Potentials of the Belgrade Industrial Heritage in the Context of Tourism Development

Abstract

The Belgrade Waterfront area along the Sava and the Danube rivers has a large number of abandoned industrial buildings that have significant values that need to be preserved and revitalized. Some steps in this direction have already been made and some industrial buildings represent significant premises in the tourist offer of the city. There are also listed cultural and historical units of outstanding and great value, such as the Belgrade Fortress and Kosančićev venac, which are the main element of historical and cultural identity of town are also important potential for the future positioning of the city of Belgrade as European tourist top destination. In the last decades some development projects has had a negative effect with regard to the industrial heritage of Belgrade and the historical cityscape, with its characteristic morphology and typology, is gradually fading away. In order to stop this tendency and demonstrate a will to achieve further sustainable development, it is necessary to redefine the approach to the protection of industrial zones, creating a new one for urban and spatial planning, taking into account all the values, tradition, authenticity and identity. The paper will analyse possibilities to comprehend the problems of the city industrial heritage protection, its historical and urban context, its genesis and cultural and architectural values. Furthermore, possibilities of different approaches in presentation and modern utilization of the abandoned and ruined Belgrade industrial heritage will be investigated, in order to improve tourism development. Its specific cultural values and character have been taken as the basis of its future preservation and presentation as important cultural heritage and the part of the city identity and historic cityscape. In planning practice regeneration is most often driven by economic interests, while preservation of meaning and memory of place are neglected. In the present tourist offer of Belgrade the Savamala area was profiled as the top city's nightlife destination. The Beton Hall area, as well as many other old industrial buildings and warehouses, are quickly and spontaneously transformed into galleries, restaurants and hostels for young people. With the accelerated realization and construction of the "Belgrade on the water" project, a political paradigm of today economic grow of Belgrade, the Savamala spaces become too expensive to rent and the alternative independent cultural scene and tourist offer are forced to move on the Dorćol and Danube coast areas. The focus of analyze will be on the contemporary proposals for reactivation of Belgrade Waterfronts and its implementation. The question is: How the tourism market trends affect the cultural heritage protection policy and whether processes of industrial heritage reuse should be spontaneous or imposed?