It is Wednesday. old post office building in Savska Street, demolished to the ground. The plan is to build two theater stages and a museum in its place, and the financier of the project is the company Belgrade on water.
A few days earlier, construction machines had removed the last one remains of Hotel "Yugoslavia", the former symbol of Belgrade. At the end of 2024, they were demolished old villas in Hadza Milentieva.
Belgrade bus station it was moved to New Belgrade, and the state is trying its hardest to Belgrade Fair moved even to Surčin, where works are underway for the EXPO 2027 project.
The demolition fever that has gripped Belgrade will not, by all accounts, stop there.
Citizens and activists for weeks bodies of the Old Sava bridge dam, which was supposed to be demolished in November. For the Government, the building of the former General Staff is already, well, exactly that - former.
The last defense of the General Staff
In order for the General Staff to be demolished, it must first be stripped of the protection it enjoys as an immovable cultural asset. The government signed the decision on December 14 last year, but, unexpectedly, it encountered resistance. Employees of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments they refused to remove the General Staff from the Central Register of Immovable Cultural Properties.
Only the workers of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments are still standing between the bulldozer and the symbol of memory of the bombing of Belgrade in 1999, whose only sin is that, unfortunately, it happened on the lot that Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump, had deeded to build "Trump" on. the tower.
Olga Andrić from the collective Ministry of Space tells "Vreme" that the resistance that the employees of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments offer to the Government's decision, at this moment, is really encouraging.
"Obviously, the current focus is on the removal of cultural monuments, but it does not end there, it is a question of the moment when schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure will become a nuisance on valuable land, so they will also start to be erased so that elite buildings can be built in their place." residential and business complexes, within which all services are completely privatized," Andrić points out.
Photo: Marko KecmanGeneral Staff: Targeting Trump's son-in-law
All the victims of Belgrade on the water
The Bloomberg agency recently announced that a luxury hotel and apartment complex on the site of the former General Staff of the Yugoslav Army will be built by the investment company "Affinity Partners", founded by Kushner and billionaire from the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Alabar.
"Vreme" has written about Alabar before, to a man who buys Belgrade part by part. In 2015, the media presented him as an anonymous businessman from Dubai whose money will enable Aleksandar Vučić to realize his dream of Belgrade on the water. Nine years later, the state sold an additional 327 hectares of the Serbian capital to his company Eagle Hills. The deal between the state and the billionaire was negotiated directly.
It is interesting that the Emirati billionaire also wanted to build a complex similar to Belgrade on the water in Zagreb, during the time of Mayor Milan Bandić. However, this was opposed by the professional public, the opposition and citizens, so the city government canceled the project in 2020.
In Belgrade, such oppositions are futile. It is precisely the metastasizing of Belgrade on the water that is the cause of many of the state's demolition projects. For example, the Belgrade Fair found itself on the road to the expansion of Serbian Dubai - which is why it is threatened with the same fate as the former main bus station.
From public inspection, amendments to the Spatial Plan for the development of the Sava coast, for the needs of the project "Belgrade on the water", can be seen to be in the area Belgrade Fair build residential buildings 70 to 120 meters high. Only Hall 1, which has the status of a cultural monument, will be "pardoned".
The 327 hectares purchased by the owner of Belgrade on the Water, in addition to the Fair, also includes the Mostar loop, three individual blocks in Savska street, the Petlje Radnička area within the Bridge on Ada with the surrounding water area and marina, the Sava backwater with the coast on Ada Ciganlija, the entrance itself for Ada, the "Stara Šečerana" area, the strip along the Topčiderska River up to the Guard House, and in New Belgrade it is the area between Gazela and the Ada Bridge, including the banks of the Sava and the Old Railway Bridge.
Photo: Tanjug / Sava RadovanovićBelgrade on water
Belgrade sale
The interlocutor of "Vremena" explains that, because the processes that accompany the transformation of the urban landscape of Belgrade are closed and non-transparent, "the entire development of the city is dictated by the interests of a small number of powerful people, whose goal is the commercialization of space in order to increase their own income, but also the shaping of the city in such a way as to reflect the ideology for which they stand".
