Tašmajdan Sports and Recreation Center (; abbr. Tašmajdan SRC, ), commonly known simply as Taš ( sr-Cyr, Таш), is a

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

ing and

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...

al center located in the city of

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Serbia. It was founded by the

Assembly of the City of Belgrade The City Assembly of Belgrade ( sr-cyrl, Скупштина града Београда, Skupština grada Beograda) is the legislature of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Latest election results The following are results of the 2024 electi ...

in 1958. At within the center located of the outdoor Tašmajdan Stadium, the

Aleksandar Nikolić Hall The Aleksandar Nikolić Hall () is an indoor sports arena located in Palilula, Belgrade, Serbia. The official seating capacity of the arena is 8,000. Formerly known as Pionir Hall (), it was renamed in 2016 in honour of Serbian basketball player ...

, the

Pionir Ice Hall Pionir Ice Hall () is an ice hall in sports complex "Pionir", the youngest of the sports facility within the sports and recreation center "Tašmajdan", and is designed for all sports on the ice. It is located in Belgrade, Serbia , image_ ...

and a complex of outdoor and indoor

swimming pools A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

Tašmajdan Stadium

Construction of the stadium began in 1952. Built with white stone from

Brač Brač is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. When opened, the stadium wasn't fully finished, but already in 1954 it hosted volleyball, basketball, and tennis matches. Some of the best known happenings in the venue include: EuroBasket Women 1954, first Miss Yugoslavia contest in 1957 (won by Tonka Katunarić),

1957 World Women's Handball Championship The 1957 World Women's Handball Championship was the first Women's world Championship. It took place in Virovitica, PR Croatia and Belgrade, PR Serbia within FPR Yugoslavia in 1957. Preliminary round Group A Group B Group C Main rou ...

(the inaugural world women championship), concerts of

Alexandrov Ensemble The Alexandrov Ensemble (), commonly known as the Red Army Choir in the West, is an official army choir of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Russian armed forces. Founded during the History of the Soviet Union, Soviet era, the ense ...

in 1958 and later in the 1960s and 1970s of

Mazowsze Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...

and

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", her vocal prowess, raspy voice, and electrifyin ...

and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

matches with over 10,000 spectators. Yugoslav national tennis team played the Davis Cup matches in 1956 in Tašmajdan and the curiosities held in the facility include the chess with live figures, the football matches played by the Zastava 750 cars and the first Bullfighting, Spanish corrida in Europe outside of Spain, when Luis Miguel Dominguín performed in September 1971. Tašmajdan hosted the first FINA World Aquatics Championships in 1973 World Aquatics Championships, 1973. After the 1977-1978 season, the ice skating rink was dismantled in March 1978. Bad conditions of the facility in the 2000s led many public personalities in Belgrade (Zoran Kostić (musician), Cane Kostić, Neda Arnerić, Branko Cvejić) to urge the city government to do something about it. In mid-April 2009, the initiative called "''Taš je naš''" ( sr-cyr, Таш је наш; "Taš is ours") was held to draw public attention to the sad state of the crumbling facility. In the summer of 2009 the stadium was closed to the public due to the impending reconstruction. An extensive Serbian dinar, RSD550 million renovation began in September 2011. Originally, the reconstruction was to be finished in December 2012, then was postponed to 2014 and was finally completed in 2016. As the object is under the protection, the conceptual solution for the reconstruction had to fully preserve the original author's concept. Since December 2016, the ice skating rink became operational again during the winter. It covers and though it worked only for less than 60 days in 2016, it had 30,000 visitors.

Pionir Sports Complex

Aleksandar Nikolić Hall

The hall, designed by Ljiljana Bakić, Ljiljana and Dragomir Bakić, was opened on 24 May 1973 as the Pionir Hall. It was later renamed after Aleksandar Nikolić, "father of Yugoslav basketball". The interior was completely refurbished in 2019 and enlarged to 8,000 seats.

Pionir Ice Hall

Swimming pools

Outdoor swimming pool

The outdoor swimming pool was opened on 25 June 1961. Its capacity is 2,500, and swimming beaches hold around 3,500 people, for the total of 6,000, including the activation of telescopic bleachers. Reconstruction of the pool began on 10 March 2020, after the works on the stadium were finished. The pool will get a new, stainless steel bed, and the deepest end will be shortened from , for safety and maintenance reasons, while the pool will remain eligible for all competitions. The works should be completed in June 2020.

Indoor swimming pool

The indoor swimming pool was opened on 13 December 1968. The pool's dimensions are 50 × 20 m. The capacity for spectators is 2,000 seats. Within the same building there is a recreation center, a Health club, gym, a small swimming pool and a hotel named Taš.

Notable basketball matches

Concerts

Over the decades, the open air stadium has hosted a variety of acts in late spring and summer from May to September:

Other

* June 4–13, 1954 – EuroBasket Women 1954 * July 13–20, 1957 –

* September 8, 1981 – ''Jeux sans frontières'' (Inter-European game show, Jeux sans frontières season 17, 1981 International Final) * June 1, 2013 – 2012–13 LEN Champions League Final Four (VK Crvena zvezda won the title in front of 4,000 fans)Belgrade to host the LEN Champions League Water Polo Final Eight in 2021-2023
Boxscorenews.com, 16 April 2021. Accessed 20 April 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tasmajdan Sports Centre Swimming venues in Serbia Buildings and structures in Belgrade Sports venues in Belgrade Water polo venues 1954 establishments in Serbia Sports venues completed in 1954 Palilula, Belgrade Yugoslav Serbian architecture