 1996-98

    1998- 2000 2000-02 2002-04 2004-06 2006-08 2008- 10

    Membership in the NASSS and Subscriptions to Serbian Studies

    The North American Society for Serbian Studies was founded in 1978 and has published the Society's journal, Serbian Studies , since 1980. An inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal, it invites scholarly articles on subjects pertaining to Serbian culture and society, past and present, and across fields and disciplines. The journal also welcomes archival documents, source materials, and book reviews.

    Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to co-editors, Ljubica D. Popovich and Lilien F. Robinson at lfremail.gwu.edu. Articles must be in English and, in general, should not exceed 8,000 words, excluding footnotes. Formatting should be consistent with the Chicago Manual of Style. Graphic and photographic images should be in jpeg format.

    Serbian Studies is published twice yearly and is sent to all members of the Society. Members also receive the NASSS Newsletter. Membership including subscription to Serbian Studies, is $40.00 per year for individuals, $50.00 for institutions, $15 .00 for students and retirees, and $10.00 for individuals in Serbia and former Yugoslav lands. Subscription without membership is $30.00 per year.

    Articles submitted and all correspondence concerning editorial matters should be sent to Lilien F. Robinson, Co-Editor, Department of Fine Arts and Art History, George Washington University, 801 22nd. St. NW, Washington, DC 20052 (lfremail.gwu.edu) or Ljubica Popovich, Co-Editor, 5805 Osceola Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816. AJI articles considered to have potential for publication will be subject to anonymous peer review by scholars in the field.

    Book reviews should be sent to the Book Review Editor, Vasa D. Mihailovich, 1864 Summer St., Stamford, CT 06905 (vamih aol.com).

    AJI communications regarding membership, subscriptions, back issues, and advertising should be addressed to the Treasurer, Sonja Kotlica, 1301 Delaware Ave. SW. #12, Washington, DC 20024 (sonjakotyahoo.com).

    The opinions expressed in the articles and book reviews, published in Serbian Studies are those of the authors and not necessarily of the editors or publishers of the journal.

    Serbian Studies accepts advertising that is of interest to the membership of the NASSS. Advertising information and rates are available from the Treasurer ofNASSS, Sonja Kotlica (sonjakotyahoo.com).

  • Copyright 2012 by Serbian Studies : ISSN 0742-3330

    Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to Serbian Studies.

    Technical Editor: Brianne Nunn

    Serbian Studies is produced and distributed by Slavica Publishers. Individuals should join the NASSS rather than subscribing directly to the journal. Libraries and institutions should order Serbian Studies from Slavica; the institutional subscription rate is $50/year (two issues) beginning with vol. 14 (2000).

    Slavica Publishers Indiana University 1430 N. Willis Drive Bloomington, IN 47404-2146 USA

    [Toil-free] 1 -877 -SLA VICA (752-8422) [Tel.] 1-812-856-4186 [Fax] 1-812-856-4187

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    Contents

    A Note from the Editors

    I. History

    Lilien Filipovitch Robinson, George Washington University Belgrade: Transformations and Confluences

    Vladislav B. Sotirovic, Mykolas Romeris University The Memorandum (1804) by the Karlovci Metropolitan Stevan Stratimirovic

    II. Religion and Art

    Milica Bakic-Hayden, University of Pittsburgh

    3

    27

    Saint Sava and the Power(s) of Spiritual Authority ....... ... .. ............. 49 Ljubomir Milanovic, Rutgers University

    Materializing Authority: The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade and Its Architectural Significance .... ..... ... ... ... .. .. ..... .. .... ..... ... .. ... ... ....... ... ............. . 63

    Dragana Corovic, University of Belgrade- The Faculty of Architecture Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade .. ... .... ..... .... 75

    Ill. Literature

    Vessela S. Warner, University of Alabama at Birmingham Postcommunist, Postmodern, Postmortem: Images of Dogs, Women, and Children in the Drama ofBiljana Srbljanovic ......... .. ... ..... 91

    IV. Medicine, Society, and Sports

    Gordana Stojakovic, Center for Women' s Studies and Research, "Mileva Einstein," Novi Sad

    Pioneer Serbian Women Physicians and Their Activist Role in Women' s Rights

    Miroslava Jovanovic, RAS- The International Serbian Organization The Heroic Circle of Serbian Sisters: A History

    109

    125

  • Dejan Zec, Institute for Recent History of Serbia The Origin of Soccer in Serbia

    V. Belgrade in Poetry and Prose

    Milorad Pavic Singidunum

    Desanka Maksimovic Poem to Belgrade

    Miodrag Pavlovic The Sava and Danube Confluence

    Gordana Pesakovic Belgrade

    Mirjana N. Radovanov-Mataric Belgrade, my Belgrade Belgrade in the Rain Drowning in the Danube

    Svetislav Mandie Zvezdara

    Nikita Hristea Stanescu Belgrade Made of Stone

    Milos Cmjanski LAMENT over BELGRADE

    Momcilo Morna Kapor SPIRIT

    VI. Book Review

    Miro Miketic, Kroz pakao I natrag (Vasa Mihailovich)

    137

    162

    163

    165

    166

    167 168 169

    170

    172

    173

    177 178

    181

    A Note from the Editors

    The two volumes (Volume 24(1- 2)) of Serbian Studies are dedicated to Bel-grade. Central to the history and culture of the Serbian people and over centu-ries the city bas played an integral and often pivotal role in the events beyond its borders and in the world--east and west. Through articles, poetry, and prose these volumes speak to the complex, multifaceted character of Belgrade.

