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Stari Grad (Serbian Cyrillic: ????? ????) is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It encompasses some of the oldest sections of urban Belgrade, thus the name (‘’stari grad’’, Serbian for “old town”).
Neighborhood
The neighborhood of Stari Grad is not generally considered by the Belgraders as one single definitive neighborhood. Area which Stari Grad covers is either simply styled "downtown" or by the names of the more established neighborhood which it overlaps: northern ("Upper") and eastern parts of Dorcol (which it borders on the north) or Studentski Trg. Roughly, it spawns northern and western from the Square of the Republic, bordering also the neighborhoods of Kalemegdan (west), Kosancicev Venac (south-west), Jevremovac and Palilula (south-west) and Viline Vode (north-west), with a population of 9,646 in 2002.
Municipality
[] Geography
Stari Grad, occupies the ending ridge of Šumadija geological bar. The cliff-like ridge, where the fortress of Kalemegdan is located, overlooks the Great War Island and the confluence of the Sava river into the Danube, and makes one of the most beautiful natural lookouts in Belgrade. With Novi Beograd, it is one of 2 municipalities of Belgrade (out of 17) which occupy the banks of both major rivers in Belgrade, the Sava and the Danube (Zemun was the third, but when the municipality of Surcin split, Zemun was left with the Danube, and Surcin with the Sava bank).
The municipality of Stari Grad covers an area of just 7 square kilometers (2.7 sq mi) (second smallest in Belgrade, after Vracar) and borders the municipalities of Paliula on the east, Vracar on the south-east and Savski Venac on the south. The Sava makes a border to the municipality of Novi Beograd (west) and the Danube to the municipalities of Zemun (north-west) and the Banat's section of Palilula.
The riverside of the Danube has two distinct artificial bays, the small marina (Marina Dorcol) and the port "Beograd".
Population
Like the other two "old" municipalities of the central Belgrade (Savski Venac and Vracar), Stari Grad for decades is a highly depopulating municipality, but being a central municipality and small in area, it remains one of the most densely populated municipalities in Serbia. There were 55,543 inhabitants according to the 2002 census or 7,935 inhabitants per square kilometer (20,551.6/sq mi), compared to a population of 96,517 with a density of 13,788 inhabitants per square kilometer (35,710.8/sq mi) back in 1971. Population of Stari Grad:
- 1961 - 96,517
- 1971 - 83,742
- 1981 - 73,767
- 1991 - 68,552
- 2002 - 55,543 (57.5% of the 1961 population)
Ethnic composition:
Even though residential areas are much densely compact compared to Vracar, the latter is densely populated because almost one third of Stari Grad, even though it is "heart" of Belgrade is not inhabited (mostly the large park of Kalemegdan and the highly industrialized riverside of the Danube, with dozens of factories and spacious hangars and depots).
Assembly of the City of Belgrade
However, a number of people working on the territory of the municipality doubles its own population and makes possible for the municipality of Stari Grad to achieve GDP per capita 6 to 8 times higher than the average of Serbia.
History
Despite some of the oldest sections of Belgrade belong to Stari Grad, the municipality itself is among the latest urban ones formed administratively. It was formed by the merger of the municipality of Skadarlija and part of the municipality of Terazije on January 1, 1957. Recent presidents of the municipality:
- 1992 – 2000; Jovan Kažic (b. 1937)
- 2000 – present: Mirjana Božidarevic (b. 1954)
Twin towns
Stari Grad is twinned with:
Neighborhoods
Features
[] Administration
Economy and tourism
Culture
As a curiosity, Stari Grad is location of two shortest streets of Belgrade, Marka Leka and Laze Pacua, which are 45 and 48 meters long, respectively. [1]. Despite being in the sole downtown and densely populated urban section, they have no numbers as all the buildings located in them are numbered from the neighboring streets.
See also
References
External links
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