Senjak

King Peter's House

A vacant summer house of King Peter I Karađorđević. The house stands across the soccer field of "FK Grafičar" and close to the building of the military academy. The house, called the "White villa", was built in 1896 and it belonged to the merchant Živko Pavlović. In 1919 the state, represented by the Ministry of education, leased the house for the king who lived there from 1919 to his death in 1921.[14] Monthly rent was 3,000 dinars in silver. The king lived quite modestly. His own room was equipped with bed, small cabinet with the sink, locker, lamp, sable and chandelier. The king had his own library, with the books printed by the Srpska književna zadruga. He spent much time on the vast terrace and in the garden. After king's death in August 1921, the Royal Intendancy bought the house out in order to make it a museum. In the 1930s it was declared a king's memorial-house.[15]

After 1945 residents changed and mostly included the high-ranking members of the new Communist elite and in that period majority of the exhibited artifacts, the legacy of the king, were either destroyed od taken away.[16] Missing items include the king's death mask and the only remaining artifact was the king's bed. In 1945 the house was adapted into the elementary school which was closed in 1951 and the house, for the most part since then, remained abandoned and left to the elements. In 2010 the house was adapted into the cultural center. Within the house, a memorial room for the king was set, which includes a mosaic of 100 photographs of the king and his family.[15]

In the house's yard, there are two trees, protected by the law since 1998. One is a 20 meters high gingko and the other is a 10 meters high magnolia tree. As of 2017, both trees are estimated at being 110 years old.[17]

Faculty of Fine Arts complex

Bordered by the streets of Mila Milunovića, Župana Časlava and Vojvoda Putnik's Boulevard, the complex is part of the University of Arts in Belgrade's Faculty of Fine Arts. It includes three buildings, one of which is the former atelier, built in 1947, of painter Milo Milunović who died in 1967. The atelier hosts the painting section of the faculty. Other building hosts the graphics section, while the third is administrative building. Modernist, one-floor new building which would connect the existing, separate structures, which, in turn, will be expanded, was announced in September 2022. The green areas will be transformed into the park, which would also serve as an open air gallery.[18]

Other buildings

• Military Academy; after World War I, military academy was constructed by orders of King Peter I. The academy's building is majestic, with heavy cream-colored walls and tall windows. During World War II the occupational German forces made it the headquarters for their military operations in the Balkans. The Allies bombed the neighborhood during the war in order to destroy the headquarters and the bridge over the Sava, but they didn't manage to hit it or cause any damage to the building or the bridge.
• Museum of African Art; it was established from the private collection of a Yugoslav diplomat, and contains many rare pieces.
• Museum of Toma Rosandić; located in the house, where the sculptor lived and worked until his death, was built by himself in 1929, and now holds a unique collection that is, unfortunately, not open to public, except on certain days (such as The Museum Night).
• Ecole Française de Belgrade, an international French school founded in 1951. The school is composed of a nursery school, an elementary school, a middle school and a high school.
• Senjak Gymnastics Club, which was a starting point for the future career of the renowned Yugoslav rhythmic gymnast Milena Reljin.
• The Archives of Yugoslavia and stadium and restaurant "FK Grafičar", both in the vicinity of Topčiderska zvezda, small roundabout with streets spreading in all directions connecting Senjak, Dedinje, downtown Belgrade, Topčider and further to the south (Kanarevo Brdo, Rakovica, etc.).
• BIGZ building
• Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration (member of Singidunum University)
• International School of Belgrade
• Old Mill, a cultural monument since 1987, in 2014 adapted into the Radisson Blu Old Mill Hotel.
• Senjak Greenmarket (Senjačka pijaca) was located along the Sava river and was originally built for the workers of the Cardboard factory of Milan Vapa, which was right across it. The factory complex included the apartments for workers. Market is still operational, albeit smaller, along the Koste Glavinića Street.[19]

• Two state protected trees of the Himalayan white pine, native to Afghanistan and Himalaya. They were planted in 1929, in the yard of the family of the scientist Milutin Milanković, in the Žanke Stokić street.[20]
• Protected natural monument "Dedinje Beech", a European beech tree, noted for its unusually big size in urban habitats: 22 meters tall, 2,8 meter trunk diameter, 19 meters crown diameter. As of 2017 it is estimated at being 90 years old.[17]
• Nameless park surrounding the "Stefan Nemanja" elementary school has been named "Branko Parać Relja" in February 2019.[21] The school itself was named "Branko Parać Relja" from 1959 to 1993, when its original name was restored.[22]
• Two sections of Senjak are classified as forests: Grafičar Forest (3.89 ha (9.6 acres)) and Rajsova Padina.[23]

The slope above the modern Belgrade Fair complex was known as the Đurđevo Brdo. Before World War II it was known as one of the suburban slums, with bad communal infrastructure. The neighborhood developed in the first decade after World War I, after 1919, in the area outside of the jurisdiction of the city construction rules. It was a workers' settlement, mainly inhabited by the workers on the railroad who either rented rooms or built their own shanty houses. By the 1921 general urban city plan, it was labeled as one of the "scarce settlements", which formed a suburban ring around Belgrade. A Society for Arrangement of Đurđevo Brdo and Topčidersko Brdo was founded by 1923. In the mid-1930s it had some 150 houses and a population of 600, still being classified as the shanty town with small buildings and houses with yards. The name disappeared from the city maps after World War II, when all separately developed neighborhoods grew urbanely into one called Senjak.[24][25]

