The Consequences of Planning Decisions and Legislation on the Transformation of Historic Center: Case Study of Cities in Northern Serbia

Abstract

Northern Serbian province of Vojvodina has had different historical context than the rest of the country during last centuries. Two centuries of the government of Hapsburg monarchy particularly influenced to the creation of the uniqueness of Vojvodina. Historic centers of the main cities in Vojvodina, which are appreciably transformed during this period, are good examples for the mentioned unique progressivity of “Hapsburg” period. In fact, this progressivity was enabled by many significant planning and legislative documents. The process of their adoption and implementation was so strict and far-reaching that nowadays it is hard to notice older urban structure from medieval and Ottoman times. This is apparently visible in the case of the main streets and public squares in historic centers of Vojvodina’s cities, which are preserved due to their valuable and representative characteristics. Nevertheless, the historic centers of these cities have also absorbed influences from the latter periods, after the annexation of this space to Serbia. The last period of post-socialist transition in Serbia has been especially attractive for new urban transformations, owing to arising interests for historic centers. As main magnets for new-developed market economy, historic centers have been also in the spotlight of the governments of these cities. They have tried to transform main streets and public squares by using key planning and legislative documents, but results of these transformations can be differently evaluated. This paper basically has intention to present the relations between selected planning and legislative documents from all mentioned periods and accompanied urban transformations in historic centers of the main cities in Vojvodina as a consequence of their implementation. The main intention is to understand how current post-socialist urban transformation generally corresponds to preserved values and uniqueness of such historic centers. Hence four major cities are chosen as case studies: Kikinda, Pančevo, Sremska Mitrovica, and Zrenjanin. Analyzing the relations on these cases, the set of guidelines and recommendations for the improvement of these unique and valuable urban spaces will be formed as a main aim of the paper.