Mostarska Petlja

Mostar interchange or colloquially Mostar () is a major interchange and a surrounding urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac.

Interchange

The Mostar looped interchange was constructed in 1974, as one of two major ones (the other one being Autokomanda) on the highway Belgrade–Niš. The highway runs right through the urban centre of Belgrade, which is still an issue of debate even though the road was originally intended as a fast, intercity Bežanija-Autokomanda freeway. The interchange itself was built on the location of the old neighbourhood of Jatagan Mala.

There were two projects for the interchange. One design, by the architects Branislav Jovin and Jovan Katanić, was 10 times more expensive than the other one. Still, after bitter disputes, the mayor of Belgrade Branko Pešić decided in 1967 to go with the expensive project, noting to Jovin and Katanić: "They should prepare three light poles on Guberevac for the three of us if this interchange doesn't turn out right" (note: Guberavac hill is the location of the Laza Lazarević clinic, "lunatic" asylum).

However, that left not enough money for the highway through the city as Pešić wanted it to be "wider than those in Zagreb (Croatia) or Ljubljana (Slovenia)". Slovene Edvard Kardelj who was to allow the spending of the money from the federal funds didn't give the green light for the additional money for the highway. Pešić pushed the project nevertheless and by 1970 the highway was already operational. As of 2017, it is not known from where Pešić acquired the necessary funds.

Some technical specifications of the interchange include:

* It covers an area of
* It has an elevation of
* It's crossed by double tram tracks
* It has 6 underground pedestrian passages and 4 passarellas, leading to 4 bus and 2 tram stops
* A curiosity factor is that it is one of the very few interchanges downtown.

Due to its construction, Mostar incidentally serves as a water collector so during the major rains it gets regularly flooded by the pond created by the rainwater. In September 2017, Goran Rodić, the vice president of the Serbian Chamber of Construction, stated that if the water pumps should be turned off, the Mostar would be completely flooded in 48 hours.

Neighborhood

The immediate surrounding neighborhood is almost entirely non-residential. The northern side is occupied by the buildings of the Ministry of the Interior (destroyed in the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia) and the Clinical Centre, which is the largest clinical complex in Belgrade. The southern side comprises the 'BIP' brewery, the Belgrade Centre railway station in Prokop, a series of half-ruined storages and former factories and the facilities of the Belgrade Fair. In south it borders the neighborhood of Senjak. To the west it continues into the Belgrade-Niš highway and to the east to the Novi Beograd and further to Belgrade-Zagreb highway (over the Gazela bridge).

In the mid-19th century, northern part of modern Senjak was a meadow, with only the Topčider road passing through. It was used as the training ground for the army and as the pasture for the sheep. The northern slope, above the left bank of the Mokroluški Creek was known as Zamastir. Czech émigré Heinrich Smutek, who owned a kafana, arranged a large estate (with a bricklayer), and a garden in the area. Zamastir then became known as Smutekovac, after the kafana's name. It became an excursion site for the Belgraders, which originally came by fiacres and later by the tram "Topčiderac", which connected the downtown with Topčider. In the 1870s the area was parceled and Đorđe Vajfert purchased the land from the lawyer Pera Marković. As he was a German subject, he couldn't own properties in Serbia. Instead he paid the entire sum to Marković who issued him a receipt.

Vajfert then started to build the brewery, predecessor of the modern BIP brewery at the same location. As soon as he was granted Serbian citizenship, Vajfert received a deed on the land. Designed by the foreign architects, the "Đorđe Vajfert's First Serbian Steam Brewery" was finished in 1873, while the entire brewery complex was finished in 1880. In 1892–1893, within the complex, Vajfert built a mansion which became known as Vajfert's Villa. The one-storey edifice was designed by engineer Jovan K. Ristić, in the Romanticist style. It became known for its interior, richly decorated woodworks, including the central wooden staircase. Close to the villa is the vast network of ''lagums'', or underground corridors. The so-called Vajfert's storage cellars, the long and wide subterranean rooms were divided in 14 sections where beer was stocked in barrels and tanks.

The villa became one of the most distinguished venue in Belgrade hosting numerous balls and receptions. Vajfert turned the surrounding estate into an exquisite garden, which hosted many banquets and parties. In 1892, city authorities organized a banquet with Nikola Tesla