Crvenka ( sr-cyr, Црвенка) is a suburban settlement of

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, the capital of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Palilula and statistically is part of

Borča Borča ( sr-cyr, Борча, ) is an urban settlement of the municipality of Palilula, Belgrade, Serbia. , it has a population of 46,086 inhabitants. Location Borča is located just north of the downtown Belgrade, in the Banat section of the mun ...

Location

Crvenka is located in

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

section of the municipality, half kilometer away from the left bank of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

, on the ''Batin kanal'' stream. It is built in the thickly forested area and surrounded by marshes of

Pančevački Rit Pančevački Rit ( sr-cyr, Панчевачки рит) is a small geographical area in south-western Banat, Serbia. It is situated between the rivers Danube and Tamiš, in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula. Features Its wetland was const ...

so, even being close, it can't be seen from the opposite,

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 ...

bank and it is not near to any other settlements of Belgrade.

History

During the 18th century an Austrian sentry post was erected here and was named Crvenka (Serbian for ''red land'' or ''red place''). The settlement was built after the

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It developed as an experimental agricultural farm of the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

’s Faculty of Agriculture, which is seated across the Danube, in the neighborhood of Zemun. The settlers came to Crvenka as they were needed for the work, instead of being colonized like in the other settlements in Pančevački Rit. Part of the original settlers were Germans who left for Germany in the 1960s.

Characteristics

Part of Crvenka is a weekend-settlement which means it has no permanent population. It consists of some 100 houses, mostly owned by the residents of Zemun, even though it is located across the river, in different municipality. Public transportation bus line 104 connects Crvenka to Belgrade’s neighborhood of

Bogoslovija Bogoslovija ( sr-cyrl, Богословија, link=no) is a Serbian-Croatian word for a seminary. In particular it is often used for secondary schools educating future Orthodox priests. Serbian Orthodox Seminaries * , Belgrade, Serbia * Ser ...

. The canal that flows through the settlement, ''Batin canal'' used to be broader and navigable, with colonies of

wild duck The wild duck is the non-domesticated ancestor of the domestic duck. Wild duck may refer to: * Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, ...

s and white herons and it was used by the Belgrade's

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

clubs for trainings. Since the canal was illegally dammed to create a path to Borča with tree trunks, the water flow was stopped, the canal began flooding the surrounding area and wild birds moved out. Crvenka gained some public notoriety when on 2 April 2016 a murder occurred on the settlement's embankment. Little known folk singer Jelena Marjanović was murdered and the viciousness of the crime, botched investigation by the police and a fact that the crime has not been solved, turned the murder into the

cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...

in Serbia.

Future

In the mid 2000s, city government announced plans to urbanize the area which would be centered at Crvenka, as the core of the future „Third Belgrade“ (after „old“ Belgrade and

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 ...

). Some of the requirements for the plan to develop was the construction of the northern part of the

Belgrade bypass The Belgrade bypass ( sr, Обилазница око Београда, Obilaznica oko Beograda) or Belgrade city road bypass is a U-shaped, 69-km long motorway partially encircling the city of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Some 9.6 km of ...

and the

Pupin Bridge The Pupin Bridge ( sr-cyr, Пупинов мост, Pupinov most) is a road bridge over the Danube River in Belgrade, Serbia. The bridge is located upstream of the city center and connects Belgrade neighbourhoods of Zemun and Borča. It is part ...

, which opened in 2014. However, due to the push of 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, plans are halted.

References

Sources