Bežanija

Bežanija (Serbian Cyrillic: Бежанија) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd.

Location

Bežanija is located west of the downtown Belgrade, across the Sava river, in the Syrmia region. It is situated in the central part of the Novi Beograd municipality, on the southern extension of the elongated, crescent-shaped yellow loess ridge of "Bežanijska Kosa". The ridge (or slope, as it is called in Serbian, "kosa") gives its name to the northern extension of Bežanija, Bežanijska Kosa, and stretches to the right banks of the Danube in the neighborhood of Zemun. Once a suburb of Belgrade, separated from it by the vast marshlands on the Sava's left bank, Bežanija today forms one completely urbanized area with Belgrade thanks to the rapid development of Novi Beograd after the World War II.

Population

Bežanija experienced a rapid growth of population after 1948 as it was almost immediately attached to the newly constructed city-within-the city of Novi Beograd. It became a "local community" (Serbian: "mesna zajednica") within the Novi Beograd, and as municipal internal boundaries changed a lot in the 1970s, despide further expansion, census showed a reduced number of population as many border areas (entirely or partially) were detached from Bežanija (Bežanijska Kosa, Blocks 61-65, etc.).

Population of Bežanija (in 1921 and 1953 it was still a separate settlement):
* 1921 - 2,069
* 1953 - 3,330
* 1961 - 7,129
* 1971 - 15,580
* 1981 - 14,067
* 2002 - 13,378

Today, Bežanija extends to the northeast into Bežanijska Kosa and the west into Ledine.

History

Either in terms of old or new history, Bežanija is the oldest part of today's Novi Beograd. The findings of the ancient settlement which existed from the neolithic to the Roman period were discovered in the area.

In 1512 begins modern history of Bežanija as this was the year the settlement was mentioned for the first time under its present name, as a small village with 35 houses, already populated by the Serbs (it was in that day's Kingdom of Hungary). They crossed the Sava river and settled in Syrmia after the fall of the medieval Serbian Despotate and Ottoman occupation (thus the name of the village, "bežanija", "running away" in Serbian).

In 1526 however Ottomans took it from the Kingdom of Hungary. Habsburg Monarchy conquered it temporarily during the Great Turkish War (1689-1691) and permanently in 1718. It was part of the Habsburg Military Frontier (Slavonian Krajina). In 1848-1849 it was part of the Serbian Vojvodina, a Serb autonomous region within Austrian Empire, but in 1849 was again placed under administration of the Military Frontier.

As the Frontier was abolished in 1881, it became part of the autonomous kingdom Croatia-Slavonia, which belonged to the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. On November 24, 1918, as part of Syrmia, the village became part of the Kingdom of Serbia, and on December 1, it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (future Yugoslavia).

Bežanija became part of the wider Belgrade area for the first time in 1929 after coup d'état conducted by the king Alexander I of Yugoslavia, who, among other things, draw a new map of Yugoslavia's administrative division creating a new administrative unit "Uprava grada Beograda" or "Administration of the City of Belgrade" which comprised Belgrade, Zemun (with Bežanija) and Pančevo.

After the World War II Bežanija remained part of the Belgrade area but with its own municipality. As the concstruction of Novi Beograd began in 1948, municipality of Bežanija was abolished an annexed to the municipality of Novi Beograd in 1955 (itself established in 1952), becoming one of its "local communities".

Economy

Bežanija is mostly residential area. Some very important industrial facilities are located in the areas geographically, though not administratively, parts of Bežanija: IMT and FOM factories, section of the Belgrade's Waterwoks and Sewage, Minel, etc. Commercial sector is developing recently, including a green market, several gas pumps, a stadium and several shopping malls (like "Immo Idea").

West of Bežanija is the location of the old Belgrade airport which was finished in March 1927, destroyed by the Germans in 1944, and became defunct in 1962 when the new airport near the village of Surčin was finished (today's Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport).

The major transmission grid's substation for western Belgrade is located in Bežanija and was heavily damaged during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. The graphite bombs (or "blackout bombs") were used. The major substation for eastern Belgrade, in Leštane was also bombed.

"Novo Bežanijsko groblje" ("New Bežanija cemetery"), west of the settlement is Belgrade's largest cemetery. Old cemetery, much smaller, is located in the old part of the settlement.

Sport

Bežanija has many Sports facilities including tennis courts, basketball courts and the Stadion Bežanije, where FK Bežanija play their home matches.

Parts of Bežanija

Bežanijska Kosa

Northeastern extension of the Bežanija, along the loess ridge, is called Bežanijska Kosa (Cyrillic: Бежанијска Коса; "slope of Bežanija"). It is crescent shaped, leaning on the western border of the urban area of Novi Beograd, stretching along the "Tošin bunar" street to Zemun. Northern section of the neighborhood is crossed by the Belgrade-Zagreb highway.

It roughly comprises Blocks 6, 35, 49, 50 and 60. Southern section is industrialized (IMT and Minel factories) and the location of the old airport (now a new neighborhood in the process of construction, Airport City Belgrade), while the central parts are mostly residential. Northern section, along the highway, comprises stadiums of the "Bežanija" and "Radnički" soccer clubs, auto-camp, hotel "Nacional", sports center of "11 April", "Bežanija" retirement home and one of the major Belgrade hospitals, "KBC Bežanijska Kosa". In the northeast it borders the Studentski Grad while northwestern section belongs to the municipality of Zemun. The railway tunnel has been dug through the loess ridge.

It distincts itself from the rest of Novi Beograd as it has no skyscrapers, but smaller, more 'humane' buildings and its population was 19,036 in 2002.

References

* "Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija", Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): "Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije"; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6

External links

* http://bezanija.go-forum.net/