Urban Transformation of Historic City Centre: Case Study Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia

Abstract

The period after the Second World War in Serbia was, characterized by the denial of the value of the historical city centre. The new Master plans for the cities in Serbia clearly expressed this attitude, proposing a radical reconstruction of the town centre and the main street. Despite the fact that the Venice Charter of 1964 practically just continued Athens Charter of 1931, which stressed the importance of preserving the physiognomy of the city, in many countries marked a turning point in the perception of spatial protection of cultural and ambient unitizes well as in Serbia. After 1966, a dozens of studies for protection and evaluation of historical urban centres in Serbia has been done, and was followed by the new Master and Detailed plans that contained postulates the protection of the historical town centre, on the basis of the studies. However, during 1980s, more attention was done to the regeneration of historical centre. Sremska Mitrovica is one of the towns with long and rich urban history and preserved city centre. Urban history of the city spans ancient Roman times, Ottoman and Habsburg epochs,b Serbian and Yugoslavian kingdom, socialist and post-socialist period. Every period has been reflected in urban fabric of its old centre, making it as a “specific urban amalgam”. Post-socialist transformations in Sremska Mitrovica are evident now. All of them are under the slogan of city revitalization and renewal, but their implementation has raised questions and dilemmas regarding sustainability. The aim of the research is to find out the validity of these transformations in the historical centre of Sremska Mitrovica. This will be done through the short description of urban history of the city, with special accent to post-socialist period. The last urban transformations will be compared with historical conditionality, with the intention to form a set of guidelines for their further sustainable improvement.