    The editors would like to take this opportunity to extend their thanks to the contributing scholars and special thanks to Dr. Mirjana N . Radovanov Mataric. She obtained and translated the prose and six of the poems from the original Serbian as well as provided the biographical information on the au-thors. We are most grateful for her dedicated assistance.

    Serbian Studies: j ournal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 24(1 - 2): 1, 2010.

  • Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade

    Dragana Corovic University of Belgrade-The Faculty of Architecture

    This article addresses the emergence and evolution of parks in nineteenth-century Belgrade by examining three specific examples: Karadorde 's Park, Topcider, and Kalemegdan . The three parks originated in different historical moments during the century, giving them quite different meanings: a memo-rial park, a seat of a government, and a town's promenade. The basic concepts of these parks remained, but they were enriched over time with new connota-tions: they were important public places and, at the same time, green oases of the city. This text provides a contribution to the study of the relationship be-tween culture and nature in the history of Belgrade's parks. It places special emphasis on both physical preservations and preservations of their memory, in the context of solving contemporary environmental problems, and is con-sistent with modern theories of landscape architecture. 1

    As in the case of other cities, changes to the urban structure of Belgrade reflected and kept pace with historical events. Frequently, these events re-sulted in the razing of the city to the ground and its subsequent reemergence from the ashes- it was a rebirth based on the levels of city memories, the ones that had never left people's minds and souls in spite of their physical absence. In spite of all these destructions, the first settlement had been founded on the hill that sustained its characteristic, indestructible morphology over time. If it were not for the Sava and the Danube flowing through Bel-grade and retaining the outlines of its slopes, it would have appeared as if this massive rock might leap and run away toward a plain- the endless vastness of the opposite shore, somewhere towards the north-west. In writing about

    Acknowledgment: This paper was realized as a part of the project "Studying Climate Change and Its Influence on the Environment: lmpacts, Adaptation and Mitigation" (43007) financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia within the framework of integrated and interdisciplinary research for the period 2011 - 14. 1 Christofe Giro, "Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture," in Recovering Landscape, Essays in Landscape Architecture, ed. James Corner (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 59-68.

    Serbian Studies: journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies 24(1 - 2): 75- 89, 2010.

  • 76 Dragana Corovic

    Belgrade, many authors point to its remarkable geographic and strategic posi-tion as the main cause of the fierce battles of the past aimed at conquering the almost invincible fortress- the gate between West and East.

    The period of the nineteenth century in Serbia was dedicated to the proc-ess of creating the national state. Two national uprisings against Turkish do-minion, in 1804 and 1815, along with the military and political struggle, were followed by establishment of institutions necessary to a modern state and which would facilitate the adaptation of the European cultural inheritance. In the period from 1830 to 1833 Serbia managed to gain partial autonomy from Turkish rule, and shortly afterwards, in 1841, Belgrade was chosen as the capital of the Serbian Princedom. At that time, the city was clearly divided into two separate parts: the fortress, the city within the Moat and the area out-side the Moat, which was nothing but a field covered with swamps and pond scums and straggling villages. The absolute majority of the population in the Moat was comprised of Turks, then Serbs, Greeks, Romani people, Jews, and Cincars-each nation in its own quarter, or maha/a.2 There was also the centuries old trade colony of Dubrovnik.

    The Turkish army settled down in the Belgrade fortress; between the walls and the city there was a vast area, an open field of the city- Kalemeg-dan. The rulers of the fortress had never allowed any kind of construction within this zone of three hundred to five hundred meters in width- not even walkways or alleys, because of the cannons of the fortress- nothing was sup-posed to block their view. The Austrians carried out one of the biggest recon-structions of the fortress during their siege of Belgrade in the eighteenth cen-tury. When they left, they destroyed everything they had built in the fort. The Moat was their heritage. In the nineteenth century it was a six-meter-high earthen bastion, with a four-meter-deep ditch on its external side, and widge-shaped ramps and bastions with cannons placed within a certain span, as well as five gates as the entrance to the "inner" city. A broken line of the Moat, which began at the Sava shore, stretched across the Belgrade ridge and then sloped down to the Danube. The economic, business, and cultural life of the city took place within this enclosed space defined by the Moat on the south and the fortress on the north side. The Moat existed until 1880; the transport-ing of the soil and removal of the bastions extended over a period of three years (Figure 1 ). 3

    2 Mahalle, Arabic word adopted in Turkish. 3 For further discussion of the history of Belgrade, see, among others Vasa Cubrilovic, ed., lstorija Beograda, vols. 1- 3 (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1974); Nikola Tasic et a/., eds., lstorija Beograda (Belgrade: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti/Draganic, 1995). For more about the history of Belgrade 's architecture and urbanism, see Divna Duric-Zarnolo, Beograd kao

