Staro Sajmište (Serbian Cyrillic: Старо Сајмиште, romanized: Old Fairground) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

[1][2] Although this is what is usually considered as the Staro Sajmište, local community (sub-municipal administrative unit) of the same name also includes the entire Block 18 to the south, which is located between the streets of Vladimira Popovića and Zemunski put, Gazela Bridge and the left bank of the Sava.

Also, a group of White Russian emigrants built several small buildings, mostly rented by the carters who carried goods across the river.

Designed by the architects Milivoje Tričković, Rajko Tatić and Đorđe Lukić, it was envisioned as the monumental modern complex, with the Central Tower as the domineering motif.

[9] After Yugoslav government signed a deal with the Czechoslovakian Škoda Works for the purchase of 300 tanks in 1937, as a gesture of thanks, the company decided to donate the towering construction as the parachuting attraction.

The tower was an imposing and domineering structure, which, due to its height and position in the flat and low terrain, was visible from all parts of Belgrade from across the river.

[4] After the April war of 1941 when Germany and its allies occupied and partitioned the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, entire Syrmia region (including the left bank of the Sava) became part of the Independent State of Croatia.

From April 1942 onwards, Serbian prisoners were transported in from Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška concentration camps run by Croatian Ustaše collaborators.

According to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the death toll was exaggerated by the Communist Party for political purposes, with the real number of inmates being about 50,000 and 20,000 killed.

[7][11][17][18] Finally on 9 July 1987, Belgrade City Assembly decided to make Staro Sajmište a cultural site, thereby protecting it from real-estate expansion development.

Few remaining old artists have no resources to renovate the complex themselves and the area became the gathering site for vagrants and criminals, so the ateliers are often looted.

Old sandy beach on the Sava bank in Staro Sajmište used to be called "Nica" (Nice), after kafana where the modern restaurant Ušće is located.

The bank of the Sava in the neighboring Ušće, starting in 1991, became a location of numerous barges (Serbian splav, plural splavovi), which became central venues of the city's modern nightlife.

These barges had "historical importance" for the expansion and acceptance of the venues as an authentic part of the Belgrade's nightlife and tourist offering.

However, the constant public conflict between the cheap fun and criminal on the barges, and the solemnity of the neighborhood given its war history, continued for decades.

[27] As the rest of New Belgrade developed, Staro Sajmište in time became surrounded by various important economic, commercial and landmark features of the new city.

They include the Ušće Tower, Ušće Park, with the skatepark, on the north; a complex of business buildings (Naftna Industrija Srbije, Huawei, Delta Holding, Genex Apartments, Savograd), hotels (Crowne Plaza Belgrade, Hyatt Regency Belgrade) and multi-purpose building of Sava Centar, on the west; industrial facilities of Savski Nasip, peninsula of Mala Ciganlija and the Bežanija winter shelter, an arm of the Sava, on the southwest.

[29] In January 2019, investment company "Marera Properties" announced that the new complex would include seats of all secretariats and institutes of the state government and the city of Belgrade.

Total floor area built on the 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) owned by the company's should be 350,000 m2 (3,800,000 sq ft), and was announced as Belgrade's version of The City.

[30] In the previous decades, all city plans treated this area as part of the Sava Amphitheatre, one urban unit with Savamala across the river in the old section of Belgrade.

This was all changed because of the project Belgrade Waterfront which officially kept this part within its scopes, but envisioned completely independent urban development.

[31] In February 1992, as provided by the detailed urban plan, the neighborhood was to be fully reconstructed to its pre-war look, an idea opposed by some architects, with added memorial and commemorative objects.

[32] On 24 February 2020, National Assembly of Serbia adopted the law which established the Memorial Center "Staro Sajmište".

Budisavljević saved 15,000 children (12,000 of which survived) from perishing in the Concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia, operated by the Ustaše regime during World War II.