Belgrade Main railway station
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The Belgrade Main railway station ( sr, Железничка станица Београд Главна, Železnička stanica Beograd Glavna) is a former
train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...
in
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
, the capital of Serbia. It was built between 1882 and 1885 according to the designs of the architect Dragutin Milutinović, and it has the status of a сultural monument of great importance. Until the opening of the new Belgrade Center station (Prokop) in 2016, it was the city's main station, and the busiest one in the country. In order to free up the space for the
Belgrade Waterfront Belgrade Waterfront, known in Serbian as Belgrade on Water ( sr, / ), is an urban renewal development project headed by the Government of Serbia aimed at improving Belgrade's cityscape and economy by revitalizing the Sava amphitheater, a negle ...
project, the station was closed on 1 July 2018, and repurposed to become a museum. Passenger trains have been gradually relocated to the new station during 2016 and 2017. Most national railway traffic was moved to the new station in December 2017, thus leaving only international trains and two trains to Novi Sad in the old station. The Main station operated until 30 June 2018, when the last train, international train 340 to
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...
, left the station at 21:40. International trains were relocated to Prokop and train to Bar relocated to the Topčider railway station.


History


Origin

At the 1878
Congress of Berlin The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at th ...
the Principality of Serbia was
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
recognized as an independent state. The great powers of the day decided that Serbia should construct the railway. Not economically developed to begin with, Serbia was additionally pauperized after the Serbian-Ottoman wars from 1876 to 1878, so it lacked the necessary funds. Prince Milan Obrenović and the government announced a request for tender and the bidding was won by a French company. 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.


Construction

The concession included the construction of the Belgrade–Niš railway, the train bridge over the
Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...
river and a railway that would connect Belgrade to
Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...
, a border town of
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
at the time. The location of the future station building was chosen in 1881. It was a marshy
bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
called ''Ciganska bara'' ("Gypsy pond"). The bog was charted for the first time in an
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n map from 1789. 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 Ada Ciganlija ( sr-cyr, Ада Циганлија, ), colloquially shortened to Ada, is a river island that has artificially been turned into a peninsula, located in the Sava River's course through central Belgrade, Serbia. The name can also ref ...
. The marshy area covered the today's location of the Belgrade Main railway station and parts of the ''Sarajevska'' and ''Hajduk-Veljkov venac'' streets. Ciganska bara drained two other bogs. One was located on Slavija, which drained through the creek of ''Vračarski potok'' which flew down the area of the today's
Nemanjina Street Nemanjina Street ( sr, Немањина улица / ''Nemanjina ulica'', en, Nemanja Street) is a very important thoroughfare in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, in the Savski Venac municipality. After the completion of the construction of the Railw ...
. The other pond was Zeleni Venac. The eponymous
Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
inhabiting the area used the mud from the bog to make roof tiles. 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 house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. ...
s built on
piles Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''he ...
due to the marshy land, the area was gradually named Bara Venecija ("
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
pond"). As such, the location was absolutely inappropriate for any construction work and the marsh had to be filled first. The remains of the demolished Stambol Gate in 1866 also finished in the bog. By 1884 the bog was drained and buried under the rubble from all parts of the city but especially from
Prokop Prokop may mean either of two Hussite generals, both of whom died in the 1434 battle of Lipan: * Prokop the Great * Prokop the Lesser Other people who bore the name Prokop: * Procopius, 6c historian * Saint Prokop, or Procopius of Sázava (died 1 ...
, Prokop is located in the eastern section of the former neighborhood of Jatagan Mala. Previously, it was a geographical reference, as the area was located in the lower valley of the now-underground stream of Mokroluški Potok. 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 Savamala ( sr-cyr, Савамала) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipalities of Savski Venac and Stari Grad. Location Savamala is located south of the Kalemegdan fortress and ...
and Bara Venecija could be constructed, along with the building of central railway station. After the works were completed, the area around Mokroluški Potok was left as a steep, elongated cut in the ground, thus acquiring its name (Serbian ''prokop'', cut or dug through). Prince Milan personally suggested this area, which stretched above Đorđe Vajfert's brewery and the neighborhood of Smutekovac. Among his many reasons he cited the quality of the earth and the fact that the proximity of the construction site would reduce the transportation costs. However, that land belonged to his wife, Princess Natalie, so the prince even earned money from the station's construction. In a historical twist, Prokop is the location of Belgrade's designated present-day central railway station. When the location was chosen, it was also disconnected from Belgrade in terms of transportation. The former village of Savamala was closest, but the city could only be reached using a
fiaker A fiacre is a form of hackney coach, a horse-drawn four-wheeled carriage for hire. In Vienna such cabs are called . Origin The earliest use of the word in English is cited by the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' as from 1699 (" Fiacres or Hackneys ...
, and this along a bypass route leading through Spomenička Street (modern Nemanjina). The construction of the railway and station initially met with fierce opposition. The law on railway construction barely passed in the National Assembly of Serbia, while for the railway itself it was said that it was both costly and unnecessary; a "devil's snake"; a "destroyer of the people", a threat to female fertility and a conduit of infiltration by foreign powers.


