Lido ( Serbian Cyrillic: Лидо) is a non-residential urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of

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 ...

Location

Lido is located on the northern tip of the

Great War Island Great War Island ( sr, Велико ратно острво, Veliko ratno ostrvo) is a river island in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of Sava and Danube rivers. Though uninhabited, the island is part of the Belgrade ...

, on 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 , p ...

. It is actually a small, pointed sandy beach without permanent residents, which covers just small fragment of the island, as the entire Great War Island is protected by the law and urbanization is not allowed.

Characteristics

It was named after the

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and developed as a wild beach, as an alternative to the much popular and official beach and park 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 ...

. Despite being very popular among the inhabitants of Zemun, it never managed to come close to Ada Ciganlija's popularity. The beach is small, unattended and without almost any accommodations, except for several restaurants. It was accessible only by boats until the early 2000s when a

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry. ...

was laid every summer by the

Yugoslav army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...

. The organization of "Eho festival" on the island in early 2003 went disastrously because of the bad weather and the financial malversations of the organizers. Already neglected Lido suffered the worst fate in 2006, during the disastrous floods. What little of infrastructure existed there was all washed away by the Danube. The beach was not returned to its previous state, pontoon bridge was not laid that year and only two boats remained to transport people to the island. As a result of all that, instead of 10,000 people which daily visited Lido in previous years, in 2006 there were no more than 200–300. For the summer 2007 Lido was finally prepared for visitors and the bridge is laid again. Further improvements preceded the 2008 season. Bank area and the green belt surrounding Lido were cleaned and arranged and for the first time lifeguard service was set on the beach, so as a police patrol and a boat ambulance. Instead of bridge, only boat access was organised, from both Zemun and

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 ...

(central Belgrade) sides. During the low water level in the Danube in the summer of 2022, the beach temporarily grew by the August for additional of exposed riverbed. The drought also affected the depth of the water at the beach, as the only knee-deep water stretched for over into the river's stream.

Gallery

File:Lido Zemun View.JPG, Birds view of Veliko ratno ostrvo (Lido to far left and Belgrade in background) from Zemun. File:Lido VelikoRatnoOstrvo Beograd.JPG, Lido beach on Veliko ratno ostrvo on Danube, Belgrade, Serbia. File:Lido Beograd Ferry.JPG, Landing point for ferry crossing on Zemun side.

References

Neighborhoods of Belgrade Beaches of Serbia {{BelgradeRS-geo-stub