Autokomanda

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Autokomanda (Serbian Cyrillic: Аутоkоманда) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located on the tripoint of the Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac, Savski Venac and Vračar.

[edit] Location

Autokomanda is located about 1,5 kilometers south of the downtown Belgrade. It borders the neighborhoods of Neimar and Karađorđev Park to the north, Dušanovac to the east, Voždovac to the south and Stadion and Dedinje to the west.

[edit] Interchange

The main feature in the neighborhood is a major looped interchange, one of two in old part of Belgrade (the other one being Mostar). It is located on the highway Belgrade-Niš, constructed right through the urban tissue which is still an issue of debate even today, even though the road was originally intended as a fast, intercity Bežanija-Autokomanda freeway. Construction began in 1967 and was completed by 1974. Curiosity is that it is one of the very few interchanges made in downtown of the city.

Bitter dispute between the mayor of Belgrade, Nenad Bogdanović and a group of architects from previous city establishment (including the construction of Mostar and Autokomanda) resulted in mayor's description of the interchanges from October 2006: 'Those are the two worst interchanges and the only ones in the world with the traffic lights...people who made those are today criticizing us.' The othe side replied that by the original plans, Autokomanda was to be a place of new main railway station of Belgrade, thus some sections were constructed only as a temporary ones (main objection is that even though it is on the highway it has no connections to it on the right side). However, project of the railway station was moved to Prokop so the temporary sollution remained until today.

In September 2006 a major reconstruction of the interchange began, with complete renovation and fixing of all 12 bridges (loopes) that the interchange has. The importance of Autokomanda for city transportation became much visible as, even though it is being closed for traffic only partially, it disrupted normal flow of traffic in the entire city causing traffic jams all over.

[edit] Characteristics

In the Voždovac section of the neighborhood, large hangars of the former motorized forces command are located. This is how the neighborhood got its name (Serbian, auto-komanda). The facilities are not being used for their initial purpose for a long time, but they have been renovated recently. The area is mostly commercial, with a section of a railway passing near by and a developing commercial section along the'Trg Oslobođenja' (Square of the Liberation) and 'Bulevar Oslobođenja' (Boulevard of the Liberation). The stadiums of soccer teams Partizan and Crvena Zvezda (Marakana) are located nearby. The population of Autokomanda (including the sub-neighborhood of Stadion), was 12,167 in 2002.

To the west Autokomanda continues into the Belgrade-Niš highway and to the east to Mostarska Petlja, Novi Beograd and further to Belgrade-Zagreb highway (over the Gazela bridge).

A bronze monument to the French general, Louis Franchet d'Espérey, who commanded on the Salonica front in the Serbian Campaign of the World War I in 1918, was erected in 1936 (author Risto Stijović). The section of the highway from Mostar to Autokomanda is officially named the Boulevard of Louis Franchet d'Espérey.