    Three Parks in Nineteenth-Century Belgrade 77

    Karaclorcle's Park

    The Serbs conquered the Belgrade fortress for the first time in the nineteenth century, in 1806. In the chronicle of the city this event was permanently re-corded with the creation of a rather ephemeral structure, the park named after the leader of the First Serbian Uprising ( 1804-13) Dorde Petrovic Karadorde. Karadorde's Park emerged in the area of the rebel camps, located two kilo-meters from the Moat. Fifty of them died in the battles for Belgrade and were buried in the area of the camp. Their tombstones are located in the southern part of today's park and are characteristic of Serbian gravestones of the eight-eenth and first half of the nineteenth century. The top of the stone slab is rounded and carved with stylized crosses and inscriptions (Figure 2).4 At the time, flowers and greenery were planted around the graves and the space was enclosed. Although it was not the first public park in Belgrade, it marks the origin of the creation of the city's green public spaces.5 Moreover, it repre-sented the designation of a specific area whose symbolic meaning resembled the holy groves of Ancient Greece, which were intended to guard and honor the memory of the heroic deeds of the past.

    After the death of Karadorde in 1817 the park area was neglected until 1848 when Prince Aleksandar (reigned 1841- 59), his son, built a monument in this park to commemorate his father ' s comrades- the rebels of 1806. It was among the first public monuments in Belgrade. It was made of stone, meas-uring about 5.5 meters in height, with a base in the shape of a truncated pyra-mid. The main section is in the form of squares and terminates in a flat plate flanked by corner towers. The top of the monument contains a cross with the engraved date-the year 1806.6 On the main body of the monument there are

    orijentalna varos pod Turcima, 1521- 1867 (Belgrade: Muzej grada Beograda, 1977); Branko Maksimovic, !dejni razvoj srpskog urbanizma: period rekanstrukcije gradova do /914. godine (Belgrade: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti , 1978); Branko Maksimovic, ldeje i stvarnost urbanizma Beograda: 1830-1941 (Belgrade: Zavod za spomenika kulture, 1983); Branko Vujovic, Beograd u proslosti i sadasnjosti (Belgrade: Draganic, 1994); Bogdan Nestorovic, Arhitektura Srbije u XIX veku (Belgrade: Art Press, 2006); Mirjana Roter-Biagojevic, Stambena arhitektura Beograda u 19. i pocetkom 20. veka (Belgrade: Orion Art/ Arhitektonski fakulet Univerziteta u Beogradu, 2006). 4 Today only 12 tombstones remain. During the reconstruction of the park between the two World Wars, as weU as in infrastructure works in the 1960s, these monuments were extracted and moved, so it is considered that their current position does not correspond to original disposition. Vujovic, Beograd u, 285- 86. 5 See Hranislav Milanovic, Zelenilo Beograda (Belgrade: JKP "Zelenilo-Beograd," 2006), 180-87. 6 Vujovic, Beograd u, 287.

  • 78 Dragana Corovic

    four plates engraved with dedications to the liberators of Belgrade and to the founder of the monument. 7 The next decades and political changes brought the decline of the park and the monument, but in 1889, under the rule of King Aleksandar Obrenovic (reigned 1889- 1903), the neglected cemetery and monument were renewed. 8 At that time this space had become a memorial park.9 The area surrounding the graves and monument was designed with plantings of acacia and lime trees. 10 There were also several species of North American trees from the acacia family (Gleditsia Triachantos) which would be considered as exotic for Belgrade's climate. Their inclusion reinforces the conclusion that the intention of the planners was the enrichment and beautifi-cation of the space in a way that would emphasize its uniqueness.

    In the late nineteenth century, today's Karadorde 's Park was a favorite destination in Belgrade, it was popularly referred to "at the Monument." 11 Ro-tundas, connected by slightly curved paths, became a basic concept of the park arrangement 12 in 1907 when the citizens of Belgrade founded the Asso-ciation for the beautification of the Karadordevic 's monument, the park, and its surrounding. In addition to raising money, organizing the planting of coni-ferous , building pavilions on an artificial earthen hill, and creating paths and lawns in the park, as well as undertaking the maintenance, the Association celebrated, annually, the heroic ventures that had taken place at the beginning of the nineteenth century (Figure 3). 13

    The park also has another monument dedicated to the defenders of Bel-grade, during the period of wars between 1912 and 1918. This monument, which is in the northern part of the park, measures 4.7 meters in height from the base. It is set off by the surrounding flowerbeds in the center of one of the

