Šuplja Stena

Šuplja Stena (Serbian Cyrillic: Шупља Стена) is an suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Voždovac.

Location

Šuplja Stena is located in the woods of the Avala mountain, 20 kilometers south from downtown Belgrade. Located right on the mountain's wind rose, the place has a salutary effect on human health, especially for the respiratory system.

Characteristics

Šuplja Stena is a non-residential, recreational complex which in the period of two decades (1970-90) grew into the one of the most popular children resorts, mostly for the group vacations organized by the Belgrade's elementary schools. During holiday seasons, the complex was known for hosting several thousands children.

The complex covers and area of 140,000 square metres and includes 2 buildings, 14 bungalows, soccer, basketball and valleyball fields, etc. The name of the place, "šuplja stena", is Serbian for "hollow rock".

History

The complex was build in the early 1970s by the municipal assembly of Belgrade's central municipality of Vračar. It was operational until 1992 when Serbian government designated the place as a shelter for the refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars. In 1997 the last refugees left Šuplja Stena but the complex remains inactive since then.

Future

Šuplja Stena became an object of bitter dispute between the municipalty of Vračar and the Serbian state owned forestry company, "Srbijašume". "Srbijašume", which owns the lot but not the complex, claimed that the municipality is mismanaging the complex and asked the Republic's Directory for Properties to alienate the facilities from the municipality and that they offered to do reconstruction with their own funds, but that municipality rejected them. Municipality responded that they have absolutely no intention of giving away the complex they built to "Srbijašume" without any compensation and asked (already in 2002, with a proper offer) to buy the lot too because they don't wish to reconstruct Šuplja Stena so that it could be given to someone else, claiming that after 1997 the complex was left ruined and became a gathering place for drug addicts and vagrants. However, the government in 2006 refused to sell the lot to the municipality. The subject was brought to the public attention by the series of articles in newspapers, but as of January 2007, the matter remains unresolved.