Žarkovo

Žarkovo (Serbian Cyrillic: Жарково) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica.

Location and Divisions

Žarkovo (Greater Žarkovo) is one of the most populous single neighborhoods of Belgrade. As such, it is divided in several sub-neighborhoods, which were built as Žarkovo's extensions: Julino Brdo and Repište to the north, Cerak-Cerak II to the west and Bele Vode and Rupčine to the south.

In general, Greater Žarkovo is bordered by the Čukarica, Banovo Brdo and Sunčana Padina to the north, Košutnjak (with Filmski Grad) to the east, Skojevsko Naselje and Cerak Vinogradi to the northeast and Makiš to the west. On the south, it is bordered by the open fields of "Stari Lanci", "Novi Lanci" and "Rupčine", but with the urbanized strip of land alongside the Belgrade-Bar railway and the "Vodovodska Street", it makes a continuous built-up area with Železnik to the southwest.

History

The remains of the large Neolithic settlement from the period of the Vinča culture is found in the area (Cerak Vinogradi). First mention of the settlement under the name of Žarkovo is from the XVII century. At the time, Žarkovo had its own municipality and was more important that the village of Čukarica which split from it as a separate municipality in 1911. Today, Žarkovo itself is part of the municipality of Čukarica. Until 1970's, Žarkovo was a suburb of Belgrade, a separate, extremely fast growing town (population 1961: 8,636; 1971: 28,761), so it was administratively annexed to the Belgrade City proper, becoming "local community" within the city, and an extensive development of the border neighborhoods in the 1970's and 1980's (Banovo Brdo, Sunčana Padina, Cerak Vinogradi, Skojevsko Naselje), connected Žarkovo and the rest of Belgrade into one continuous built-up area. In 1981 local community of Žarkovo had a population of 43,721, which was already 40% of the population in the urban section of the Čukarica municipality. Later, the local community was divided into several smaller ones, but the population of Žarkovo in widest sense was 58,682 in 2002.

Žarkovo Selo

Žarkovo Selo (Serbian for "Žarkovo village") is the oldest part of Žarkovo. Urbanized today (4,219 inhabitants in 1981, 9,6% of the whole population of Žarkovo), with its small houses with backyards and short streets, it still distinct itself from the rest of the modern, tall buildings in the neighborhood.

Economy

Žarkovo is mostly residential area. Western part of the neighborhood, alongside the "Milorada Jovanovića Street" is industrialized though, so as the area on the Makiš-Bele Vode border (freight train station and a marshalling yard on the Belgrade-Bar railway, the largest one in Belgrade, and the central facilities (including the water factory) of the Belgrade waterworks). Aeronautical-Technical Institute is located in the neighborhood.

The main street in Žarkovo, the "Trgovačka Street" is developing into a new commercial center, as an extension of the major commercial center and the main street of Banovo Brdo, the "Požeška Street". "Trgovačka Street" itself extends into the major road in western Serbia, the "Ibarska magistrala".

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