Opening

The
foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...
s were laid by prince Milan: for the railway on , for the station on . 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. As it was obvious that the station won't be finished on time, the temporary object was built to serve the purpose instead. Even though at one point in 1884 it was recorded that 5,575 workers were employed on the building's construction, it couldn't be finished in time. It had to be ceremonially open, even though it was still covered with scaffolds. The first train from this station departed towards
Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...
with courtly honours, on , at 3 p.m. As Serbia was declared a kingdom in 1882, the first passengers were now King Milan, Queen Natalie and the Crown Prince
Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
, on the way to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. More than 200 foreign guests and couple of thousands of citizens attended the opening ceremony. Military orchestra played music all the way until the train crossed the bridge. Three days later the station was again decorated with flags and flowers as the railway to Niš was open and the first, promotional composition towards Niš departed. Cannons from the
Belgrade Fortress The Belgrade Fortress ( sr-Cyrl, Београдска тврђава, Beogradska tvrđava), consists of the old citadel (Upper and Lower Town) and Kalemegdan Park (Large and Little Kalemegdan) on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, in a ...
marked the occasion while the military orchestras played marches. 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 first train departed at 8:45, with 100 passengers in nine cars with three classes. Just to accommodate the huge crowds of journalists and cheering citizens, another train departed just five minutes later. The first passenger line started on at 8:30. It was a line to Niš, and the train had 20 cars with 200 passengers. On the same day, the line to Pest was established, and at the beginning only two trains a day departed on these lines. Archbishop of Belgrade and Metropolitan of Serbia, Teodosije Mraović, blessed the two first locomotives. The regular traffic was established 10 days later. Until the station was finished, a small building in front of it functioned as a temporary facility (ticket booths, administration, etc.). On that spot, today is exhibited a steam locomotive, just in front of the building. The fully finished station became operational on 21 September 1885. At the time, the central section of the building was occupied by the offices of the station's personnel,
telephone exchange telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syste ...
,
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
, cashier boxes, wardrobes and police offices. The left wing of the station was adapted into the royal waiting room, while the right one was for the regular passenger. In this section there were also restaurants, while the upper floor was occupied by the living quarters for the station's employees.


