According to a popular - but unproven - version of events, Prince Milan accepted a bribe of 1 million francs in gold to give the job to the French.

It was a marsh which covered a wide area stretching from the present-day Karađorđeva street to the mouth of the Topčiderska Reka into the Sava, across the northern tip of Ada Ciganlija.

The marshy area covered the today's location of the Belgrade Main railway station and parts of the Sarajevska and Hajduk-Veljkov venac streets.

They lived in small huts or caravans (called "čerge"), between the high grass and rush, with their horses and water buffalos grazing freely in the area.

As most of the huts were actually stilt houses built on piles due to the marshy land, the area was gradually named Bara Venecija ("Venice pond").

Earth and gravel were dug and used to cover and drain the swamps on the right bank of the Sava, so that the neighborhoods of Savamala and Bara Venecija could be constructed, along with the building of central railway station.

The former village of Savamala was closest, but the city could only be reached using a fiaker, and this along a bypass route leading through Spomenička Street (modern Nemanjina).

The building of the station lagged behind the construction of the railway and the bridge, so when the time came for the first train to pass through Belgrade, the object wasn't finished.

20 August] 1884, at 3 p.m.[13] As Serbia was declared a kingdom in 1882, the first passengers were now King Milan, Queen Natalie and the Crown Prince Alexander, on the way to Vienna.

The journal Novi beogradski dnevnik wrote: "Young and old, rich and poor, pretty and ugly, they all gathered in Bara Venecija to see the start of the first Serbian railway".

The modernist building was known for the narrow corridor which allowed for the agents of the Gestapo and Nedić's special police to control passengers.

Two side towers, one of the main architectural and visual marks of the station in the direction of the Karađorđeva Street, weren't rebuilt but were completely demolished instead.

Above the clock, in the tympanum there was a coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia, held by sculptured, stone winged lions (gryphons.

However, disliked by the group of influential architects, in the future development the envisioned urban tissue was effectively "cut" in its Savamala section by the new projects, and almost nothing of the planned has done.

The Prokop is still not finished, has no station building and a proper access road and public transportation connections with the rest of the city.

[12] In February 2020 it was confirmed that the Nikola Tesla Museum will be relocated here from Krunski Venac, instead of the previously planned location of the Old Power Plant in Dorćol.

The plans are to turn it into the plateau with a large monument to Stefan Nemanja in front of the former railway station, facing Nemanjina Street, named after him.

[38] President of the Academy of Architecture of Serbia, Bojan Kovačević called the project "irritation" and a part of the city administration's "fifth year of spite towards the public and profession" and "logorrheic phase of the spatial auto-goals".

[39] Architect Slobodan Maldini pointed to the inadequacies of the competition, including the composition and competency of the jury and a fact that the name of the winner leaked 8 days before it was officially announced.

Spanish work is formally flawed as it has no documentation needed, the monument is different in appearance, size and location from the already chosen Russian sculpture.

Maldini stated that the competition is a result of the greed and incompetence and described the project as "unacceptable concreting without ideas" and the sculpture as pricey and megalomaniacal.

Government and city institutions connected with the reconstruction remained silent on any further explanation of the illogicalities regarding the reconstruction: if the building was already left as it is for over a year, why the sudden hastiness; if the weather is a problem, why are the works pushed for the upcoming, winter season; lack of the public invitation to tender; who is really financing the works - the city, the government or the Belgrade Waterfront; if this was planned for several years, why are funds secured via budget reserves and not allocated previously.

[23][41] In November 2020, the government decided to relocate the Historical Museum of Serbia into the building, announcing the possible interior reconstruction for late 2021.

The hands of the face clocks were replaced with lighter ones, while the GPS antenna and solar panels have been placed above the main entrance.

[46][47] The Minister for Culture, Maja Gojković, announced in February 2022 that the reconstruction of the building would start in July 2022, and would be finished in November 2023.

[49] Derelict, partially flooded, and covered in overgrowth and waste, former station was labeled the Belgrade's "greatest abomination and shame".

[56][57] The complete removal of the railway traffic and the total shut down of the station, planned for 1 July 2018,[58] has been met with the opposition from experts and the public, especially the notion that it has been hastily done because of the controversial Belgrade Waterfront project,[15][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] while some openly doubt that the investors from the United Arab Emirates really asked for this to happen and that it is all part of a "special story".

Saying that such a luxurious complex like the planned Belgrade Waterfront cannot function without some kind of a railway system, especially for connecting it to the airport, the experts insisted on keeping the old station in at least a diminished capacity, but the city refused that, claiming that the investors from the United Arab Emirates, who are partners in the Belgrade Waterfront project, rejected any idea of a railway.

It is one of the first railway stations in Serbia, whose design included a specific architectural program and contents adapted to European technical achievements.

On 10 April 1984, a Tito's Blue Train steam locomotive (1947-1978) was put on open display next to the railway station entrance.