Tašmajdan Park

In a narrower sense, Tašmajdan occupies the area bounded by the streets of Takovska on the north-west, Ilije Garašanina on the northeast, Beogradska on the southeast and Bulevar kralja Aleksandra.

[9] Almost two millennia ago, Romans were extracting stone from the quarry located in the area for the building of Belgrade's predecessor, Singidunum and for many surviving sarcophagi from that period.

[12] The quarry remained operational during Ottoman period, thus giving the name to the entire location (Turkish taş, stone and maydan, mine),[13] though it was also used for the extraction of saltpeter by Ilija Milosavljević Kolarac,[14] which was used in the gunpowder production.

[16][17] Little Vračar (Serbian: Мали Врачар) occupied the area along the Tsarigrad Road, starting from the modern crossroad of the Takovska Street and Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra.

As Kuzmanović wrote, based on previous researches, they all took 60–70 steps from the church altar to the east and ended up on the small mound, called Čupina Humka from where both the Sava and the Danube rivers could be seen.

It was here that on 30 November 1830 the Sultan's hattisherif (decree) was publicly announced, declaring autonomy (de facto, internal independence) of Serbia and granting hereditary ruling rights to the Obrenović dynasty.

During the Čukur Fountain incident in June 1862, and the subsequent bombardment of the city by the Ottomans from the fortress, thousands of women and children found refuge in Tašmajdan's caves.

First modern horse races in Belgrade, based on those held in Western Europe, were organized in 1842, by the former British consul-general George Lloyd Hodges.

[13] New cemetery was intended as "international" contrary to the existing practice, so beside Serbs, it was also the burial place for Hungarians, Germans, Greeks, Italians and French.

The hill in the direction of modern Seismology Institute was allocated for the graves of soldiers, drowning victims, suicides and non-Christians in general, except for the Jews, who had their own cemetery.

[21] In the western section of the cemetery the Catholics and Protestants were buried, Serbs on the central promenade, while area around modern Seisomology Institute was left for the soldiers, suicides and drowned ones.

Some of the most important Serbs from this period were buried in the churchyard, including politicians Toma Vučić-Perišić and Stojan Simić and Stevan Knićanin, philologist Đura Daničić, botanist and first president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Josif Pančić and philanthropist Ilija Milosavljević Kolarac.

[29][30] This was the usual practice in the Balkan history in general (the old, reused materials are called spolije) as there are numerous Greek, Roman and Byzantine remains in the region.

He intended to build it above the former quarry, where the modern stadium is, as an edifice "monumental like Vatican cathedral of Saint Peter and beautiful like basilica Sagrada Família in Barcelona".

[31] The Belgrade's first general urban plan, adopted in 1923 and approved in 1924, envisioned construction of the city's municipal hall at the crossroads of the boulevard and Takovska, but the Main Post Office Palace was built instead.

[34] Later, Stanković became secretary general of FIBA, Nikolić was a coach, labeled the "Father of Yugoslav basketball" while Šaper and Popović turned to administrative positions.

Miladin Prljević was given the task of reducing the project, so he downsized it from five huge buildings to two, one to exhibit paintings and sculptures, and the other for medieval collection.

The project included conservation of the remaining ruins, and creation of one continuous "discretely symbolic" and "suggestively poetic" memorial complex with the existing "Why?"

Family members of the victims opposed to the stipulation in the competition that memorial text will blame only the NATO and not the executives of the television (then general manager Dragoljub Milanović served 10 years for not relocating the workers in time).

Still, it was decided that nothing will be demolished, that nothing can be built in the park, that existing edifices will be kept "as long as they stand" and that they can't be enlarged and annexed, either in width or height.

In October 2019, under suspicious conditions, the leaseholder of Poslednja Šansa since 1991 was expelled and Predrag Ranković Peconi, controversial business figure who has been acquiring hospitality venues in Belgrade in the past two decades, was announced as the new tenant.

Sports Center, which owns the venue, claims the name will be preserved and the statue of poet Vasko Popa will be erected in the restaurant's yard.

[46] Reconstruction included the rebuilding of the paths, removal of sick trees and planting of new ones, construction of two children playgrounds and a special area for the pensioners.

Two public toilets and park infrastructure were renovated, the video surveillance system was installed and the statue of the writer Milorad Pavić was erected.

[49] In June 2018 it was announced that a monument to Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1990 to 2009, will be erected on the green area between the newly finished plateau and the tram stop in Tašmajdan Park.

He also added that he was influenced by the photos of patriarch commuting by the trams – it showed his mundane approach to life, using the public transportation, and he indeed often travelled to this spot when he was visiting the Saint Mark's Church.

Today existing Serbian Orthodox St. Mark's Church was built in 1931–1940, in the medieval Serbo-Byzantine style, patterned after the Gračanica monastery.

[63] Headquarters were massive, with large metal doors, truck entrances and fully prepared to support 1,000 soldiers for six months without making any surface contact.

[10] It could survive chemical and biological attacks, had a ventilation system, power generator, phone lines and elevator and one of the caves was even adapted into the brig for disobedient soldiers.

[63] Underwater research company "Viridijan" announced in June 2006 it would begin construction of the first Belgrade's aquarium in the caves beneath Tašmajdan.

Tašmajdan park
Map of Urban local communities of Belgrade in Palilula municipality
Tašmajdan old cemetery, 1856
The Miocene ridge in Tašmajdan
St. Mark's Church rising above the park
Tašmajdan's fountain with monument to Milorad Pavić and Heydar Aliev
Statue of Desanka Maksimović at Tašmajdan