Later developments

After being completed in September 1885 and soon became the most important railway hub in this part of Europe. In 1888 it became a stop on the
Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...
route and in 1892 a ceremonial reception for
Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
; 1856 – 7 January 1943 ...
was organized. The very first car in Belgrade arrived by train, via the main station, on 3 April 1903. The first
ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...
in Belgrade was built near the station in 1900. The building originally had a gas lighting, which was later replaced with the electrical one. As it was a major consumer, it was decided that the building will have its own power generator. A mini electrical plant was built next to the station building in 1909 and demolished in 1929, when the building of the Post Office No. 6 was built instead. After the station was finished, the area to the east developed into the square which, due to its location close both to the railway and the port, served for the transshipment of the goods, especially the cereals and grains, so in time it was named ''Žitni trg'' ("Grains square"). It was also well connected with the roads which lead outside of the city. It was directly connected with the road which is today the ''Savska'' Street in the direction of the
Mostar , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Mostar (collage image).jpg , image_caption = From top, left to right: A panoramic view of the heritage town site and the Neretva river from Lučki Bridge, Koski Mehmed Pasha ...
neighborhood. There, it was splitting in two directions, one to the east (later neighborhoods of Jatagan Mala and
Prokop Prokop may mean either of two Hussite generals, both of whom died in the 1434 battle of Lipan: * Prokop the Great * Prokop the Lesser Other people who bore the name Prokop: * Procopius, 6c historian * Saint Prokop, or Procopius of Sázava (died 1 ...
) in the direction of
Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...
in central Serbia, and the other to the south (neighborhoods of
Senjak Senjak ( sr-cyrl, Сењак, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, one of the three municipalities that constitute the very center of the city, it is an affluent neighborhood containing emba ...
, Čukarica, Žarkovo) and further to the west Serbia. The square was renamed ''Vilsonov trg'' ("Wilson's Square") after World War I, in honor of the US president
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
and today in named ''Savski trg'' ("Sava Square"). In 1924 the station was connected to Požarevac, and further with eastern Serbia, while in 1928 it was connected to
Obrenovac Obrenovac ( sr-cyr, Обреновац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 71,419 inhabitants, while the urban area has 24,568 inhabitants. The largest Serbian th ...
and
Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
. Soon after, direct connection was established with
Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranea ...
and Zelenika (
Herceg Novi Herceg Novi ( cyrl, Херцег Нови, ) is a coastal town in Montenegro located at the Western entrance to the Bay of Kotor and at the foot of Mount Orjen. It is the administrative center of the Herceg Novi Municipality with around 33,000 ...
).


World War II and reconstruction

The building was damaged during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. It was hit during the bombing of Belgrade, part of the German attack on Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Immediately after entering Belgrade, Germans constructed an improvised stationary building next to the damaged building, on the location where the
Tito's Blue Train Tito's ''Blue Train'' ( sr, Плави воз, Plavi voz; hr, Plavi vlak; sl, Modri vlak; mk, Синиот воз, Siniot voz) is a luxury train, once used by Josip Broz Tito, while president of the former Yugoslavia. It is now operated as a ...
was exhibited in 1980. This building was constructed by the Ukrainian émigré architect Pavel Krat. The
modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
building was known for the narrow corridor which allowed for the agents of the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
and Nedić's special police to control passengers. The station was further damaged during the heavy Easter Bombing, conducted by the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
in 1944. The building was reconstructed after the war, being fully finished in 1953. 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. The post-war reconstruction was headed by the Russian contractors. The clock, placed above the main entrance immediately after the opening in 1885, was also damaged. New mechanism was placed inside and the clock was returned to its original place, but the clock's decorative lace of wrought iron wasn't restored. The door at the main entrance were replaced, but the decoration from the same material as the clock's also hasn't been restored. The glass roof was completely destroyed during the war, but the Russian opted for a built roof instead for restoring the original, glass one. Above the clock, in the tympanum there was a coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia, held by sculptured, stone winged lions ( gryphons. Above this composition, the Roman numerals MDCCCLXXXIV, marking the year of 1884, were written over the
architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can a ...
. New Communist authorities took down the royal coat of arms immediately after taking over after World War II. The stone lions and the
cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...
, the decorative round shield around them, were removed later and disappeared after a while. The late 2010s plans for the reconstruction include the restoration of the coat of arms, but none of the other destroyed or removed parts of the building. The coat of arms composition on the tympanum (''fronton'') was long and tall. It was reconstructed in 2019 and made of metal core covered with clay, which is used to make the plaster cast. This cast was used for the new sculpture, which was made of the mix of concrete and three types of crushed Aranđelovac stone. The coat of arms was placed on 11 February 2020.


