Zeleni Venac () or colloquially Zelenjak () is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipalities of Savski Venac (major part) and Stari Grad.
Location
Zeleni Venac is located in downtown Belgrade, just few minutes away to the east of Terazije, the designated center of the city, down the Prizrenska or Sremska streets. It borders the neighborhood of Savamala to the south, while the northern border is Brankova Street which separates it from the neighborhoods of Kosančićev Venac and Varoš Kapija in the municipality of Stari Grad. The car tunnel (Terazije Tunnel) under Terazije connects it to Republic Square while underground pedestrian passage connects it to Terazije and Prince Michael Street via Prizrenska and Sremska streets, respectively. Park Luka Ćelović is on the southeast border of the neighborhood.
History Antiquity
Northern part of modern neighborhood was a Roman necropolis from the 3rd century, the southwestern necropolis of Singidunum, predecessor of modern Belgrade. The remains of the ancient graveyard were discovered during the construction works in the 1930s when the Brankova Street was extended to the Sava river, to make a connection to the King Alexander Bridge, which was finished in 1934. At 16 Brankova Street a Roman tomb was discovered in 1931, with ceramics and coins from the period of the emperors Aurelian and Claudius Gothicus. The grave was made from the reused parts of stele. The sandstone plaque has a niche with a human bust and the inscription naming Valerius Longinus as a builder of the memorial for his son, a veteran Valerius Maximinus. There was another tombstone, crushed into pieces, dedicated by Maximinus' wife. Several other well preserved graves were discovered in the direction of the Pop Lukina and Karađorđeva streets.
Also during the Interbellum, in Kamenička Street, a golden polyhedron shaped earring from the early Middle Ages (Great Migration Period) was discovered. When the foundations for the building of the Medical Association were dug on Zeleni Venac, more than 4 kg of the Late Roman coins were discovered. They originated from the 5th century. Some remains were discovered during the 2018 construction of the hotel at 20 Jug Bogdanova Street.
19th century Pond
Zeleni Venac is built in the area that was previously part of the trench which surrounded the Kalemegdan fortress in the 18th century. When the trench was covered, a pond was formed. As Belgrade grew around it, the pond became a popular hunting attraction (for fowls, ducks, etc.) for the inhabitants of Belgrade. The pond was filled from the streams flowing down from Terazije (from the springs below modern Hotel Moskva via a modern Prizrenska Street) and Varoš Kapija (via Gospodska, modern Brankova Street). A canal was dug in the 1830s which drained the pond in the direction of Bara Venecija. Only then the area began to properly urbanize. Apart from hunting, the area became one of the favorite excursion sites of the Belgraders, including the royals, like Princess Ljubica Obrenović. There were meyhanes on the shores so as ferrymen with boats for transportation of the excursionists.
Cemetery
A cemetery, Old Belgrade Cemetery, was located in the area. During the Ottoman period it served as the burial ground for the Belgrade Serbs, until Prince Miloš Obrenović ordered the relocation of the graveyard to Tašmajdan in 1826. The relocation was finished by 1828. The old cemetery was situated along the modern Pop Lukina Street, above the Town's Gate (Varoš Kapija), one of the four gates at the entry points into the town. The cemetery was divided in two sections: Great cemetery (Veliko groblje) on the slope where the modern Brankova Street is, and Plague cemetery (Kužno groblje), close to the Hôtel Palace. However, only the deceased who had descendants, especially if they could pay for it, were relocated. The poor and those without offspring were left on the old location. Works on the relocation were fully stopped in 1835.
Name
The name of the neighborhood means the green wreath. Venac is usually used in Belgrade's geography in term of a round street (Obilićev Venac, Kosančićev Venac) or a rim of the river (Savski Venac, Dunavski Venac). However, in this case, it is used in the word's initial usage, meaning wreath. One of the first houses built in the neighborhood was a two-storey house at 1 Gospodska Street. It was rented by Sophia Hermann from Saxony, young widow of a hatmaker. The couple migrated to Belgrade in 1838, but after her husband's death, she decided to quit the hat making business, rented the house and turned it into the kafana. The venue had no name on it but had a tin-made green wreath hanging on the façade. She picked the wreath as the kafana still faced at the cemetery. Hermann established the venue around 1840 and operated it with her daughters. During Interbellum, the name Zeleni Venac spread to the entire neighborhood.
Kafana was demolished in the 1960s. and on its location there is a McDonald's restaurant today. Belgrade historians still debate whether the neighborhood was named after the kafana or the opposite. Another well-known kafana in the neighborhood was the "Amerika". It was notorious for the oriental music, belly dancers and prostitution.