    7 The huge base of the monument is its "major symbolic element." More about Karadorde's Park and its monuments, see Miroslav Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocirna Beograda 1806," Nas/eiJe 5 (2004): 9-34, at 21. 8 A metal fence was placed around the monument, and it also had got a board with the inscription about the restoration carried out by King Aleksandar Obrenovic. 9 See Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocirna," 22. 10 See Zivorad P. Jovanovic, /z starog Beograda (Belgrade: Turisticka stampa, 1964), 67- 68; Milanovic, Ze/eni/o, 180-87; Vojislav Z. Misic, "lz proslosti Karadordevog parka," Hortikultura 37, no. 4 (1970): 117. 11 Milan.ka Ojdanic, "Postojece stanje zelene povrsine Karadordev park u Beogradu," in Zelenilo u urbanistickom razvoju grada Beograda, zbomik radova (Belgrade: Udru:lenje infenjera Beograda, 1994), 255-61. 12 It is shown in the Plan of Belgrade ( 1909) where, probably for the first time, the park was entirely graphically displayed . See Maksimovic, ldejni razvoj, 146-47. 13 See Sava Dubljevic, "Karadordev park," Beogradske opstinske novine 52, no. 7- 8 (1934): 532- 33 .

    Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 79

    park's compositional elements, a circular square or a rotunda of the park. Sculptor and writer Stamenko f>urdevic created the figure of a Serbian soldier standing guard. Sporting a mustache, he is dressed in an overcoat and wears a folk hat called sajkaca. These details define him as representative of the many warriors who were killed in the First World War during the battle of Kolubar-ska in 1914 (Figure 4). The story of the monument reflects the turbulent fate of the region. The sculpture was to be a part of a memorial fountain 14 that was erected at the time in Bulbulder (Nightingale's Stream in Turkish), in a differ-ent quarter of the town, but, although unfinished during the war, the sculpture ended up in Vienna, where it was found in 1918 in a park of the city and re-turned to Belgrade. The monument has stood at its present site since July 1923, when it was unveiled by its sculptor.15

    In Karadorde's Park there is also a monument dedicated to the French poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine, with an inscription: "To Lamar-tine, the prophet of Yugoslav unity." The 2.6 meter bronze bust is the work of Lojze Dolinar. It was dedicated in 1933 at the time during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in memory ofthe centenary of Lamartine's peregrination through the country. In the chapter "Notes on Serbia" in his book Journey to the East (Voyage en Orient, 1835), Lamartine expressed confidence in the unification of the South Slavs in the near future. On the monument there is also a quota-tion from his book: "J'airnerais a combattre avec ce peuple naissant pour la liberte." It says: "I wish to fight together with this people who are born for freedom." There is as well, in Karadorde's Park, the monument to the Yugo-slav people who fought in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936- 39) and who were killed16 in the fight against fascism. The white obelisk was made and placed in the park in the middle of the twentieth cen-tury. It is near the Lamartine bust, at the edge of the park, in the axis of the street that also bears the name of the International Brigades.

    There is also one memorial in Karadorde's Park. It is a black granite slab, measuring 0.7 x 0.7 meters and set on tapered base, 0.5 meters high. It was constructed in 1975 as a reminder of the 192 Belgrade citizens who perished in the underground shelter of this park during the German bombardment in 1941. Two-thirds of the park, which is slightly less than three hectares, 17 are under grass, while approximately one-third contains paths and other paved

    14 See Timotijevic, "Memorijal oslobodiocima," 24. 15 Milanovic, Zelenilo, 186. 16 Eight hundred of the seventeen hundred Yugoslavs who fought in the International Brigades were killed in the Spanish Civil War. 17 According to Genera/ni plan Beograda 2021 (Belgrade: Sluzbeni glasnik Republike Srbije, no. 47/2003), 83 .

  • 80 Dragana Corovic

    surfaces. Of about 350 trees in the park, half belong to two species, horse chestnut and silver linden. There are also lawns, shrubs, roses, and flowerbeds around the monuments. The park is now in the midst of an urban fabric, ex-tending along one of the busiest city streets, close to many important build-ings, such as the Temple of St. Sava and the National Library of Serbia. Al-though it occupies an area much smaller than other nineteenth-century green spaces, Karadorde's Park is significant in a symbolic way, as it connects dif-ferent cultures and traditions and embodies the city's history. From an envi-ronmental point of view, this green space is also important as it serves as a vacuum breakpoint, which allows one to pause in the hectic bustle of the me-tropolis and to "feel" the two centuries of its history.

    Topcider

    The process of building New Belgrade, outside the Moat, started in 1830. The soul of this process was the absolute ruler of Serbia and leader of the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815- Prince Milos Obrenovic (reigned 1815- 39; 1859-60). He had a clear idea about what Belgrade should become and be carried out that plan through shrewd and resolute actions, although the process itself was characterized by rather modest resources, weak economic power, and insufficient knowledge needed for creating a modern city. The overwhelming desire and ambition of the ruler was directed toward the creation of the Ser-bian capital, which was supposed to remove the image of the Oriental com-munity- as Belgrade itself had been ever since the sixteenth century- from both, memories and reality. Prince Milos managed to populate Belgrade with the Serbs living abroad, as well as with the population from the country, in order to create a capital in which his subjects would be engaged in trade and handicrafts, and live in the new-founded settlements far beyond the range of the cannons from the Belgrade fortress , which still belonged to the Turkish army. Milos imposed various decrees, as well as force, in order to populate the parts of Belgrade outside the Moat with the Serbian population. He would define the position of new urban zones and direction of new roads within the agricultural land, as it was at that moment, outside the defrned urban core, while building crucial state facilities required of a future modern state. At the same time, in 1831 near Kosutnjak forest in Topcider, the suburb about five kilometers away from the city, Prince Milos began to build another lodging known as Milos's Residence (Milosev konak), as a matter of fact, the residen-tial complex where be felt safe and where, as it would be revealed later- be spent most of his time (Figure 5). It is impossible not to draw parallels with another absolute ruler, French King Louis XIV, who moved all the institutions

    Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 81

    of government from Paris, where be felt uncomfortable and unsafe-to Ver-sailles.t8 In the eighteenth century, in the area ofTopcider there were Austrian hunting lodges and summerhouses, and also several German settlers' villages. It used to be a field surrounding a stream meandering through the marshy valley.

    At the beginning of the nineteenth century, TopCider, which means "can-non valley" in Turkish and Persian, was the area where the Turkish artillery units used to perform training practice; it was also used for cair-the field for grazing the horses. Turkish prelates used this area as a resort and hunting ground, too. For the purpose of the construction of his lodging and entire court complex around it, Prince Milos succeeded in displacing the villages that had eristed there, as well as denying the Turkish right to graze their horses. Apart from these lodgings at the foot of Topcider hill, Prince Milos built the Church of St. Peter and Paul, a church bouse, a small residence (Mali konak), barracks, lodgings for officers, and many economic facilities, such as: magaza (store), sheds, stables, tanneries, an army boot factory, mills, grinders, and more.

    According to legend, a Frenchman was engaged to arrange and shape the park; yet, the facts reveal that not until 1842 did the formation of the park be-gin.19 That very year Atanasije Nikolic, an engineer educated in Vienna, took to this job. Nikolic, who was both professor and engineer, founded a seed-plot in Topcider, as well as the School of Agriculture, the first of its kind in the Balkans. The first planting of acacia and oak trees around Prince Milos ' s lodgings began by the middle of the century (Figure 6). In 1850 seedlings of spruce, pine, and fir, and also, maple, Turkish hazel , and smoke bush, were brought from Tara and other Serbian mountains to Topcider. From Italy, Austria, Germany, and France came the seeds of various grasses, flowers , and ornamental shrubs.

    The park in Topcider was the first Serbian park system created based on European models of the palace complex located in the "natural, yet cultivated environment."20 Topcider Park, along with some classical elements, replicates the English garden style with its meandering paths, lush vegetation, and the abundant presence of still water as well as several aquatic devices. The most

    18 For more about the palace complex in Topl!ider, see a comprehensive study in Katarina Mitrovic, Topcider-dvor kneza Milosa Obrenovica (Belgrade: lstorijski muzej Srbije, 2008). 19 See Svetislav Vladisavljevic, "0 pol!ecima uredivanja Topl!idera za izletnil!ku i park sumu," GodiSnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 36 ( 1989): I 05- 22. 20 Hranislav Milanovic, ed., Zasticena prirodna dobra Beograda (Belgrade: Gradska uprava, Sekretarijat za zatitu prirodne sredine/Belgrade: Zavod za zastitu prirode Srbije, 2008), 78- 81, at 79.

  • 82 Dragana Corovic

    famous element of the park in Topcider is certainly a giant plane-tree (Plata-nus acerifolia Willd. , or London plane tree) that was planted in front of the Residence in 1866, after it bad been imported from Vienna along with 350 trees of the same species. 21 The giant plane-tree in Topcider Park is under na-tional protection as a natural landmark (Figure 7). Today, its crown, which measures 49 meters, is supported by 18 metal poles. The circumference of the trunk at 1.3 meters above ground is 7.35 meters. The height of the tree is 34 meters .

    In addition to the plantings, the park features monuments and sculptures. The Harvester, a sculpture representing Ceres, goddess of agriculture, was created in the academic neoclassical style (Figure 8). This is the only pre-served and oldest example of nineteenth-century decorative park sculpture in Belgrade. Cast in 1852 in Vienna, the work of sculptor Christof Fidelis Kim-mel, it was placed in Topcider in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the main alley, in the oldest part of the park, there is an obelisk, erected in 1860,22 in honor ofthe second rule ofPrince Milos.23 It is a simple stone-trun-cated pyramid expertly decorated with a garland rendered in profile and heral-dic fields near the top of the monument, which supports a sculpted stylized vase (Figure 9). The obelisk was made by stonecutter Franc Loran, who also worked on the Terazije Fountain, erected in the middle of a new important square in Belgrade, Terazije, in 1860. However, from 1911 until 1975 the Terazije Fountain was moved from the Terazije square and was located in the courtyard of the church in Topcider. In 197 5 it was relocated to Terazije, again, where it stands today.