Post war development

In 1939, 23,298 trains departed from the station. In 1966, there were 60,119 trains with 6.4 million passengers. That same year, half of the international mail from
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
was shipped from the station. The "golden age" of the station were the 1970s and 1980s, when the peak of 150 trains per day was reached. Following
Breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
in the early 1990s, abrupt demise of railway traffic in Serbia followed, consequences of which are felt also today. Meanwhile, construction of the new
Belgrade railway junction The Belgrade railway junction ( sr, Београдски железнички чвор, ) is a large-scale reconstruction of the rail network in Belgrade, Serbia. It was launched 1971 with works officially starting 1974 with the construction of th ...
was continued, and plans for dislocating main station to "Belgrade Center", colloquially called Prokop, became realistic. A 1959 plan envisioned urban axis Belgrade Main Railway Station- SIV Building (
New Belgrade New Belgrade ( sr, / , ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It is a planned city, built since 1948 in a previously uninhabited area on the left bank of the Sava river, opposite old Belgrade. In recent years, it has become the central bu ...
) as the baseline for the future development of both old and new parts of Belgrade. The area between these two points, described as "two basal foundations", was to be spanned with nine urban blocks, spreading on both sides of the Sava. Railway station itself was to preserve its function, with additional overhaul which would make it look like the largest railways stations in Europe ("large lace made of glass and steel"). Savamala was to be populated with hotels, bus station, terminus for the airport transport, megamarkets, etc. 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. According to the city's general urban plan (GUP) in the 1960s, Cvetni Trg was envisioned as the location of the future central underground subway station of Belgrade, which would also replace the main railway station. The tunnels would conduct the traffic in the north to south direction. The railroad authorities opposed the project, so the plans were abandoned. In 1966, the
Belgrade Bus Station Belgrade Bus Station ( sr-cyr, Београдска аутобуска станица) is the main bus station in Belgrade, Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, the bus station is composed by a bus depot A bus garage, also known as a bus depot, ...
was built, adjoining the station's complex on the north. Starting with 1967, the Yugoslav Railways pursued an electrification programme, initially focusing on railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 31 May 1970, the Zagreb to Belgrade railway corridor was electrified, and it marked the first time when an electric railway (excluding trams and industrial railways) reached the Serbian soil. On 25 September 1968, three steel-made bombs exploded in the station's
cloakroom A cloakroom, or sometimes coatroom, is a room for people to hang their coats, cloaks or other outerwear when they enter a building. Cloakrooms are typically found inside large buildings, such as gymnasiums, schools, churches or meeting halls. ...
, injuring 13 people.
Miljenko Hrkać Miljenko Hrkać (2 October 1947 – 11 January 1978) was a Croatian terrorist sentenced to death by a Yugoslav court which accused him of bombing the Belgrade cinema "20. oktobar" on 13 July 1968, which left one person dead and 89 others maimed or i ...
, member of the Ustashe terrorist organization, planted the bombs, so as earlier that year when on 13 July a bomb exploded in the cinema "20. Oktobar", which killed one and injured 86 audience members. Hrkać was later apprehended, sentenced to death and executed in 1978.


Closing

Gradual moving of trains to the new station began in the early 2016. In December 2017, all but two national trains were dislocated to "Belgrade Center". Problems arose immediately. 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. Additionally, it has no facilities for loading and unloading cars from the auto trains, nor was ever planned to have one. Still, in January 2018 it was announced that the station will be completely closed for traffic on 1 July 2018, even though none of the projects needed for a complete removal of the railway traffic are finished. The Prokop is incomplete, a projected main goods station in Zemun is not being adapted at all while there is even no project on Belgrade railway beltway.


