Ušće (; pronounced ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd. Ušće is located on the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube, thus the name (ušće is Serbian for confluence). It occupies Novi Beograd's Blocks 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 on the Sava's left and the Danube's right bank, covering a tip of land that overlooks the islands of Little War Island and Great War Island to the north and the old core of Belgrade, the fortress of Kalemegdan to the west. Ušće borders the neighborhoods of Staro Sajmište and Savograd on the south. As a compact grassy and forested area it stretches along the bank of the Danube into the Block 10, to the Zemun municipality and the Hotel Jugoslavija and the ENJUB shopping mall.
Spanning over , Park Ušće is the largest official park area in Belgrade.
History Nica Beach
A sandy beach with the cabins, kafanas and barracks, used as sheds by the fishermen, occupied the area of the modern quay, north of the Branko's Bridge. It was one of the favorite vacation spots of Belgraders during Interbellum. People were transported from the city by small boats and the starting point was a small kafana "Malo pristanište" in Savamala. Occupying the left bank of the Sava, it was on the location of the access ramp for the future King Alexander Bridge. The objects were demolished manually, including numerous kafanas: "Ostend", "Zdravlje", "Abadžija", "Jadran", "Krf", "Dubrovnik", "Adrija", etc. The only one that wasn't demolished was "Nica", predecessor of the modern Ušće restaurant. In total, 20 proper objects and 2,000 cabins, barracks, sheds, etc. were demolished, jointly by the municipalities of Zemun and Bežanija, which owned half of the land each, and the proprietors of the objects. The plan was to build an embankment instead.
However, the beach itself survived the construction of the bridge in 1934 as it only made access easier. By this time, "Nica" became the largest city beach. It was filled with fine, white sands and was shallow. In time it stretched even further along the Sava, up to the location of the modern Gazela Bridge. There was a sandy barrier island (sprud) close to the central section of the Sava in front of the beach so it was a popular goal to be reached by the swimmers. The beach was finally closed in 1938 when the construction of the embankment began. The barrier island was destroyed after 1948, when the sand was used to fill the marsh during the construction of New Belgrade. The beach itself was called Nica (Serbian for Nice, in France) after one of the kafanas.
Characteristics
Like all of Novi Beograd, Ušće is flat, and without buildings to hide that fact like in the rest of the municipality, that is quite obvious here. With only three buildings and several smaller edifices, Ušće is the least urbanized section of Novi Beograd but some residential blocks are administratively attached to the local community of the same name, which had a population of 9,991 in 2011.
Ušće is a vast grassy and forested area along the river banks. As such, it is used by many Belgraders as a recreational area or as a place for organizing political gatherings or musical concerts. However, many areas are not cultivated, but left to grow wild. During the high levels of the Danube and the Sava, bank areas are always flooded.
As maintained open parkland with high levels of human activity, Ušće is characterized by low diversity of breeding landbirds, but in winter the banks are very popular among birdwatchers as it is possible to observe rare and interesting waterbirds swimming at the confluence off the banks of Great and Little War Island. Ušće is one of the most important eBird hotspots in Belgrade with its own webpage: Ebird Hotspot
In September 2018, Belgrade's mayor Zoran Radojičić announced that the construction of a dam on the Danube, in the Zemun-New Belgrade area, will start soon. The dam should protect the city during the high water levels. Such project was never mentioned before, nor it was clear how and where it will be constructed, or if it's feasible at all. Radojičić clarified after a while that he was referring to the temporary, mobile flood wall. The wall will be high and long, stretching from the Branko's Bridge across the Sava and the neighborhood of Ušće, to the Radecki restaurant on the Danube's bank in the Zemun's Gardoš neighborhood. In the case of emergency, the panels will be placed on the existing construction. The construction is scheduled to start in 2019 and to finish in 2020.
Park Ušće Much of Ušće already is, or is projected to be, a large park. On 24 August 2017, the mayor of Belgrade, Siniša Mali, announced a massive works in the park which would, as he described it, look like a Central Park in New York City or a Gorky Park in Moscow. The entire project, which would arrange the area of between the Branko's Bridge and Hotel Jugoslavija, is based on the ideas of Jan Gehl. The entire project is to be finished by 2020. Park will be divided in 7 zones. Two zones closer to Zemun and Zemunski Kej will be "Movement" and "Nature" .
They will be mostly nature and sports oriented with various sports terrains and children playgrounds. Next zone "Serbia" ("Serbia 1" and "Serbia 2" ), will be adapted for the promotion of Serbian culture, folklore, gastronomy, etc. The next two zones are "Music" and "Water", while the two closest to the Branko's Bridge, surrounding the Museum of Contemporary Arts, are "Art" and "Science". They will cover and some works in it started immediately. For 2018, Mali announced the construction of the gondola lift, which will connect the geographical tip of Ušće with Kalemegdan, and of a giant Ferris wheel across the Great War Island. He confirmed the erection of a tall flagmast.
