The Western City Gate ( sr, Западна капија Београда, Zapadna kapija Beograda), also known as the Genex Tower ( sr, Кула Генекс, Kula Geneks) is a 36-story
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
in
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 ...
,
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 ...
, which was designed in 1977 by in the
brutalist
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
style. It is formed by two towers connected with a two-story bridge and
revolving restaurant
A revolving restaurant or rotating restaurant is usually a tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on ...
at the top. It is tall
[ (with restaurant ).
The building is designed to resemble a high-rise gate greeting people arriving in the city from the West (the road from ]Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport ( sr, / ) or Belgrade Airport ( sr, / ) is an international airport serving Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest and the busiest airport in Serbia, situated west of downtown Belgrade near the suburb of Surč ...
to the city centre leads this way). Disputed and criticized during the designing and construction process, the building is today a dominant landmark in Belgrade.[
One of the towers was occupied by the state-owned Genex Group. The tower got its popular name "Genex" after this group, while its official title remains Western City Gate. The second, taller tower, is residential. The tower formerly occupied by the Genex company is empty, while the residential tower is still home to scores of people. The revolving mechanism under the restaurant on top never became operational.]
In November 2021, the building was declared a cultural monument
A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...
and placed under protection. The declaration refers to the building as an "urban lighthouse" and calls it the most striking motif of 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 ...
, and a visual benchmark for the entirety of the capital.[
]
Location
The building is located in the municipality of 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 ...
, in the 41-43 ''Narodnih heroja'' Street. It is actually situated at the corner of the street and the European route E75
European route E 75 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe.
The E 75 starts at the town of Vardø in Norway by the Barents Sea and it runs south through Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, S ...
. West of the gate are the neighborhoods of Studentski Grad and Tošin Bunar
Tošin Bunar ( sr-cyr, Тошин Бунар) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipalities of New Belgrade and Zemun.
Location
Tošin Bunar generally refers to an area alongside the ...
, while Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
*Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
* ...
is to the north. In the New Belgrade's blocks numeration system, the building belongs to the Block 33.
History
In the late 1960s, architect was given a task of projecting a 12-floor building and the head offices of the local community of Sutjeska, a sub-municipal administrative unit, on ''Narodnih heroja'' Street. Mitrović suggested two connected and much taller buildings which would make a recognizable symbol of the capital city. A fierce opposition, disagreements and disputes ensued, but Mitrović was persistent in his idea, giving detailed and exhaustive explanations in front of the numerous commissions. He was finally given the green light and the foundations were laid in 1971. The towers were built by the "Rad" construction company.
Nevertheless, the project met with distrust and was disputed all the time the construction was on.[ One of the rare colleagues who publicly supported Mitrović was Stojan Maksimović, who several years later designed another Belgrade's landmark, the ]Sava Centar
Sava Centar ( sr, Сава центар) is an international congress, cultural and business centre of various multi-functional activities located in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is the largest audience hall in the country and entire forme ...
.[ But the opposition continued in the next years. Even in the 2010s, a famous caricature by ]Ivo Kušanić
Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...
in the daily Politika
''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and owners ...
is still being mentioned and reproduced. It shows a gallows next to the building and the text: Who are these gallows for? For the architect![
]
Architecture
The two towers which make up the building are not the same height. The two buildings have serve different functions, with the taller one serving as a residential tower with 30 floors and the shorter tower housing businesses within its 26 floors. The bridge connects them at the 26th floor. The building is tall.[
The building was designed in the ]brutalist
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
style, with some elements of structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
and constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
. It is considered a prime representative of the brutalist architecture in Serbia and one of the best of its style built in the 1960s and the 1970s in the world. The treatment of the form and details is slightly associating the building with postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
and is today one of the rare surviving representatives of this style's early period in Serbia. The artistic expression of the gate marked an entire era in Serbian architecture.[
Commission which declared the building a cultural monument prized the simplicity of solutions, proportional order of two towers and the cylindrical top extension with the rotating mechanism, located above the central axis of the complex. The commission also described the design as specific and bold architectural creation, commending mural, too.][
The building was featured in the New York's ]Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
2018-2019 exhibition exploring the architecture of the former Yugoslavia, ''Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980''.[
"Generalexport", the company which owns the building went bankrupt in 2015, which was confirmed by the court in March 2017. The commercial half of the tower, with the related garage space, was offered for sale by the bankruptcy manager on 23 May 2022. Asked price was 2 billion ]dinars
The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread.
The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin of ...
(€17 million), but no one made an offer. In July 2022 it was offered again, this time for 1.46 billion dinars (€12.4 million), or 35% of estimated worth (4.17 billion dinars, or €35.5 million).
Mural
In 1979, Lazar Vujaklija
Lazar may refer to:
* Lazar (name), any of various persons with this name
* Lazar BVT, Serbian mine resistant, ambush-protected, armoured vehicle
* Lazar 2, Serbian armored vehicle
* Lazar 3, Serbian armored van
* Lazăr, a tributary of the river ...
painted a mural at the entrance. The mural covers the façade and the ceiling above the entrance. It was one of the first murals in Belgrade, predated by the 1970 mural painted on a building in the Bulevar Revolucije, also done by Vujaklija. Another work was added in the 2010s, described by the architects as a "graffiti, which is unsuitable and not a work of art". After a reaction from the architects, the author of the graffiti decided to paint it over, in an agreement with Mihajlo Mitrović's daughter who inherited the author's rights
"Author's rights" is a term frequently used in connection with laws about intellectual property.
The term is considered as a direct translation of the French term ''droit d’auteur'' (also German ''Urheberrecht''). It was first (1777) promoted ...
.[
]
Protection
The building is placed under the preliminary protection. It means it should be treated as if it were protected until the final decision about the protection is made. Association of Serbian Architects in 2019 filed a motion for Western City Gate to become a fully protected cultural monument
A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...
.[ On 3 November 2021, the building was declared a cultural monument.][
]
Local community
The local community of Sutjeska had a population of 5,067 in 1981 and 5,187 in 1991. By the time of the 2002 census, it was renamed to the Local Community of Western Gate, after the building, and had a population of 4,278. It was later annexed to the neighboring local community of Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
*Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
* ...
.
Gallery
See also
* Gates of Belgrade This article describes 23 gates of Belgrade.
Roman gates
Remains of southeastern gate of the Singidunum's castrum were found when adapting the building of the Belgrade Library, with one of its towers now being in the library depot and the other ac ...
* List of tallest buildings in Serbia
These lists of tallest structures in Serbia rank structures in Serbia by absolute height and buildings by official height (excluding Kosovo). The tallest structure in Serbia is currently the chimney of Thermal power plant Kostolac B which rises .
...
* Trellick Tower
Trellick Tower is a Grade II* listed tower block on the Cheltenham Estate in North Kensington, London. Opened in 1972, it had been commissioned by the Greater London Council and designed in the Brutalist style by architect Ernő Goldfinger. Th ...
and Balfron Tower
Balfron Tower is a 26-storey residential building in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, East London. Built in a Brutalist style, it forms part of the Brownfield Estate, an area of social housing between Chrisp Street Market and the A12 northern approach ...
, blocks of flats in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
of similar design
References
External links
*
Office buildings completed in 1980
Residential buildings completed in 1980
Brutalist architecture
Buildings and structures in Belgrade
Buildings and structures with revolving restaurants
Gates
Skyscrapers in Serbia
Towers in Serbia
Twin towers
New Belgrade
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