After shut down

After closing, the building was removed from the possession of the state railway company and became directly administered by the state. The overhaul of the building was planned to start in the autumn of 2018 and to be finished in February 2020. The renovation includes the reconstruction of the façade and new decorative lights. The venue will then be transformed into the museum. The railway company wanted it to be the museum of the railway, but the government rejected the proposal straightaway, announcing the transformation into the Museum of Medieval Serbia or the Historical Museum. In February 2020 it was confirmed that the
Nikola Tesla Museum The Nikola Tesla Museum ( sr-cyr, Музеј Николе Тесле, Muzej Nikole Tesle) is a science museum located in the central area of Belgrade, Serbia. It is dedicated to honoring and displaying the life and work of Nikola Tesla as well as ...
will be relocated here from
Krunski Venac Krunski Venac ( sr, Крунски Венац) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Vračar. In May 2021, the neighborhood was protected as the spatial cultural-historical unit ...
, instead of the previously planned location of the Old Power Plant in
Dorćol Dorćol ( sr-cyr, Дорћол; ) is an affluent urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad. Located along the right bank of the Danube, Dorćol is oldest surviving neighborhood ...
. Just few days later, the government stated that they actually didn't decide where the museum will be relocated and that it may be some completely different location. City later stated that the building will host the Museum of Nikola Tesla after all, but in September 2020 president Aleksandar Vučić said that the Museum of Medieval Serbia will be formed instead. Project Belgrade Waterfront envisioned complete change of the square area in front of the building. The plans are to turn it into the plateau with large monument to
Stefan Nemanja Stefan Nemanja (Serbian Cyrillic: , ; – 13 February 1199) was the Grand Prince ( Veliki Župan) of the Serbian Grand Principality (also known as Raška, lat. ) from 1166 to 1196. A member of the Vukanović dynasty, Nemanja founded the Nema ...
in front of the former railway station, facing the Nemanjina Street, named after him. The existing street routes will be turned into the semi-circular crossroad and the traffic will be relocated to the edge of the square. The existing roundabout of the public transportation and a memorial for the 1990-1999 war victims, placed in the 2000s, will be relocated. The existing buildings around the square will be kept, but some will change their purpose. The size and the design of the monument to Stefan Nemanja provoked public and artistic criticism. Historian called it the continuation of almost two decades long " Arkanization of the monumental skyline" in Belgrade, while rector of the
University of Arts in Belgrade The University of Arts in Belgrade ( sr-cyr, Универзитет уметности у Београду, Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu) is a public university in Serbia. It was founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies. ...
, Mileta Prodanović, said that the proposed project is devastating for the building of the railway station and that Belgrade is being transformed into
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...
. 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". He criticized the bidding process as fake and farcical and pointed that important Belgrade architects boycotted the bidding, adding that we "used to laugh at Skopje". 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. Reconstruction of the station's façade was announced to start in September 2019. The job was given to the "Koto" company, which is involved in another controversial project of the city government, Kalemegdan gondola lift. Though the price is much higher than 5 million dinars (€42,500; estimated to 240 million dinars, or €2,035,000), which means that the public bidding is obligatory by the law, the government gave the project in direct negotiations with the company, citing "hastiness due to the weather issues". 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 hastiness all of the sudden; 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 the budget reserves and not allocated previously. Deadline was set to February 2020, when the coat-of-arms was restored to the facade.


Deterioration

In November 2020, the government decided to relocate the
Historical Museum of Serbia The Historical Museum of Serbia ( sr, Историјски музеј Србије/Istorijski muzej Srbije, ) is a public institution dedicated to documentation of history of Serbia from prehistory up to the present. The museum was established ...
into the building, announcing the possible interior reconstruction for the late 2021. As it was left unkept, the interior deteriorated a lot by June 2021. The plaster on the walls peeled of, on some places uncovering the reed, which was used for plating at the time. The basement was flooded, the roof beams were attacked by mold, and the parquet flooring dried and bent. Dušica Bojić, director of the Historical Museum of Serbia which took over the building on 19 November 2020, said that the situation in the building is very bad. All communal infrastructure ruptured, with waste water flooding the basement. The power grid also collapsed, causing the exterior clock to stop working. All three exterior clocks (main entrance, side entrance, inner platform entrance) were then removed in August 2021, and their analog mechanisms were replaced with digital ones. 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. Minister for Culture, Maja Gojković, announced in February 2022 that the reconstruction of the building will start in July 2022, and it will be finished in November 2023. By July 2022, the inner yard where the former platforms were, was littered with garbage, resembling a dump. Derelict, partially flooded, and covered in overgrowth and waste, former station was labeled the Belgrade's "greatest abomination and shame". The garbage continued to pile up, including in the building itself. The smell became unbearable as dead animals were thrown to the dump, too. Both the new museum administration and Ministry of Culture claim to have pleaded the government for months to solve the problem, but to no avail. In September 2022, city communal services cleaned the inside of the building and the area adjoining the building but left the piles of grabage on the former platforms and tracks, claiming it is the land of Belgrade Waterfront. The authorities blamed homeless people and migrants for creating the dump. The Belgrade Waterfront company started to remove the garbage in October 2022. Only smaller quantity of the garbage was removed, leaving large piles. By November 2022, the interior was damaged by fires, presumably lit by the homeless and migrants, as the building is basically left to the elements. At this time, it was announced that the funding for the reconstruction was secured.