    A distinct feature of the park is the Topciderska River, which flows through the park. Its path was regulated in 1863 under the supervision of en-gineer Jakov Slivic. Swimming areas were designated along the sandy beach of the river. The park also contained a steam bath. In the 1880s, at the time of King Milan Obrenovic (reigned 1872- 89), a fountain was built between the park's obelisk and the glasshouse. The fountain had a decorative bowl in the center of a basin containing exotic aquatic plants and the sculpture of a boy

    21 See Jovanovic, lz s/arog Beograda, 167; Branislav Kojic, "Topl!ider i Topl!idersko brdo do 1914," in Beograd u sel:anjima, 1900-1918 (Belgrade: Srpska knji:tevna zadruga, 1977), 141-50; Branko Maksimovic, "0 zelenilu Beograda," GodiSnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 3 (1956): 325-66; Milanovic, Zeleni/o, 134-49; Milanovic, Zastil:ena prirodna, 78- 81. 22 See Mitrovic, Topcider-dvor, 130. 23 According to certain authors, this obelisk was erected in 1965 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Serbian Uprising, although there is the year 1859 engraved on the body of the monument. See Milanovic, Zelenilo, 146.

    Three Parks in N ineteenth-Centu 83

    with a heron, 24 however, it no longer exists. Prince Milos died in Topcider in 1860, of natural causes. His son, one of the most educated rulers of Serbia, Prince Mibailo Obrenovic (reigned 1839--41 ; 1860-68), was assassinated in 1868, in the forest of Kosutnjak. This memorial place is now fenced with low stone pillars and chains strung between them. Prince Milos had wanted to cre-ate his own Belgrade, and each one of his actions was aimed at realizing that goal which included establishing the official state complex within a beauti-fully designed park in Topcider.

    Today, Topcider Park, with its area of 12.8 hectares,25 is one of the favor-ite recreation areas of Belgrade. It has three parts: the part near the glasshouse and the drinking fountain that bears the name of Prince Milos, with an area of 2.5 hectares; the park around Prince Milos's Residence, with ornamental flower beds parterre, 7.1 hectares; and last, the part with a surface of 3.2 hectares with playgrounds for children and an artificial lake constructed in the second half of the twentieth century. The park has more than a thousand trees, of which 65 percent are deciduous. There are over one hundred different species of trees and shrubs, among them ten different kinds of flowers. The park in Topcider, along with the forest of Kosutnjak, is a unique complex from a natural , ambient, cultural, and historical point of view. Kosutnjak was once the hunting grounds of the Obrenovic dynasty, and today, with an area of 267 hectares,26 it serves as the link between an urban and suburban green, and a reservoir of fresh air that reduces climate extremes and affects the climate of the city. Kosutnjak is an important point in the environmental infrastructure of the city, and, along with the additional aesthetic and visual qualities of Top-cider Park, it significantly contributes to the quality of the urban landscape of Belgrade.

    The City's Private Ga rdens and the Green Belt

    The symbolic act of handing the keys of the Belgrade fortress to Prince Mi-hailo Obrenovic in April 1867, represented the moment when Belgrade liber-ated itself from the Turkish military siege. Divided between Turkish and Ser-bian authority, Belgrade remained in this antagonism of parallel worlds for almost four decades. The migration of the Turkish families living in the city, within the Moat, was taking place at the moment when: "Belgrade( ... ] is get-ting more and more filled with some new elements and it is losing its previous

    24 bid., 147. 25 Generalni plan, 83 . 26 Milanovic, Zastil:ena prirodna, 83- 85 .

  • 84 Dragana Corovic

    character of the oriental city."27 The Oriental character of Belgrade in the first half of the nineteenth century was also created by the gardens arranged around private houses. In Islamic culture the garden is an integral part of the home, and no matter how modest the garden, it is created in order to resemble a real paradise- jennet. The bliss of these gardens was noticed in the seven-teenth century by Evliya

  • 86 Dragana Corovic

    Kalemegdan

    The word Kalemegdan in Turkish means a fortress field . Functionally and institutionally Kalemegdan Park today forms a whole with the Belgrade for-tress. The park covers an area of about 60 bectares36 around the castle and includes: Small and Great Kalemegdan, Upper and Lower Town, and the Sava and the Danube slope. Kalemegdan Park bas been continuously maintained for 143 years and it is one of the oldest parks that preserves the basic features of its original design (Figure II). Emilijan Josimovic was the first to suggest, in his book, that Kalemegdan, the rusty area surrounding the Belgrade for-tress, be turned into a public park so that the view of the Pannonian plains and the Sava and the Danube Rivers would be an integral part of the landscape along with the rerouting paths and forestation of the area. The aesthetic and functional quality of the greenery was thus to have special consideration. In contrast to the idea of forming a green belt around the city, his idea of a park in the city field found more success in 1869 when the process of forestation began. The first planted tree was taken from the nursery garden in Topcider and the activity was monitored by a colonel of the Serbian army and the commander of Belgrade fortress, Dragutin Zabarac.

