Staro Sajmište

The Škoda Tower (Serbian: Шкодин торањ / Škodin toranj) was a steel construction for exhibition parachuting within the Sajmište complex in Belgrade, the capital of Kingdom of Yugoslavia (today Serbia). During its existence from June 1938 to November 1945, it was the tallest structure in Belgrade with the height of 74 metres (243 ft), and was advertised as the tallest facility of its kind in both Europe and the world. It took almost 30 years before another structure in Belgrade surpassed this height, until the 101 metres (331 ft) tall Beograđanka building was completed in 1974.

The Sajmište concentration camp (pronounced [sâjmiːʃtɛ]) was a Nazi German concentration and extermination camp during World War II. It was located at the former Belgrade fairground site near the town of Zemun, in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). The camp was organized and operated by SS Einsatzgruppen units stationed in occupied Serbia. It became operational in September 1941 and was officially opened on 28 October of that year. The Germans dubbed it the Jewish camp in Zemun (German: Judenlager Semlin). At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, thousands of Jewish women, children and old men were brought to the camp, along with 500 Jewish men and 292 Romani women and children, most of whom were from Niš, Smederevo and Šabac. Women and children were placed in makeshift barracks and suffered during numerous influenza epidemics. Kept in squalid conditions, they were provided with inadequate amounts of food and many froze to death during the winter of 1941–42. Between March and May 1942, the Germans used a gas van sent from Berlin to kill thousands of Jewish inmates. With the gassings complete, it was renamed Zemun concentration camp (German: Anhaltelager Semlin) and served to hold one last group of Jews who were arrested upon the surrender of Italy in September 1943. During this time it also held captured Yugoslav Partisans, Chetniks, sympathizers of the Greek and Albanian resistance movements, and Serb peasants from villages in other parts of the NDH. An estimated 32,000 prisoners, mostly Serbs, passed through the camp during this period, 10,600 of whom were killed or died due to hunger and disease. Conditions in Sajmište were so poor that some began comparing it to Jasenovac and other large concentration camps throughout Europe. In 1943 and 1944, evidence of atrocities committed in the camp was destroyed by the units of SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, and thousands of corpses were exhumed from mass graves and incinerated. In May 1944, the Germans transferred control of the camp over to the NDH, and it was closed that July. Estimates of the number of deaths at Sajmište range from 20,000 to 23,000, with the number of Jewish deaths estimated at 7,000 to 10,000. It is thought that half of all Serbian Jews perished at the camp. Most of the Germans responsible for the operation of the camp were captured and brought to trial. Several were extradited to Yugoslavia and executed. Camp commander Herbert Andorfer and his deputy Edgar Enge were arrested in the 1960s after many years of hiding. Both were given short prison sentences in West Germany and Austria, respectively, though Enge never served any time given his old age and poor health. The derelict complex was declared a cultural monument on 9 July 1987. National Assembly of Serbia adopted the law which established the Memorial Center "Staro Sajmište" on 24 February 2020. Reconstruction of the central tower, as the first step in the adaptation of the remains into the memorial center and museum began on 27 July 2022.

The Old Sava Bridge (Serbian: Стари савски мост, romanized: Stari savski most) is a 430-metre-long (1,410 ft) and 40-metre-wide (130 ft) bridge, crossing the river Sava in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the smallest road bridge in the Serbian capital and is used both for car and tram traffic. The main span between the two pillars of this tied arch bridge is over 157 m (515 ft) in length. Two bus lines and three tram lines of Belgrade public transport use the bridge. Due to its history, the bridge is said to have very important place and role in Belgrade's skyline and memory and is considered by many citizens as one of the city symbols. However, starting in 2016 and 2017, the city administration decided to demolish it and build the new bridge instead to be more "modern" because of the nearby Belgrade Waterfront project. This met with fierce public and experts opposition, with city changing the future of the bridge several times (expansion, upgrade, demolition, relocation on various locations) before claiming that citizens voted online to relocate it on dry land in the Ušće Park, as an "attraction". The reporters and public distanced from the voting, some debunking it as being rigged and unrepresentative.

Park Republika Srpska (Serbian Cyrillic: Парк Република Српска) is a park in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of New Belgrade.

King Alexander Bridge (Serbian: Мост краља Александра, Most kralja Aleksandra), in full The Bridge of King Alexander Karađorđević or The Bridge of the Knightly King Alexander, was a road and tram bridge over the Sava river, in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia. It was the first permanent road bridge across the Sava in Belgrade after almost 250 years and the Long Bridge from 1688. Finished in 1934, it was damaged and out of use since 1941, and fully demolished in 1944, during World War II. Its pylons were later used for the modern Branko's Bridge, built in 1956. The bridge was revered while existed being described as "gorgeous" and "one of the most important object ever built in Belgrade".

