Urban Plans and the Transformation of Belgrade Through History

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of Belgrade’s most significant planning documents from the late nineteenth century to the present. These planning documents represent the core ideas and concepts that have guided Belgrade’s urban development from 1867, the year marked as the turning point in the history of the modern urban development of Belgrade. It is the year in which the founder of modern Serbian urban planning, Emilijan Josimović, completed his urban plan for a modern European Belgrade and transformed it from an oriental town into a European city. Belgrade had only 25,000 inhabitants at the time of this reconstruction. Belgrade’s history saw major changes in the nineteenth century, when everything related to the oriental Turkish Belgrade was demolished and the city was fully reconstructed. The planning documents are divided into four groups, from the end of the nineteenth century to WWI (4 documents), from WWI to WWII (3 documents), from WWII to 2000 (3 documents), and after 2000 (5 documents). The chapter explores various influences on the city’s development and the strategic guidelines that can be seen in the chronological review of the planning documents presented.