    The first document concerning the planning of Kalemegdan Park dates from 1870. It shows a plan of curvilinear paths in Great Kalemegdan. The next large-scale forestation took place between 1873 and 1875. The Sava promenade was formed in 1886, by cutting a lane and planting trees of Euro-pean Black Pine (Pinus Nigra). Today it is one of the most beautiful parts of Kalemegdan Park, which was reconstructed in several phases until 1933, and again mid-century after the Second World War. The regulation of the Great Kalemegdan was under military rule until 1890, when the Belgrade munici-pality took over the jurisdiction. The municipality managed to provide a loan, collecting significant funds for further park beautification. Thus, the previ-ously abandoned field was turned into a beautiful urban promenade and a park.

    The first design for the park composition of the Great Kalemegdan was prepared by an architect and professor Milan Kapetanovic.37 The present-day appearance of this part of the park represents the work of landscape architect and professor Aleksandar Krstic. It was completed between two World Wars. Krstic's preliminary design includes the extension of the Sava promenade to the lower level with linkage to the old part of the promenade via the construe-

    36 Generalni plan, 83. 37 See Maksimovic, /dejni razvoj, 145.

    Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 87

    tion of a monumental staircase, known as the Great Staircase.38 The main architect of this project and the creator of the stairs was Ukrainian, Borde Kovaljevski .39 Besides the Great Staircase in Kalemegdan Park, there is also the Small Staircase that leads from the Sava promenade to the Paris street which represents a contact zone between the park and the city. The Small Staircase was built in the beginning of the twentieth century, and was de-signed in the neo-Baroque style by Serbia's first female architect, Jelisaveta Naeic.40 Herbert Vivian, an English journalist, wrote in 1897 that he had never seen a more joyous place. From Kalemegdan, he said, one could see a magical landscape that would inspire and heal a man .41

    At the beginning of the twentieth century, on Sundays and holidays, there were performances of military music and arias from famous opera works, and it was said that- "all our public life was moved and presented here"42 in Kalemegdan Park. In the following years, the seed-plot and amusement park were built in Kalemegdan; there was a cinema under a tent and the first zoo was built later on and opened in 1936 in the Small Kalemegdan. The regula-tion of this part of Kalemegdan Park was the subject of a public competition in 1898, the first of a kind held in Serbia for a design of an urban area. The first project for this part of the park was undertaken by Jelisaveta Nacic. It was based on the competition entry of Dimitrije T. Leko, professor and ar-chitect. In his project, Leko formed the park composition according to the re-liefofthe terrain and the proximity ofthe walls ofthe Belgrade fortress.

    This part of Kalemegdan owes its main features and present appearance also to Aleksandar KrstiC's design in 1931. At the time, a large-scale recon-struction of the park was being carried out. They had planted a 4.5 hectares area, introduced the lighting, the water and sewerage networks in this part of the park, and paved an area of 1.5 hectares for trails. Then, water devices (ar-

    38 More about the Great Staircase, see Radojka and Marko Popovic, "Savsko sa Velikim na Kalemegdanu," Nas/ede 2 (1999): 53- 71 . 39 He was the chief of the Technical Office of the Belgrade municipality which designed the Master Plan of Belgrade in 1923. 40 See Milan S. Minic, "Prva Beogradanka arhitekt- Jelisaveta Godisnjak Muzeja grada Beograda 3 (1956): 451 - 58; Jovanovic, lz starog Beograda, 5- 10; Maksimovic, "0 zelenilu," 325-66; Milanovic, Zelenilo, 114- 33 ; Vojislav Z. "Kalemegdan- njegov postanak i razvitak," Hortiku/tura 38, no. 3 (1971): 88- 90. 41 Herbert Vivian, "Srbija-raj siromMnog in Beograd u devetnaestom ve/>.1.1 (Belgrade: Muzej grada Beograda, 1967), 149- 80. [Original edition: Herbert Vivian, Servia, the Poor Man 's Paradise (London, 1897)]; see also Herbert Vivian, Servia, the Poor Man 's Paradise, etc. (London: British Library, Historical Print Editions, 20 II). 42 See V. Tripkovic, "0 batenskim postrojenjima, skverovima (igralitima) nae prestonice," Srpski tehnicki list 18, no. 6 (1907): 45-47, at 47.

  • 88 Dral!ana Corovic

    tificial spring, streams, and lake), that were part of Leko's design but do not exist today, were incorporated into the park.

    Kalemegdan Park is the area of permanent vegetation conversion. Today it has 80 different species of trees, 28 of shrubs, and 40 species of flowers . There are almost 3,500 trees and one third of them are coniferous. The area of Kalemegdan has 16,000 shrubs and flowerbeds on about 0.2 hectares. Ka-lemegdan Park shares the compositional characteristics of an English garden, combined with certain classical elements, such as geometrically composed ornamental parterre with flowerbeds near the memorial Gratitude to France, erected in 1930.

