Great War Island

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Satellite view of Great War Island

Great War Island or Veliko ratno ostrvo (Serbian Cyrillic: Велико ратно острво) is a river island (ada) in Serbia, located at the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube. Though uninhabited, it is part of the Belgrade City proper, the capital of Serbia, and belongs to the municipality of Zemun.

1 Location
2 Geography
3 History
4 Recent developments
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Location

Great War Island is located at the mouth of the Sava river into the Danube, in the Danube's widening between the Kalemegdan fortress as the ending section of the Terazije ridge of northernmost part of Šumadija on the west and the low, easternmost sextion of the Syrmia plain, the modern Ušće neighborhood of Novi Beograd, on the south.

The island is relatively close to the banks, at the closest it is just 200 meters away from both Novi Beograd and Kalemegdan. On the south, halfway between the Great War Island and Ušće is the remnant of previously larger Little War Island.

[edit] Geography

Great War Island is generally triangulary shaped and covers an area of 2.11 km². It is low, for the most part marshy and often flooded by the Danube. The main physical feature on the island is the canal of Veliki Galijaš. In time, the canal was cut off from the Danube and effectivelly turned into a lake, with an area of 0.24 km² and the major natural bird and fish spawning area on the island. However, during the droughty years the lake drains out completely causing damage to the closed eco-system centered around it. Currently some two-thirds of the island are used as a nature preserve for numerous bird species, many of which are endangered. One of Belgrade's beaches, Lido, is located on the northern tip of the island.

[edit] History

The island gained its militant name because throughout the history Great War Island was an important strategic point either for the conquest or the defence of Belgrade. For example, in 1521 when Belgrade was under siege by Turkish forces, the majority of their attacks on Belgrade fortress were launched from the island. In liberating Belgrade in 1806 the rebel army headed by Karađorđe also used the island for military purposes, as the Serbian artillery with 500 soldiers was bombing the Kalemegdan fortress from there. During the offensive in 1915 by Austria-Hungary against Belgrade, Austia-Hungary forces used the island to launch their attacks.

When construction of Novi Beograd began in 1948, city government made a decision to completely destroy the island by using sand and earth from it to cover the marshes of Syrmia where new city was to be built. However, the deposits of alluvial materials Danube continued to bring onto the island completely prevented this to happen. Instead, smaller Little War Island surved for this purpose and was nearly destroyed in the process.

[edit] Recent developments

In 2002 the island was declared a natural fish spawning area and declared practically the only part of the City of Belgrade where building of facilities like hotels, motels or restaurants is not allowed. The major works on the island began in 2007. In February 2007, following the disastrous 2006 European floods which wiped out Lido from the northern tip of the island, the Great War Island was completely cleaned with all the bulky junk being removed, so as the remains of the old constructions and the 24 hour guarding service was set. Celebrating the June 29, the international Danube Day, an ecology camp made of pile dwellings for the students of the Belgrade University was opened. In August 2007 a digging of a 300 meter-long canal which would reconnect Veliki Galijaš with the Danube also began to prevent the seasonal drying of the lake. A 15 meter-high lookout is the be erected west of Veliki Galijaš so as the entire network of visitor centers on the unsinkable points around the lake and throughout the island for the studying of the bird life. Bio-laboratory and the small boat landing are also scheduled for construction.