Gospodarska Mehana (Serbian: Господарска Механа) is the westernmost section of Senjak. It occupies the slopes descending to the Sava, just across the southern end of the Belgrade Fair and north of the Topčiderka's mouth into the Sava. It was named after the famed, and one of the longest surviving kafana in Belgrade, Gospodarska mehana. Kafana was founded in 1820 in what was at the time the end of the city.[26] Due to the construction of the Ada Bridge, access roads to it and a loop interchange, the kafana was cut off and had to be closed in September 2013, after 193 years.[27]

In 1821, the state government decided to put the food trade in order and to establish the quantity and quality of the goods imported to the city. Part of the project was introduction of the excise on the goods (in Serbian called trošarina) and setting of a series of excise check points on the roads leading to the city.[28] One of those check points, which all gradually also became known as trošarina, was located here as in the 1830s and 1840s it was a location of the ferry which transported pigs across the Sava into the Austria. This trošarina also functioned as a customs house. On 25 January 1859, when prince Miloš Obrenović and his son Mihailo Obrenović returned to Serbia, they landed at Gospodarska Mehana. The customs house was dismantled first. Later, the large storehouse was demolished, too, while the kafana survived until the early 21st century.[2][29]

It was the final stop of the first Belgrade's tram line and still is on the important traffic route with important streets (Boulevard of Vojvoda Mišić, Radnička Street), railway, public transportation lines (still surviving tram line), road elevation which connects Banovo Brdo and Čukarica with Belgrade (formerly known as the "Gospodarska Mehana elevation"), etc. In the 1930s, when most of Belgrade's upper class built houses in Dedinje, some decided to build houses in Gospodarska Mehana, including then Prime minister of Yugoslavia, Milan Stojadinović.

Slope right above the Gospodarska Mehana is called Rajsova padina (Reiss’ Slope), named after Archibald Reiss, Swiss forensics pioneer who lived in Senjak after moving to Serbia when the World War I ended. In May 2011, as part of the project of foresting the city and creating a green barrier against traffic from the interchange and the roads, 400 trees were planted on Rajsova padina, including cedar, pedunculate oak, Cypress oak and Siberian elm.[30] Total forested area covers an area of 3.46 ha (8.5 acres).[23]

In the mid-19th century, northern part of modern Senjak was a meadow, with only the Topčider road passing through. It was used as the training ground for the army and as the pasture for the sheep. The northern slope, above the left bank of the Mokroluški Creek was known as Zamastir. Czech émigré Heinrich Smutek, who owned a kafana, arranged a large estate (with a bricklayer), and a garden in the area. Zamastir then became known as Smutekovac, after the kafana's name. It became an excursion site for the Belgraders, which originally came by fiacres and later by the tram "Topčiderac", which connected the downtown with Topčider.[31][32][33]

In the 1870s the area was parceled and Đorđe Vajfert purchased the land from the lawyer Pera Marković. As he was a German subject, he couldn't own properties in Serbia. Instead he paid the entire sum to Marković who issued him a receipt. Vajfert then started to build the brewery in 1872, predecessor of the modern BIP Brewery at the same location. As soon as he was granted Serbian citizenship, Vajfert received a deed on the land. He finished the brewery and turned the surrounding estate into an exquisite garden, which hosted many banquets and parties. In 1892, city authorities organized a banquet with Nikola Tesla as the guest of honor.[31][32][33]

The neighborhood developed in the first decade after World War I, in the area outside of the jurisdiction of the city construction rules. It developed after 1919 south of Đurđevo Brdo, in the direction of the Sugar Refinery and Čukarica further to the south. In the mid-1930s it had some 50 houses and a population of 200, still being classified as the shanty town with small buildings and houses with yards.[25]

The bank of the Sava river at Gospodarska Mehana was the most popular Belgrade's beach during the Interbellum. The beach was known as the "Šest Topola" ("Six Poplars") and especially boomed after 1933 when other beaches were closed.[34] Just like other smaller location, it was equipped with the swimming (bathing) pools with wooden floors. It had separate bathing pools for men, women and children. The first water polo matches in Belgrade were held at "Šest Topola" between World Wars. After World War II, the new Communist authorities considered such bathing places relicts of the old regime and wanted to make leisure more approachable for the lower classes, so in time they switched to forming proper beaches along the rivers instead of the bathing centers.[35]

So, in time, the neighboring Ada Ciganlija became the top excursion site. The name of "Šest Topola" is preserved in the name of the restaurant on the Sava's bank within the complex of the Belgrade Fair. Designed by architect Milorad Pantović, it was opened on 23 August 1957. For a while after 1964, it was part of the Hospitality Educational Center.[36]