Criticism of shut down

The complete removal of the railway traffic and the total shut down of the station, planned for 1 July 2018, has been met with the opposition from the experts and public, especially the notion that it has been hastily done because of the controversial Belgrade Waterfront project, 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". Especially since, as of June 2018, it was estimated that in the best case scenario Prokop will become fully functional station, with all the necessary and supporting services, only in 2021. Member of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...
and a public transportation expert, Vukan Vučić described the closing of the station and its transfer to Prokop as the "most disastrous error of the Belgrade transportation". Citing numerous disadvantages of the new station, he asserted that the old, Main station is way better suited for the railway traffic and that is should be kept. Main station is interconnected by the public transportation lines with almost all parts of Belgrade, and only 6 tram lines go to 11 parts of the city. The location is much better and, as the Belgrade grew around it, practically the entire urban life unfolds around it. He disputed the claim of the city administration that the railway prevents the city to "come out on the river banks" as the removal only of the tracks which are not in use will do the trick. The station will be of major importance for the future
Belgrade Metro The Belgrade Metro ( sr, Београдски метро, Beogradski metro) is a planned rapid transit system in Belgrade, Serbia currently under construction. The construction of the full metro system has been delayed repeatedly, mostly due t ...
and, since he said that Prokop, in functional terms, is not a station at all, with closing of the Main station, central Belgrade would not have any proper railway station. Vučić concluded that the interests of the investors are superior to those of the commuters. He also maintains that the isolation of the new station's location will directly bring to the further decrease in the number of railway passengers. Another member of the Academy, transportation engineer Dušan Teodorović also criticized the project. Nenad Kecman, executive manager of the
Serbian Railways Serbian Railways ( sr, Железнице Србије/''Železnice Srbije'', abbr. ŽS or ЖС) is a Serbian engineering and technical consulting company based in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2015, the Government of Serbia established three new compa ...
stated that none of the objections or suggestions by the experts from the railway transportation branch were adopted by the city administration. New system will marginalize the railway transportation, he added, claiming that the professionals are against both closing of the station, as the entire city gravitates to it, and the planned demolition, or adaptation into the pedestrian bridge, of the
Old Railway Bridge Old Railroad Bridge ( sr, Стари железнички мост, Stari železnički most) is a bridge over the Sava river in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was the first railway bridge in Belgrade and today is one of two across the Sava, ...
. Saying that such a luxurious complex, like the planned Belgrade Waterfront, can't 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 diminished capacity, but city refused that, claiming that the investors from the United Arab Emirates, which are partners in the Belgrade Waterfront project, rejected any idea of a railway. Architect Bojan Kovačević, president of the Academy of Architecture of Serbia, labeled the hastiness in pushing the Belgrade Waterfront agenda - like the closing of the Main Railway Station even though the new railway facilities weren't finished - as the "raping" of Belgrade. Smaller protests against the shut down were organized in the final period, including the day of the closing.


Architecture and protection

The building is constructed after the railway stations of the big European countries and is a monumental edifice. The project was drafted by the Austrian architect , while the definite elaboration of the project was done by Dragiša Milutinović. The contractors were the companies of Neischloss and Freind. At the time of the construction, the building represented one of the most monumental buildings and the symbols of royal capital of that time. It is one of the first railway stations in Serbia, whose design included a specific architectural program and contents adapted to the European technical achievements. It is designed in the style of academism, as a representative edifice, with the dynamic floor plan. The central classicist projection of the main entrance with the triangular tympanum dominates over the architectural composition. With its specific solutions, the building stands as a proof of the technical and architectural development of Serbia in the last decades of the 19th century. From 1980, a
Tito's Blue Train Tito's ''Blue Train'' ( sr, Плави воз, Plavi voz; hr, Plavi vlak; sl, Modri vlak; mk, Синиот воз, Siniot voz) is a luxury train, once used by Josip Broz Tito, while president of the former Yugoslavia. It is now operated as a ...
locomotive was put on open display next to the railway station entrance. The building was declared a cultural monument in 1981 and the cultural monument of great importance in 1983.


See also

*
Belgrade railway junction The Belgrade railway junction ( sr, Београдски железнички чвор, ) is a large-scale reconstruction of the rail network in Belgrade, Serbia. It was launched 1971 with works officially starting 1974 with the construction of th ...


References


External links

{{Transport in Belgrade Main Railway stations opened in 1884 1884 establishments in Serbia Railway stations closed in 2018 Cultural Monuments of Great Importance (Serbia)