Balkanska street

Balkanska Street or Balkanska ulica (Serbian Cyrillic: Балканска улица; English: Balkan Street) is a street in downtown Belgrade, a capital of Serbia. It is one of the most recognizable streets in the city and one of the oldest still bearing its original name since the first official naming of the city streets in 1872. It is located in the municipalities of Stari Grad and Savski Venac.

Location

Upper section
Lower section


Balkanska originates at the Terazije Square, sole center of Belgrade. Its entire course, some 700 meters, is in the southern direction. It receives a short Pajsijeva street from the right and then crosses the Kraljice Natalije street, where it leaves the municipality of Stari Grad and enters Savski Venac. It then receives the Lomina street from the right and passes through the intersection where it crosses the streets of Gavrila Principa, Admirala Geprata and Milovana Milovanovića. It ends at the meeting with the Nemanjina Street, though its natural extension is the Hajduk Veljkov Venac and further, Sarajevska street.[1]

History

The street was constructed in 1872, when it got its name it still bears today. Originally, it was routed as a connection between the Abadžijska (modern Kraljice Natalije) and Savamalska (modern Gavrila Principa streets. This entire section of the city was projected by the Viennese architect Franz Janke. First proper building in the street was built in 1876, at the corner with the Abadžijska. In 1885, a tailor (abadžija) Đorđe Arsenijević opened his tailor store in that building and placed a plastered relief of a scissors on the building's front façade. As it was prolongued on both sides, it became the direct, and shortest, connection between downtown and Savamala, on the bank of the Sava river. In the 19th century, Balkanska was famous for its artisan shops: tailors, waxers, opančari, quilters. In the 20th century it became known for the food, as a location of some of the best pastries in Belgrade, especially known for its ice-creams and halva. At the top of the street one of the first fast-food facilities in Belgrade was open, "Leskovčanin", which used to sell Leskovačka pljeskavica.[2] In general, Balkanska was a place where you could buy almost any type of goods. Today, only few of the old craftsman's shops survived, like pastry shops and bakeries, but as of 2015, the tanner shop, hat maker or purse tailor can still be found in the street.[3]

In order the preserve the craftsmanship for which the street was known, city government announced in July 2017 the project of adapting the Balkanska into the "street of the old crafts", not only as a tourist attraction but as a way of keeping the "spirit of Belgrade".[4]

Geography

Major physical feature, by which Balkanska is best known, is it's continual steepness, from the beginning to the end. It connects central city plateau, located on the top of Terazije ridge, with the Sava bank and Savamala neighborhood. As Savamala is location of the Belgrade Main railway station, Belgrade Main Bus Station and the Sava port, for over a century Balkanska was the first part of Belgrade travelers would see as it is the shortest way to reach downtown. In the latest decades that changed, though, as none of the public transportation lines go through the Balkanska due to its narrowness.[2][3]

Entire underground is rich in groundwater which flow under the entire course of the street. When and underground garage was built on Zeleni Venac, an entire underground lake was discovered.[3]

Architecture

Most of the buildings in Balkanska originate from the 1920's and 1930's, with beautiful façades which are mostly in bad shape due to the lack of maintenance.[3]

Characteristics

Upper section of the street is paved, while the lower one is still covered with cobblestone.[3]

Beginning and the upper part of the street is the location of the Hotel Moskva, Terazijska Terasa, Terazije fountain and Hotel Prag. There is also an underground passage which connects it to the city's main street, Kralja Milana. Also, the upped course of Balkanska is the easternmost border of the neighborhoods of Zeleni Venac and Savamala. One of the most popular places in the street was a cinema "20th October", now defunct. Ending section is a location of the Hotel Beograd and Park Gavrilo Princip.

References

  1. ↑ Beograd - plan grada. M@gic M@p. 2006. ISBN 86-83501-53-1.
  2. 1 2 "Balkanska - zanatlijska ulica" (in Serbian). B92. 29 December 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Branka Vasiljević (8 February 2015), "Balkanska - lepotica izboranog lica", Politika (in Serbian)
  4. ↑ Branka Vasiljević (8 July 2017), "Obnovljena Skadarlijska česma", Politika (in Serbian), p. 14
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