The flagmast was already brought up before. Without any previous public mention of the project, Mali announced on 26 June 2017 construction of the flagmast in Ušće, which would hold the Serbian flag, by . He already declared it a symbol of Belgrade which would bring many tourists who will take photos with the mast, which is "important for the entire Serbia" and will make Belgrade a modern and more beautiful city. He also added that the project is an "initiative of president Aleksandar Vučić".
Mayor Siniša Mali claimed the money for the project, 200 million dinars, has already been marked in the city budget, due to the previous "savings". Asked how is that a priority when one third of Belgrade still has no sewage system, Mali said that both the sewage and the mast are needed. Dragoljub Bakić, member of the Serbian Academy of Architecture, said that the city government treats Belgrade as the "prey" they won, labeling their politics as an "urban reality show as they bomb us every day with some other nonsense". Bakić also criticized the parceling and concreting of the park area.
Rodoljub Šabić, state Commissioner for the information of public importance, publicly criticized the project on Twitter and was slammed by the author of the idea, president Vučić on the press conference who said that Šabić is "against the Serbian flag" and that "those who never do anything, criticize all the time". Šabić replied that Vučić always subjectively and without any criteria defends people from his close circle and that being against the pole which would cost 1,65 million euros is not the same thing as being against the Serbian flag. He added that it would be better to buy something meaningful, like the MRI for some hospital.
Mali announced the expansion of the project. Apart from the one tall, whose price in few days grew to 230 million dinars (1.9 million euros), 30 additional flagmasts, each high, are planned. Three of them will be placed on ten entry points into the city. They will cost additional 134 million dinars (1.1 million euros), so 31 flagmasts will cost the city almost 3 million euros. Reminded that for that money a kindegraten or a school could have been built, Mali said "don't your worry about it" and that we are "rich enough country and rich enough city", repeating Vučić's claim that those who are against the project actually don't like the Serbian flag. Three days later, Mali changed his statement and said that the idea is not Vučić's but is actually a joint decision of the city and the state.
Construction of the gondola lift was confirmed in March 2018 when the idea of a pedestrian bridge was dropped after it has been described as "complicated" and "unstable". On the Kalemegdan side, the station will be dug into the hill, below the fortress' Sava Promenade. On the Ušćе side, the starting point will be next to the Skate Park, across the Ušće Tower. The entire route is long, of which will be above the Sava river itself. Estimated cost is €10 million and duration of works 18 months, but it is still not known when the construction will begin. The criticism of the project continued, from the officially used name (gondola instead of a traditional Serbian žičara) and chosen location, to the route, especially the Kalemegdan station. Several reports were filed against the people involved in the project, but the state didn't act upon any of them. The project is opposed to the laws and city's decisions on protection as it will have up to high pillars which would obstruct the protected view from the Belgrade bridges towards the fortress and from the fortress to New Belgrade. Also, the Kalemegdan station is to be dug into the walls of the fortress, which is protected by the law as the Cultural Heritage of Exceptional Importance.
Even larger works were announced in December 2018. The area for the reconstruction was enlarged to , including parts of both existing Ušće and Friendship parks. The height of the envisioned Ferris wheel was set to and construction of a new building, the 21st Century Arts Museum was planned. The new museum will have of exhibition space, four times more than the existing Contemporary Arts Museum, though it shouldn't be taller (). Further additions to the project are the Museum of Natural Sciences (floor area , height ) and an aquarium with the area of . The international architectural design competition for the entire project was scheduled for 2019, but was organized only in November 2023. In March 2023 president Vučić reiterated that the Museum of Natural Sciences will be built close to the existing Museum of Contemporary Art, and with other planned museums will form a Museum Quarter.
Cutting of over 100 trees in the park, because of the gondola lift began in March 2019. With an enlarged price of €15 million and unified opposition to the project by the environmentalists, architects and urbanists, with additional cutting of 40 trees across the river, on the Fortress, this prompted popular protests. Citizens organized and as city was cutting the trees, they were planting the new seedlings instead.
City administration declared the reconstruction finished in March 2019, though nothing of the planned attractions was built. It was also announced that the Ferris wheel project was scrapped while the construction of the flagmast was pushed to the end of the year. In May 2019 the idea of the Ferris wheel was revived, with the possible addition of an alpine coaster and a roller coaster. In February 2021 it was announced that city planned the construction of the flagmast in 2021, with the price lifted to 269,2 million dinars (€2.3 million). Though nothing has been done regarding the flagmast, a certain amount of money was spent from the city budget every year on it, including the projected 2022 budget.
A monument to Rabindranath Tagore was dedicated on 13 July 2021, close to the Branko's Bridge. The verses of Tagore's poem Where the mind is without fear are carved on the pedestal. The memorial also marked 95 years since Tagore's visit to Belgrade in 1926, when he was a visiting scholar at the University of Belgrade.