Belgrade Fortress – Dream Book of White Town's Continuity

Abstract

It has been almost two thousand years since the CITY has been erected in the Belgrade Fortress area, where it has permanently remained to be. Only in the past sixty years has the CITY given in and disappeared, so it is not there anymore. In its place, on its ramparts, at the grounds of its ghostly buildings, we cherish a magnificent park now... But had we been so fortunate as to have the CITY at the Belgrade Fortress persist and last, had it not been demolished and eventually destroyed, what CITY would it be in the place where the park is? What would have been if the Belgrade Fortress were still a CITY? How would Belgrade appear today if the “White City” were still shining white at the Fortress? What meaning would it have for present, modern Belgrade? What would have been had it been…? These are all questions that this Project does not try to give final answers to, but rather to serve as incitement to their thoughtful examination. … The Project, which has already been in great part published in this book, is the fruit of collaboration between the Public Company Belgrade Fortress and the Faculty of Architecture of Belgrade. Of course, due to the importance of the subject matter we are dealing with, in the course of its realization, the number of collaborators engaged in the project, coming from various fields of social practice, has been increased so as to have this matter illuminated from as many different perspectives as possible. This Project has been gradually developed over the last couple of years, and realized in several parts, finally connected and united with this book.

Excerpts from reviews: The concept of the Project, of which these essays are only one part, is very interesting and provocative. The Belgrade Fortress, which is, nowadays the biggest monument complex in the city and testimony of its two millenniums long history, has reached our times changed. Past centuries have changed its shape, erasing traces of its formal shape and original urban structure. Together with the park it makes a unique green oasis, the Fortress, for the citizens, has almost lost its former purpose, becoming the large Kalemegdan park.. Even its name has been lost and replaced with the meaningless name of The Kalemendan Fortress, absurdly meaning that it is a fortress of its own fortress field – Kalemegdan. Having in mind what the fortress represents today, one can realize that it is just an encircled empty space and that its essence has almost been lost without a trace. From this urban centre, a modern city developed and, as in every long-lasting city, it is the part of its soul and identity. To Belgrade, contrary to other old European cities, time and wars, as well as the negligence of The People, have taken the most precious thing from its rich urban heritage. The empty space of the Belgrade Fortress surrounded with the walls from different epochs, call for one’s imagination, but also inspire creative works of modern period. The old fortress, which lost its purpose long tome ago, should be brought to life for the future times. It is a complex and delicate attempt, involving maximal preservation of the remain heritage but also introduction of new contents to enrich this space, burdened with history, and make it accessible to the needs of modern citizen. Our times can leave its noble trace which the new generations will accept and preserve as a part of continual cultural heritage. The park area surrounded with the walls of the Belgrade Fortress, as the empty space of the former, oldest urban matrix of the disappeared core of the Belgrade, inspired the authors to give their visions and reflections or fictions of what could have happened, but it didn’t happen or didn’t reach our time. (Marko Popović)

My opinion is that liberated imagination and dreams of future city (in essays) and not bounded spatial research that ignores rigid, imposed conditions (in student designs) lead to a possibility to reach a clever spatial respond to this situation in years to come. The mental and spatial experiments of this kind are provocation of the most precious lost resource of one community that evoke hope that we can, cleverly, carefully, but bravely and with no compromise (in the way that ancient newcomers and residents used to do) leave white trace of our existence in this unpredictable but seductive place. It is as we, from a Hill of Contemplation receive some secret, encouraging signals. Value of this project is in provocation that initiates discussion on topic that is for the first time openly displayed, and that is the most significant, considering urban space of Belgrade. (Branislav Mitrović)