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March 07, 2009 |
Personal
photos, September 2005
Serbia 2005 A Tour of Belgrade |
FROM SERBIA
Arrival at the Intercontinental
Belgrade, Serbia, Sep 11, 2005 - I arrived at the Hotel Intercontinental this afternoon to a welcome of beautiful flowers in my room...
... and clear skies outside...
A view from my hotel room... the same corner suite Karen and I had last year.
For more on Belgrade sights from Karen and my August 2004 visits here, click here (first visit) and here (second visit).
A Tour of Belgrade
Belgrade, Sep 13, 2005 - After two days of intensive business meetings, I took time off to walk through downtown Belgrade. I was pleasantly surprised to see many signs of revival and restoration of beautiful old buildings that have been left to rot and ruin during the communist rule and the recent wars and sanctions.
One old government building in the city center near the Green Wreath park...
The Old Palace that was used by the King in pre-World War II time for official functions is now the President's office. It was here that I met with the former president Slobodan Milosevic twice in the early 1990s.
Right around the corner, there are now signs of American-style marketing... a Grand Cherokee Jeep billboard
The old ornate Hotel Moscow at Terazije, the main city square, is one of many state enterprises that has recently been privatized. I was pleased to see the ugly graffiti cleaned off of the ancient (1860) fountain visible in front of the hotel. Overall, downton Belgrade is much cleaner than I have ever seen it. It is certainly much cleaner than the London West End, for example. In fact, you can see a Belgrade city worker collecting trash in the forefront.
The entrance to the fashionable Knez Mihaljova street - a pedestrian mall that's line with shops and boutiques.
Results of renovations and restorations of the beautiful building facades along Knez Mihajlova are evident in the above picture...
... as well as in this one of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences...
... and the City Library that's next to this monument to a Serbian poet and writer (Rakic)...
...another ornate building in the same area.
The National Museum (left) and the National Theater (right) grace the Republic Square, a cite of many political gatherings and protests in the last 15 years. Sadly, the monument to a Serb ruler from the 19th century (Prince Mihajlo on horse) is still defaced by graffiti.
After a short walk from the Republic Square along Vasina Street, one runs ino this striking facade - the Belgrade Philosophy faculty building where the first-ever anti-communist student uprising originated in 1968 (see "Communist Media Then and Now," June 1999). This is also where Karen and I took some pictures on our last night in Belgrade in August 2004.
Moments later, two examples of Belgrade's modernization moved into the scene - a Pepsi truck and a woman talking on her cell phone... while smoking, unlike most Americans! :-)
A pretty flower bed in front of the Philosophy Faculty building...
...and a park across the street ("Student Park") where I spent many hours playing as a young child.
By now, I am sure that most of you have concluded that Belgrade is a very "European" city. And it is. But there are some remnants of the Turkish influence, too. After all, the Ottoman Empire ruled this part of the world for about 500 years. The above Princess Ljubica residence, now a museum, that I photographed right after my meeting with Patriarch Paul, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, is an example of the Ottoman architecture...
... as is this museum located on the grounds of the Kalemegdan Fortress, the site of the ancient city of Belgrade that goes all the way back to Roman Empire time, when it was called Singidunum.
This humble stone marker at the Kalemegdan Fortress marks the spot where the Christian Serbs and Hungarians defeated the Muslim Turk invaders in 1456. Alas, the Turks eventually prevailed...
Where two rivers meet... a view of the confluence of the river Sava (left) into the Danube (right) as seen from the Kalemegdan Fortress.
The Serbs, the French and the British were allies in World War I and II. The Versailles-style manicured lawns and flower beds surround a monument inscribed with just two words: "To France." The monument is one of several that can bee seen at the Kalemegdan Fortress that celebrate the victorious WW I alliances, particularly between Serbia and France (for more on that, also see Karen and my first Belgrade photo album, Aug 2004).
It was that much more ironic that France and Britain would join the U.S. and other NATO allies in the bombing of Serbia in 1999 that lasted 78 days. The preceding shot of a bombed-out office towers in New Belgrade, near my hotel, was taken contemporaneously (I was there for six days during the bombing).
About 15 months later, I took this picture of the same building from my hotel, and turned it into a grizzly postcard.
It was nice to see the same building now completely restored...
...by in private owners, housing hundreds of new businesses. I kind of wished the same had happened with the World Trade Center restoration by now. Mañana, perhaps?
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Bob's birthday 2005 & Part 2.1 & Part 2.2
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