Theatre
The government decided in 1850 to build the National Theatre here. The Theatre Board insisted on this location as it was on the route of the main road which connected Varoš Kapija with Savamala and Vračar. Some public figures objected, and Vuk Karadžić commented that the chosen location is ćorbudžak prema sredini beogradske varoši, the edge compared to the downtown. Italian architect Josif Kasano was chosen because he had experience building on the marshy terrain in Venice. By the middle of the 19th century, the pond was partially drained, but the area proved to be too marshy and unstable. The foundations were laid down but it showed that Kasano wasn't that experienced as the terrain remained rich in underground waters which continued to flow down the Terazije ridge. This required expensive massive deep foundations so the Theatre Board almost went bankrupt and the works stopped in 1857, draining large amount of money. Experts of the day concluded that the draining wasn't done professionally as it drained the pond but turning the terrain into the "underwater" one. The idea was abandoned and the theater was constructed on another site, on the modern Republic Square. Some of the foundation remains were removed when the market was built in the 1920s. However, some parts of the completely forgotten foundations were rediscovered during the 2005-2006 reconstruction of Zeleni Venac. In the early 20th century the pond was drained completely but the remnant of the pond is the large underground water spring under the green market.
Square
Between the Brankova and Jug Bogdanova streets there was an old farmers' market, while in the south part of the neighborhood, at the corner of the Lomina and Kamenička streets there was a drinking fountain. Named the Gypsy Fountain (Ciganska česma), it was a one-pipe fountain producing of water per second. Area of the modern market was arranged as a square by the 1876 city urban plan, but was later transformed into a park. The main landmark of the neighborhood, the Zeleni Venac green market, was open on this location in 1926.
Gathering place
Merchant Maksim Ranković from Ostružnica founded a drink store and built a two-storey house after the pond was drained. He sold his house to the state which turned it into the Belgrade District Court, while the drink store was made a jail. The participants of the unsuccessful Katan Rebellion in 1844 were imprisoned here. The area later became a gathering place of the revolutionaries and socialists, as the beginning of the Abadžijska čaršija (Tailors bazaar) was beginning here and the masters had numerous young apprentices who were prone to Socialism. They were gathered and organized by Svetozar Marković, leader of the Socialism in Serbia. In 1871 their newspapers Radnik began to be printed in Zeleni Venac, while another Socialist printing press was installed later. There was also a socialist library. Local kafanas remained the gathering place for the progressive high school and university students, workers, merchants, craftsmen and activists in the next decades. Kafana Zlatna Moruna was a gathering place and an unofficial base of the members of Young Bosnia revolutionary movement, prior to the 1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, a prelude to World War I, including Gavrilo Princip and Mustafa Golubić.
A massive building, the Serbian Medical Society House, was finished in the early 1932 at the corner of the Kraljice Natalije and Prizrenska streets.
20th century Bus terminus
After the farmers market was opened in 1926, Zeleni Venac became a terminus for the omnibuses to the interior (Lazarevac, Valjevo, Banja Koviljača, Zvornik, etc.). After the construction of the King Alexander Bridge in 1934, which directly conducted traffic to Zeleni Venac, number of coach lines increased, while public transportation was also conducted across the neighborhood: tram No. 14 to downtown Zemun, and bus No. 34 to Zemun's Novi Grad. The bridge was demolished during World War II, routes to Zemun disconnected, so after 1947 it was decided to make Zeleni Venac a public transportation hub as downtown Terazije became congested.
Tram No. 14 was replaced by bus, and after Branko's Bridge was finished in 1956 and No. 14 again extended to downtown Zemun, it was replaced with trolleybuses. It was the first line which used Zeleni Venac as terminus. Due to the rapid urban development of Zemun and New Belgrade, it was joined by the bus line No. 15 (Zemun Novi Grad) in 1958 and No. 16 in 1959 (Pohorska Street, New Belgrade). Line No. 14 was extended to Zemun's Gornji Grad and parallel, shortened line, No. 14-A to Zemun's Branko Radičević Square, was also introduced.
The underground pedestrian passage and a platform for the large public transportation terminus was opened on 28 November 1967. Author of the entire project, which regulated one of the busiest crossroads in the city at time with 100,000 vehicles daily, was Olga Divac. The passage is wide and layered with marble. The exits in the directions of the Prizrenska, Carice Milice and Sremska streets are steps, while it is on the same level as the terminus. Total area of both objects is .
Number of lines increased, to numerous outer neighborhoods. The trolleybuses were all replaced by the buses, and new, ever-changing lines included No. 16-B (Dr Ivan Ribar, New Belgrade), No. 16-E (Blokovi#Block 45), No. 16-G (Block 70, New Belgrade), No. 36 (Ledine, New Belgrade), No. 36-B (Studentski Grad, New Belgrade), No. 36-V (Heating plant, New Belgrade), No. 52, No. 53, No 56, No. 56-L, No. 60 (New Belgrade), No. 67 (New Belgrade), No. 68 (New Belgrade), No. 71 (Ledine), No. 84, lines for Bežanijska Kosa and Belgrade Airport express lines for Batajnica and Zemun Polje.
In few decades, Zeleni Venac became synonymous with hectic public transportation in Belgrade, and constant traffic congestions. As there wasn't enough place, starting bus stops were moved on the opposite side of the Jug Bogdanova Street for some lines, while for the others the starting points were relocated downhill the street, in the direction of the Branko's Bridge. Plans for relocation of the terminus were made already in to 1970s, but remained on paper.