Branko's Bridge (Serbian: Бранков мост, romanized: Brankov most) is the second-largest bridge (after Gazela) of Belgrade, Serbia, connecting the city center with New Belgrade across the Sava river. Built in 1956 on the foundations of the 1934 King Alexander Bridge, which was destroyed in World War II, it reconnected Belgrade and Zemun as the only motorway bridge at the time. After several official and unofficial names, the present name stuck after the Brankova Street, which extends into the bridge from the direction of the old section of Belgrade.

Belgrade Waterfront, known in Serbian as Belgrade on Water (Serbian: Београд на води / Beograd na vodi), is an urban renewal development project headed by the Government of Serbia aimed at improving Belgrade's cityscape and economy by revitalizing the Sava amphitheater, a neglected stretch of land on the right bank of the Sava river, between the Belgrade Fair and Branko's bridge. It was started in 2014 with the reconstruction of the Belgrade Cooperative building, which was finished in June of the same year. It is the second largest mixed use complex under construction in Europe, just after Minsk Mir, worth 3.5 billion dollars. Belgrade Waterfront complex will include 7,000 residential units for 14,000 residents, luxury hotels including W Hotel and St. Regis, 2000 offices, the largest shopping mall in southeast Europe, and public buildings within a total construction area of 1.8 million sq.The project was initiated in 2014 between the Government of Serbia and Eagle Hills, a leading Abu Dhabi-based private investment and development company focused on creating new city hubs in high-growth international markets. Around US$ 3,5 billion will be invested by the Serbian government and their UAE partners. The project includes office and luxury apartment buildings, Belgrade Park, Sava Promenada, five-star hotels, and Galerija Belgrade shopping center. The project's central point is Kula Belgrade, a new city landmark. Standing at 168 metres (551 ft), this building is designed by the architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (Serbian: Музеј савремене уметности, romanized: Muzej savremene umetnosti) is an art museum located in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1958 as the Modern Gallery, making if one the first museums of this type in the world. It was moved into the current building in the Ušće neighborhood of New Belgrade in 1965. The building is a masterpiece of architects Ivan Antić and Ivanka Raspopović, a short-lived but highly successful partnership, which also produced the 21 October Museum in Šumarice Memorial Park in Kragujevac. The collection contains more than 35,000 works of art. The museum collects and displays art works produced since 1900 in Serbia and Yugoslavia. It also organizes international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. The museum was closed for renovation between 2007 and 2017. After several deadlines were pushed back, the museum was finally reopened for visitors on 20 October 2017.

Vučo's House on the Sava River is located in 61-61a, Karađorđeva Street, Belgrade, in the territory of the city municipality of Savski venac. It was built in 1908, and it represents an immovable cultural property as a сultural monument.Vučo's house on the Sava was erected during the flowering of "Sava settlement", by the project of the аrchitect Dimtrije T. Leko as a representative two-storey dual purpose building for the merchant Đorđe Vučo. Shops were located at the premises of the ground zone, while the upper storeys were intended for housing. In terms of space, the building is the counterpart to the opposite building of the Belgrade Cooperative. Although the concept of the building was realized in a traditional way, using the tripartite division of facades, the processing of the main facade indicates the penetration of the new Art Nouveau architecture. Verticalism of the front facade facing the market is realized by three-part windows of the floors, which is overhung by an arched аttic with a pyramidal dome in the area of the roof. The central motif of the decorative treatment of façade is the motif of a woman's head with a shell and garlands in the semicircular tympanum field of the first floor. The side facades were enlivened by balconies of wrought iron, which are dominated by geometric and floral motifs. The ground floor was devoted to shops and the flats to representative housing. The Vuo Family's buildings are all designed by the architect Dimitrije T., which is an interesting relationship that was uncommon in Belgrade architecture and contributes to the development of the former Mali pijac on the Sava River. Leko and represent Art Nouveau style. During the 19th century in this region, there were estates and houses of prominent citizens of Belgrade, such as Аntule, Vuče, Stojanović and others. The house of Ljubomir Krsmanović in 1894 and hotel "Bosna" were around Mali pijac. During bombing in the Second World War, the building was partially damaged. Repairs were made by the project in 1946.

The Ušće Towers (Serbian Cyrillic: Пословни центар Ушће, romanized: Poslovni centar Ušće) are two 25-story mixed-use skyscrapers located at Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard in the New Belgrade municipality of Belgrade, Serbia. The first tower, 98 meters tall, was the tallest building in Serbia until 1979 and construction of Genex Tower, and the second-tallest freestanding structure, after the Avala Tower. Construction of the second tower, designed as a twin of the first, began in 2018 and it was opened in June 2020. Built in 1964, the first Ušće Tower glass building overlooks the confluence (ušće in Serbo-Croatian) of Danube and Sava rivers from the New Belgrade side. It was originally used as the headquarters of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which broke apart in 1990. Ušće was frequently leased out to commercial interests until 21 April 1999, when it was severely damaged by successive NATO air-strikes as part of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Beginning in 2003, the tower was reconstructed, including a 2-floor increase (103,9m / 340,9 ft in total) in height, with the addition of a 26m antenna, which in strict architectural terms does not count as structural height, however, in structural height would actually be 103,9 m. The reconstructed tower is now being rented out to tenants.

The Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia (German: Gebiet des Militärbefehlshabers in Serbien; Serbian: Подручје Војног заповедника у Србији, romanized: Područje vojnog zapovednika u Srbiji) was the area of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that was placed under a military government of occupation by the Wehrmacht following the invasion, occupation and dismantling of Yugoslavia in April 1941. The territory included only central Serbia, with the addition of the northern part of Kosovo (around Kosovska Mitrovica), and the Banat. This territory was the only area of partitioned Yugoslavia in which the German occupants established a military government. This was due to the key rail and the Danube transport routes that passed through it, and its valuable resources, particularly non-ferrous metals. On 22 April 1941, the territory was placed under the supreme authority of the German military commander in Serbia, with the day-to-day administration of the territory under the control of the chief of the military administration staff. The lines of command and control in the occupied territory were never unified, and were made more complex by the appointment of direct representatives of senior Nazi figures such as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (for police and security matters), Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (for the economy), and Reichsminister Joachim von Ribbentrop (for foreign affairs). The Germans used Bulgarian troops to assist in the occupation, but they were at all times under German control. Sources variously describe the territory as a puppet state, a protectorate, a "special administrative province", or describe it as having a puppet government. The military commander in Serbia had very limited German garrison troops and police detachments to maintain order, but could request assistance from a corps of three divisions of poorly-equipped occupation troops. The German military commander in Serbia appointed two Serbian civil puppet governments to carry out administrative tasks in accordance with German direction and supervision. The first of these was the short-lived Commissioner Government which was established on 30 May 1941. The Commissioner Government was a basic tool of the occupation regime, lacking in any powers. In late July 1941, an uprising began in the occupied territory, which quickly swamped the Serbian gendarmerie, German police and security apparatus, and even the rear area infantry force. To assist in quelling the rebellion, which initially involved both the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and the monarchist Chetniks, a second puppet government was established. The Government of National Salvation under Milan Nedić replaced the Commissioner Government on 29 August 1941. Although it enjoyed some support, the regime was unpopular with the majority of Serbs. This failed to turn the tide however, and the Germans were forced to bring in front line divisions from France, Greece and even the Eastern Front to suppress the revolt. Commencing from late September 1941, Operation Uzice expelled the Partisans from the occupied territory, and in December, Operation Mihailovic dispersed the Chetniks. Resistance continued at a low level until 1944, accompanied by frequent reprisal killings, which for some time involved the execution of 100 hostages for every German killed. The Nedić regime had no status under international law, no powers beyond those granted by the Germans, and was simply an instrument of German rule. Although German forces took the leading and guiding role of the Final Solution in Serbia, and the Germans monopolized the killing of Jews, they were actively aided in that role by Serbian collaborators. The Banjica concentration camp in Belgrade was jointly controlled by Nedic's regime and the German army. The one area in which the puppet administration did exercise initiative and achieve success was in the reception and care of hundreds of thousands of Serb refugees from other parts of partitioned Yugoslavia. Throughout the occupation, the Banat was an autonomous region, formally responsible to the puppet governments in Belgrade, but in practice governed by its Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) minority. While the Commissioner Government was limited to the use of gendarmerie, the Nedić government was authorized to raise an armed force, the Serbian State Guard, to impose order, but they were immediately placed under the control of the Higher SS and Police Leader, and essentially functioned as German auxiliaries until the German withdrawal in October 1944. The Germans also raised several other local auxiliary forces for various purposes within the territory. In order to secure the Trepča mines and the Belgrade-Skopje railway, the Germans made an arrangement with Albanian collaborators in the northern tip of present-day Kosovo which resulted in the effective autonomy of the region from the puppet government in Belgrade, which later formalized the German arrangement. The Government of National Salvation remained in place until the German withdrawal in the face of the combined Red Army, Bulgarian People's Army and Partisan Belgrade Offensive. During the occupation, the German authorities killed nearly all Jews residing in the occupied territory, by shooting the men as part of reprisals conducted in 1941, and gassing the women and children in early 1942 using a gas van. After the war, several of the key German and Serbian leaders in the occupied territory were tried and executed for war crimes.

Yugoslavia (; Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavija / Југославија [juɡǒslaːʋija]; Slovene: Jugoslavija [juɡɔˈslàːʋija]; Macedonian: Југославија [juɡɔˈsɫavija]; lit. 'Land of the South Slavs') was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929. The Kingdom was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944, King Peter II, then living in exile, recognised it as the legitimate government. The monarchy was subsequently abolished in November 1945. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, when a communist government was established. It acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed again, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The six constituent republics that made up the SFRY were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. SR Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics' borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav Wars. From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars. After the breakup, the republics of Montenegro and Serbia formed a reduced federative state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), known from 2003 to 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro. This state aspired to the status of sole legal successor to the SFRY, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. Eventually, it accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession and in 2003 its official name was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. This state dissolved when Montenegro and Serbia each became independent states in 2006, with Kosovo having an ongoing dispute over its declaration of independence in 2008.