Bulevar kralja Aleksandra

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Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra (Serbian Cyrillic: Булевар краља Александра; English: King Aleksandar Boulevard), with length of 7,5 kilometers, is the longest street entirely within the urban limits of Belgrade, capital of Serbia. ^[1] Known for decades after the World War II as "Bulevar Revolucije" (Boulevard of the Revolution), it is so important for the lives of the Belgraders, that they simply refer to it as Bulevar, despite there are 20 boulevards in Belgrade.

Beginning of the Bulevar: The Parliament of Serbia and the headquarters of the Post Office of Serbia

1 Location
2 History
3 Boulevard
4 Characteristics
5 Renovation
6 See also
7 References
8 Sources

[edit] Location

Due to its length, Bulevar stretches through four out of eight urban municipalities in the old section Belgrade: Stari Grad, Palilula, Vračar and Zvezdara, in which the majority of Bulevar's length is located. It originates from the Square of Nikola Pašić and for the most part goes in the south-east direction, curving only near the end, in the neighborhood of Mali Mokri Lug, after which Bulevar extends into the road of Smederevski put, which connects Belgrade and the town of Smederevo.

[edit] History

In the mid XVIII century, route of the Bulevar was a famed Carigradski drum (Constantinople road). As population settled along the road, gradually it became a street, originally known as Sokače kod zlatnog topa ("Alley at the golden cannon"). It was later renamed to Markova (Marko's street) and in 1834 was renamed again to Fišeklija, after many shops in the street which sold gunpowder in fišeks, cone-shaped paper bags. In the end of the XIX century it was renamed after then ruling Serbian king Aleksandar Obrenović, the last from the Obrenović dynasty. Despite being one of the most unpopular modern Serbian rulers, when he was overthrown, new king Peter I Karađorđević from the rival Karađorđević dynasty didn't change the street's name. It was done by the Communists after World War II when they renamed it, first to Bulevar Oslobođenja (Boulevard of the Liberation) and then to Bulevar Revolucije. In the late 1990s, name was switched back to it pre-war form.

[edit] Boulevard

Belgrade City Hall, viewed from the Bulevar

Tašmajdan park

St. Mark's Church

First section of the Bulevar, from its beginning to the crossroads with the Takovska and Kneza Miloša streets, is located in the municipality of Stari Grad. The Bulevar begins from the large fountain on the Square of Nikola Pašić. Entire left side of this section is occupied by the monumental building of the former Assembly of Serbia, while on the right side is Pionirski Park, and buildings of the Belgrade City Hall and Presidency of Serbia (Andrićev Venac) behind it.

Next section, until the crossroad of Vukov Spomenik, is divided between the municipalities of Palilula (left side) and Vračar (right side). Left side is occupied by the main building of the Post Office of Serbia, JAT Airways terminal, St. Mark's church (declared a culture monument), Tašmajdan park, famous restaurant "Madera", Law Faculty of the Belgrade University (work of Petar Bajalović, a culture monument), Hotel Metropol (work of Dragiša Brašovan, a culture monument), University library "Svetozar Marković" and Technical faculties. Residential building at No 63, built in the first decades of the XX century in the Academism style has been also declared a culture monument. Entire section is declared a "protected complex of Old Beograd".

Right side is mainly residential and commercial, apart from the building of the Embassy of the Czech Republic. A new ultra-modern commercial building is being built on the corner of Kneza Miloša street (former kafana "Tri lista duvana" (Three tobacco leaves). Collective residential building at No 46, was built in 1930, work of Aleksandar Janković, in the simplicist Modernist style. It was badly damaged in Luftwaffe's bombing of Belgrade on April 6, 1941, but later reconstructed and built-on in the 1950s and included into the "protected complex of Old Beograd".

At the crossroad and underground station of Vukov Spomenik begins Zvezdara section of the Bulevar. It runs through the neighborhoods of Đeram, Lipov Lad, Lion, Zvezdara, Cvetkova Pijaca, Zeleno Brdo and Mali Mokri Lug. This part is mostly residential and commercial, with some important facilities located in the Bulevar: Municipal assembly of Zvezdara, open green markets of Đeram, Cvetkova pijaca and Mali Mokri Lug, "Kluz" clothing factory, roundabout of dozen bus and tramway lines and industrial zone Ustanička (Electrical industry "Nikola Tesla", "Utenzilija", fondry "Livnica", presses of "Glas Javnosti", etc).

[edit] Characteristics

The Bulevar is one of the most important traffic routes in Belgrade. For the most part it has tram tracks for the city public transportation lines. Despite its length and traffic importance, there are no lines of the third type of city transportation in it: trolleybuses.

In the 1990s, with the deterioration of the economic system in Serbia and imposed sanctions, the sidewalks of the Bulevar became the gathering place for the street dealers of all sorts of goods that were unavailable in official stores. They were especially known for selling cigarettes, jeans, cookware, flowers, etc. Similar development caught the neighborhood of Zeleni Venac too, and they both became synonymous for the black market during 1990s. Dealers were for the most part removed from the street after 2000, mostly into the new closed fair-like shopping center "Depo".

Municipality of Zvezdara began an initiative to erect a monument to the King Aleksandar Obrenović somewhere along the street.

A popular Serbian movie named after the Bulevar, "Bulevar Revolucije"was made in 1992. Directed by Vladimir Blaževski, it starred Bojana Maljević and Branislav Lečić.

[edit] Renovation

First phase of a major renovation of the Bulevar started in August 2006. To date first 1.5 kilometers of the street has been completed. The next phase will start as a part of constructing light rail system in 2008.