Belgrade 2.0
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New Belgrade turns 60
Posted 2008-04-10 17:45 under History , Culture by Viktor Marković / 2 comments
It’s hard to imagine that sight: on April 11th, 1948, thousands of young men and women gathered in front of a swamp ground where New Belgrade lies today, obserbing nothing but piles of sand and a complete wasteland. For the next two years they will be working as volonteers to dry up the swamp and make way for the new city.
From today’s perspective working for food and no money seems like an odd thing to do, but you must remember that the communist franzy was still fresh after the WWII and the spirits of victory over fascism and the country rebuilding were still high. Still, what essentially was a good idea turned ugly at the end and we got stuck with New Belgrade, like with some strange experiment in architecture, city planning and human interaction. That’s why many say upon their first encounter with New Belgrade that it reminds them of some strange cyberpunk, Bladerunner-like landscape.
photo by jim screech
Today, many regard New Belgrade as a giant sleeping dorm – with over half a million people living there, it is the biggest municipality in Serbia. In comparison to all these people living here, it has always suffered with cultural offer – not enough cinemas, theaters, restaurants, cafes, not enough anything – save buildings.
But it is sometimes buildings that are interesting enough for an occasional tourist that wanders in these areas. Flickr is a great resource for all kinds of photos, take a look for example at these made by Robert Haynes of Shooterama
photo by charlie
The concrete must have influenced the musicians coming from New Belgrade – some of the best new hiphop and punkrock bands are exactly coming from or are inspired by living in the projects of New Belgrade. No soft or wimpy pop stuff there.
Euforia – Blokovi
Sajsi – 7 9 11
Happy birthday, NBG!
deana on 18/04/08 03:03 AM
ispravka – pola Sajsi-ja je iz Zajechara, al su “inspirisanI” (da ne kazem istripovani na) Novim Beogradom :)
Maria Almeida on 25/04/08 04:30 AM
Wow, great, great blog!
I’m brazilian and, believe it or not, I read about your blog in the most famous newspaper we have here. As I love Belgrade to the core, thought I had to pass by and read a bit about my favourite place in the world :)
Great website and even greater blog, keep it up, mister!
Pozdrav iz Brazila!