"This is happening for several reasons, primarily because the entire planning process is deregulated, there is no general social consensus about the direction in which Belgrade should develop, but that 'development' responds to the needs of privileged individuals who manage large capital and they have the opportunity to participate in decision-making," the "Vremena" interlocutor points out.
During the term of office of Mayor Aleksandar Šapić, buildings from the period of the second Yugoslavia were particularly attacked.
"It is hard to believe that the attack on the socialist architectural heritage is a mere coincidence, because it bears the memory of a time and a society that made at least some progress towards a more inclusive design of cities, thereby making life in the city easier and more accessible for a wider range of people," he says. Andrić.
This kind of practice should be opposed by institutions. However, the resistance of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments to the demolition of the General Staff is in this sense an exception, not the rule.
"The pressure exerted on employees in public institutions is so great that most of them practically lost the right to do their jobs," says the interviewee of "Vremena".
"They are expected to nod their heads to whatever comes to mind of a big investor, without any critical review of the proposed solutions." In this way, the institutions are completely meaningless and they are denied their primary function, which is to regulate and help the mutual harmonization of the needs of different social groups".
Meaninglessness of institutions
The sight that the people of Belgrade could see in the center of Belgrade at the end of last year speaks volumes about the meaningless of institutions. Although in that case it was not about demolition, but about "upgrading".
In the middle of December, a stage was set up on Trg Republike for an organized New Year's Eve party, which completely surrounded the famous Monument. Prince Mihail, one of the symbols of Belgrade.
The construction of the stage was directly supported on the pedestal of the monument, so, after a letter from concerned citizens, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade asked the City to move the scaffolding.
The city ignored the Bureau's request. Instead of the scaffolding being removed, a black cloth was just placed on it, and Prince Mihailo welcomed the Serbian New Year trapped in the New Year's stage.
"The institutions were placed at the service of the elite and thus lost all legitimacy," Andrić points out.
Photo: Goran Srdanov / Nova.rsThe New Year's stage surrounded by Knez Mihailo on Republic Square
Repurposing instead of demolition
In such a situation, can the demolition fever be stopped? Are bulldozers the only solution? The interlocutor of "Vremena" says - no.
"Most settlements in Belgrade are in deficit when it comes to public services, whether it's education, healthcare or community gathering spaces," Andrić points out.
By creating adequate analyzes and applying participatory mechanisms, it would be possible to determine which uses are failing in a certain territory, and it would be possible to think about whether some of the buildings that are empty and unused or are slated for demolition can be repurposed as such. to satisfy those needs, says the "Vremena" interlocutor.
She explains that such locations and facilities have "a lot of potential".
"They already have infrastructure that can be adapted to new needs, they are often located within existing communities, and their conversion can be more economically profitable and environmentally sustainable than building completely new buildings." However, the implementation of such solutions requires a suitable long-term strategy and political will, which is currently lacking".
Perhaps those who manage Belgrade, instead of demolishing as they please, could look to other European cities, because there are more and more examples of repurposing cultural heritage buildings so that they are based on the needs of the community.
"Such practices are present in many European cities, such as Lisbon, Warsaw, Rome, and what is additionally significant is that they are not limited exclusively to objects that carry the status of cultural property, but also include those that have symbolic or practical significance for local communities." , says the interlocutor of "Vremena".
Belgrade still without a plan
However, in order for theory to become practice, a serious plan is needed. Belgrade has not had that plan for years.
"Belgrade is entering the fourth year without an adopted General Urban Plan, a key document that strategically defines the future development of the city, while other valid plans are designed to be extremely flexible and to adapt to the individual interests of investors, instead of the other way around," says the interviewee of "Vremena" and concludes:
"In addition to planning procedures, there are also procedures that determine the protection of an object as an immovable cultural asset, as well as procedures for issuing a permit for the removal of objects, the biggest problem is that none of those procedures are followed and implemented consistently."