    The bronze figure of a woman in a combat sweep is the work of Ivan Me-strovic. Measuring nine meters in height, it personifies French aid to Serbia during the First World War. The Victor Monument (Pobednik), also the work of Ivan Mestrovic, is a bronze sculpture of a nude male figure with a sword and eagle, and measures 14 meters. This is one of the symbols of Belgrade. It was placed in the western part of the Upper Town in Kalemegdan in 1928, in honor of the tenth anniversary of the breach of the Thessaloniki Front, al-though, the figure was made in 1913 for a different purpose and place. 43 The first monument was set in the area of Kalemegdan 121 years ago. It was the bronze bust, total height 2.76 meters, of a literate and philologist Dura Da-nicic. The bust is the work of a sculptor and painter Petar Ubavkic. He was one of the first sculptors in Serbia in the second half of the nineteenth century.44

    Since 1891, this sculptural tradition bas not been interrupted, so there are monuments dedicated to the artists and prominent figures in Serbian history, such as: Jovan Skerlic, Dura Jaksic, Radoje Domanovic, Bora Stankovic, Mi-los Crnjanski, Milos N. Durie, Milan Rakic, and Stevan Raickovic, to name a few. Other art works in Kalemegdan Park include Simeon RoksandiC's 1906 sculpture, Fight. It is located in the center of the plateau surrounded by 30 trees of horse chestnut, in the basin of a fountain (Figure 12). Cast in bronze, it is a 1.5 meter high figure of a fisherman struggling with a snake. This foun-tain was placed in the park in 1912 and the same cast also exists in Zagreb. 45

    43 Metrovic's sculpture was to be placed in a memorial fountain, in the Terazije square, after the First Balkan War (1912- 13), in honor of the victory of Serbia. Jelisaveta Nacic had developed the project for the Terazije square according to the competition winning solution. Setting up the fountain was hampered because of the beginning of the First World War. After the War the public was against placing a nude male figure on the central city square. See Vujovic, Beograd u, 96; Minic, "Prva Beogradanka," 455. 44 Dorde Jovanovic, Petar Ubavkic, and Simeon Roksandic were the first Serbian sculptors. 45 The Fight was sent to the Balkan exhibition in London in 1907. Erroneously, the news arrived that the ship sank, and the figure was lost. Simeon Roksandic made another, identical

    Three Parks in Nineteenth-Centu 89

    Life in Belgrade was taking place on the border of the two worlds of op-posing powers, conflicting political ambitions within the internal affairs of the country, in the clash of Christian and Muslim tradition, and even in the clash of male and female principles. The origin and development of green space is closely connected with the history in which a new level of the city memory would replace the previous one. For those creating green space in Belgrade, the luxury of forming high-quality spaces was not the question of possibility, but the question of both necessity and purpose-the same ones that had moti-vated the enthusiasts to build the first schools and hospitals. The examples presented in this text have different origins, Karadorde' s Park was formed as a sacred grove and memorial place. Like French Versailles, Topcider Park was also the seat of the government. Kalemegdan Park is an early example of the restoration of a devastated landscape. In this sense, each has also a specific educational value. Regardless of the position, size, structure, and significance of the green spaces in Belgrade, they established an important framework for further development of these luxurious but necessary areas of a city.

    dcorovic a rh .bg.ac.rs

    sculpture. It turns out that the news was false. Zagreb and Belgrade Municipality had bought two identical figures. Vujovic, Beograd u, 96, 119- 25. Zora Simic-Milovanovic, "Simeon Roksandic, 1874-1943," Godi.Snjak grada Beograda 9- 10 {1962-63): 445- 78.

  • ''.t t !:., ,.,,, ,,, .. .

    Figure 1. Belgrade, Eighteenth Century [Source: National Library of Serbia, Belgrade Digital Library: www.nb .rs]

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    Figure 3. The Plan of Belgrade (1909) 1. Karadorde's Park and 2. Kalemedgan Park

    [Source: Milos R. Perovic, lstraiivanje strukture Beograda: Multivariatna analiza i kompjuter atlas kontinualno izgradenog podrucja (Belgrade: Zavod za planiranje razvoja grada Beograda, 1976), 043 , 044, 045 .]

  • Figure 4. The Monument to veterans killed in the wars between 1912 and 1918, unveiled 1923

    Karadorde ' s Park [Source: Photo by Dragana Corovic, 201 0]

    Figure 5. Topcider Park, air photo (1938) Red dot marks location of Prince Mi los's Residence

    [Source: Collection of the Belgrade Aviation Museum, Serbia Courtesy of Predrag Lazetic]

    ,--,

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    en

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  • Figure 7. Giant plane tree in front of Prince Milos 's Residence, Topcider Park [Source: Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic, 2012]

    Figure 8. The Harvester, statue of Ceres ( 1852), Topcider Park [Source: Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic, 2012]

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    Figure 10. Belgrade, the old town that lays in the Moat (1867) 1. Kalemegdan, before it became a park and 2. the line ofthe Belgrade fortress ' s walls

    [Source: Josimovic, Objasnenje pred/oga , 12.]

  • Figure 11. Kalemegdan, air photo (1930), View to the southwest [Source: Collection of the Belgrade Aviation Museum, Serbia; Courtesy ofPredrag Lafetic]

    Figure 12. Sculpture Fight ( 1906), Kalemegdan Park [Source: Photo by Slobodan Radosavljevic, 2012]

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