Everything except Hall 1 at the Belgrade Fair goes under excavators and crushers. For the purposes of the project "Belgrade on the water" residential buildings with a height of 70 to 120 meters will be built in this area. Everything is subordinated to the construction of as many square meters of residential and business space as possible, and the repurposing of the architectural gem, the famous Hall 1, is a cheap marketing trick.
The client for the creation of this Spatial Plan, of which the Belgrade Fair is only a part, is the company "Beograd na vodi doo", and the holder is the Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanism of the Republic of Serbia. The director of this institution is Đorđe Milić, former assistant to the Minister of Construction Goran Vesić.
The Spatial Plan area is divided into 14 spatial-functional units, and residential buildings will occupy up to 70 percent of the plot area.
Nikola Tesla Museum
This plan coincides with the previous announcements by the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Malog, that the Nikola Tesla Museum will be moved to the Fair area, "instead, as previously planned, in the Power and Light Thermal Power Plant in Dorćol".
As "Vreme" previously wrote,it seems that the Nikola Tesla Museum has been misused because of the interests of "Belgrade on the water", that the space in the building of the old "Jugošped" is intended for it not because it suits him, but because "Belgrade on the water" lacks tourists.
Demolition of the Belgrade Fair has begun
The Nikola Tesla Museum is unique in the world because it inherits the largest collection of original objects and his personal legacy, and is also the most visited museum in Serbia. Since its establishment in 1955, it has been located in a villa in Krunska Street, which has only 200 square meters - too small for all that this museum could show.
What will be in Hall 1?
Only Hall 1, for now, cannot be demolished because it has the status of a cultural monument. It was supposed to be turned into an opera, ballet and two concert halls, which was foreseen in the old spatial plan on the area along the Sava where the first part of "Belgrade on the water" was born.
Borislav Stojkov, Serbian architectural engineer and retired full professor of the University of Belgrade, said earlier in an interview with "Vremen". that this idea has a double role: to blind the eyes of the public, which is appalled by the idea of demolishing the entire Fair with the exception of Hall 1, and to list the projects of new cultural content in one of them, including the new opera, which has been a sensitive topic for decades, so as to take the criticism of the cultural public off the back of their necks.
"That, in my opinion, is very cheap marketing," he added.
As Sanja Solarević, councilor in the municipality of Savski Venac and activist Sanja Solarević, once stated on her X account, the protected plot on which Halls 1, 2 and 4 of the Belgrade Fair are located "has been visibly reduced to include only a narrow area around Hall 1".
Problems accompanying the works
While waiting for the formalities approx adoption of the development plan for that part of the city, the whole business is followed by numerous actions in the dark, "Vreme" wrote.
According to the law, no preparatory works are possible before obtaining a building permit, which no one has yet been able to obtain because the plan is in the process of public discussion. The demolition of the Painting Gallery will probably be classified as preparatory work for which they do not need a permit. These are, for example, prefabricated buildings around the Fair, installation of fences and the like.
All this suggests that a public hearing will soon be scheduled, so that the cleanup can continue. The public hearing was supposed to be held on June 30, but it was postponed due to about 10.000 objections to the presented plan of the area.
Personnel changes
According to the media, the government has also made numerous personnel changes. The general director of the Belgrade Fair, Danka Selić, was replaced. The new director is Nikola Banković, who was head of the Pošta fleet and president of the SNS local board in Rakovica.
The Assembly of the Belgrade Fair was also formed. The previous president, Radet Šević, was replaced by Abdel Gavad Shadi, the owner of the independent shop "Shadi" from Zemun.
On July 7, a report on the change of members of the Supervisory Board was submitted to the Agency for Economic Registers. Twenty-seven-year-old Marko Blažić from the Center for Social Stability, who is a frequent guest of the regime's media, was appointed to the position of chairman of the Supervisory Board instead of Miroslav Milošević.
