Photo: Vreme/Isidora CerićThe completion of the reconstruction of the "Boško Buha" theater building was announced for the beginning of 2026. Photos of the construction site, however, do not indicate that it will be soon
Building "Boško Buha" theater in Belgrade on Republic Square was closed 11 years ago.
Since then, this oldest theater for children does not have its own main stage, but plays on the boards of tenants in the "Wolf" cultural institution in Zvezdara. The temporary relocation, as announced at the time, turned into a decades-long tangle of unresolved property-legal relations, announcements, tenders and numerous promises by the government leaders about the final return.
The works started at the end of April 2024, and according to the information from the website of the City of Belgrade, they are expected to last 500 days and the theater building will be completed at the beginning of 2026.
That deadline has passed, and photos of the construction site on Republic Square do not show that the completion of the works is close.
The executive producer of the theater, Tatjana Perović, tells "Vreme" that they are not authorized to provide information about the completion of the reconstruction, because that is the responsibility of the city secretariats. He only says "that the employees have been instructed and that they are visiting the construction site and that the reconstruction is underway."
When asked if he believes that "Boško Buha" will finally return home, Perović says: "We really believe in it, it is important that everything goes its way."
Already at the beginning, the reconstruction was stopped by unresolved property relations.
The public only learned in 2023 that the foyer and hall were the property of Aleksandar Kajmaković, better known as Aca Bosanac, who was arrested in 2021 for collaborating with Veljko Belivuk.
Actors and employees then warned that the problem arose in 2017, when Siniša Mali was the mayor of Belgrade. Then the company "Rubin" from Kruševac was registered in the cadastre, and later the ownership was transferred to the company "Butik" from Kruševac.
Then a petition to support the theater was launched, and the case of "Boško Buh" became a matter of public interest. Political reactions soon followed. The Prime Minister at the time, Ana Brnabić, accused the media, including the weekly "Vreme", of "brutally lying" and "manipulating the facts", but at the same time she promised that she would personally stand up for the problem of the oldest children's theater to be solved. The theater was then told that there was an error in the registration that would be corrected.
In February 2023, the mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, stated that there is a possibility that "Boško Buha" could be moved to the Belgrade complex on the water. The representatives of "Buha" then said that they could not accept the relocation to the Posta building on Savski Square, but that they wanted to return to the home stage on Republic Square.
After a series of meetings with representatives of the authorities, it was decided that the theater would remain on Republic Square. The employees then demanded that the property and legal situation be resolved as soon as possible, as this was a prerequisite for the start of the reconstruction.
At the end of April 2023, after 8 years, the theater was informed that all the approvals needed to call for a tender for the execution of works had arrived, and 500 million dinars were planned in the budget of the City of Belgrade for reconstruction.
It seemed at the time that the case had finally moved from the impasse.
The reconstruction contract, worth almost 480 million dinars without VAT, was awarded in February 2024 to a group of bidders: Kej doo Valjevo, Almaks doo Belgrade, Sib invest doo Niš and Aleksandar Nikolić PR Geodetic Engineering Bureau A-Survey Belgrade.
In October 2025, the theater celebrated its 75th anniversary. In the press material on the occasion of the jubilee, it was written that the theater will be allowed to return home to Republic Square after 11 years, which has not yet happened.
The story about the theater "Boško Buha" tells about how cultural institutions are wasted by waiting, how temporary solutions turn into permanent situations and how what should be the simplest is lost behind administrative and legal formulations - that the oldest children's theater be on its stage.
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