Academics against the demolition of the Belgrade Fair, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense

The announced demolition and radical changes in the purpose of the Belgrade Fair complex and the General Staff and Ministry of Defense complex will mean the irreparable loss of an extremely valuable and significant part of Belgrade's cultural identity, announced the Executive Board of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), and requested, among other things, that a new decision be made to protect halls 1, 2 and 3 and the entire area of ​​the Belgrade Fair, and that the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense declared a cultural asset of exceptional importance for Serbia.

The Executive Board of SANU requests that an Urban Detailed Regulation Plan be drawn up and adopted for the entire Belgrade Fair complex and that an international architectural-urban competition be announced for the renovation, arrangement and improved solution of the Belgrade Fair complex and space based on the element of the Detailed Regulation Plan.

It is also requested that, on the basis of established protection measures, an international architectural and urban planning competition for the renovation, arrangement and improved solution of the entire complex and area of ​​the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense be announced.

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts believes that taking care of that complex is not only a question of architecture, but also a question of self-respect, ethical principles, norms and attitudes towards one's own history, because it is a point of special memory, which is why it is necessary for that space to be worthily marked with special care , memory and piety.

The Executive Board of SANU reminds that the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense and the Belgrade Fair complex with all the existing facilities within those complexes form the cultural identity of Belgrade of special architectural and urban value.

The authors of those buildings and complexes were also members of SANU, because the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense were designed by architect Nikola Dobrović, and the Belgrade Fair was the work of architect Milorad Pantović and engineers Brak Žeželj and Milan Krstić.

The artistic and cultural value and importance of those entities is best expressed by the fact that the mentioned objects individually or as a whole were or are under the protection regime as cultural monuments, announced the Executive Board of SANU.