Senjak


Senjak is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, one of the three municipalities that constitute the very center of the city, it is an affluent neighborhood containing embassies, diplomatic residences, and mansions. Senjak is generally considered one of the wealthiest parts of Belgrade.

History and etymology

Before it became interesting to Belgrade's upper classes, Senjak was an excellent natural lookout. As many farmers kept their hay throughout the entire city, fires were quite frequent, so it was ordered for hay to be collected and kept in one place, and the area of modern Senjak was chosen, apparently also getting its name in the process. Especially bad was the fire in the late September 1857, when almost all stacks of hay stored in the Belgrade Fortress burned. Also, the hay for army horses was kept here in the late 19th century. A more romantic theory of the neighborhood's name developed later.
On the east, Senjak was bounded by the Topčider Road, which connected downtown Belgrade to the forests of Košutnjak and Topčider. The road section on the northern slope, between Senjak and western part of Točidersko Brdo, is today named Bulevar Vojvode Putnika. This section of the street was embellished with the quadruple chestnut avenue in the late 19th century. Southern section, which swerved around Senjak, was embellished with the avenue of poplars. Senjak and the neighboring Topčidersko Brdo are today quite wooded for the urban areas. This is the result of the 1923 Belgrade's general plan. One of the main projects regarding the green areas was forestation of the hill, formation of the new park and establishment of the continuous green area with the Topčider Park. Project started in 1926 while the Hyde Park was finished in the 1930s. Today, the continuous Topčider-Košutnjak parks and forests make the largest "green massif" in the immediate vicinity of Belgrade's urban tissue.
The settlement began to form around the tobacco factory, which was built before World War I. Several hundred of houses and hovels were built around the factory, mostly by the factory workers. Soon, workers from the neighboring industrial facilities along the Topčider Road, including the State Postage Stamp Printing Office, railway workers, etc. The workers settlement developed mostly along the road to the old quarry. At the time, the hill was known for the greenery and abundant fruit production, mainly apricots, grapes and figs. Lower classes had various advantages living in Senjak at the time: their workplaces were close when the public transportation grid wasn't that much developed, the costs of living outside of the city were lower, they could grow their food and fruits, there was a direct tram line to downtown and the railway also passed through the settlement.
The tobacco factory was destroyed by the Austro-Hungarian bombing of Belgrade in 1914 and wasn't rebuilt after the war. This left room for numerous workers houses to be demolished, too, and they were massively being sold due to the increased prices of the land. Instead, many villas were built by the most affluent Belgrade families. Senjak became one of the neighborhoods of Belgrade with most striking difference between social classes. Top of the Senjak Hill was occupied by the most lavish private houses in the city, while the edges and areas below the hill were among the most desolate parts of Belgrade.
During the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, a number of buildings in the neighborhood such as the Swiss ambassador's residence were damaged or affected by the conflict.
The first tram link established in Belgrade was from the Kalemegdan fortress to Senjak.

Geography

Senjak is located 3 km south-west of downtown Belgrade, on top of the hilly cliff-like crest of the western slopes of Topčidersko Brdo, overlooking Belgrade Fair right below and the Sava river. It borders the neighborhoods of Topčider and Careva Ćuprija, Mostar, Prokop and Dedinje. The triangularly shaped neighborhood has many smaller streets but it is bounded by two wide boulevards, named after Serbian army vojvodas from World War I: Vojvoda Mišić and Vojvoda Putnik.

Administration

From June 1945 to December 1946, Senjak was one of 5 administrative neighborhoods within Belgrade's Raion VII.
Senjak originally belonged to the former municipality of Topčidersko Brdo, which in 1957 merged with the municipality of Zapadni Vračar to create the municipality of Savski Venac. Senjak existed as the local community within Savski Venac with the population of 3,690 in 1981. It was later merged into the new local community of Topčidersko Brdo-Senjak which had a population of 7,757 in 1991, 7,249 in 2002 and 6,344 in 2011.

Characteristics

Just like the neighboring Dedinje, Senjak is generally considered among Belgraders as one of the richest neighborhoods in the city. After 1945, it shared much of the same fate as Dedinje: when Communists took over, they declared almost all former residents as state enemies and forced them out of their mansions, so the new Communist political and military elite moved in. Some measures in removing the former high class were brutal as only those who fled the country stayed alive. Those unlucky were taken into a nearby woods and shot, with their remains lying in unmarked graves for decades until they were exposed by construction workers clearing trees for a new football field.
Bulevar vojvode Mišića, encircles Senjak from the north, west and south and separates it from the Belgrade Fair, Careva Ćuprija and Topčider. As of 2017, it was the street with the busiest traffic in Belgrade: 8,000 vehicles per hour in one direction during the morning rush hour.
In 2019, Branislav Mitrović, architect and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, said that "caricatural architecture, inept compilations and stylish nonsense" turned once respectable residential neighborhood of Senjak, so as Neimar and Dedinje, into chaos.
In January 2021, city administration announced Topčiderska Zvezda as the most likely location of the future monument dedicated to the heroes from the 1916 Battle of Mojkovac. Within the scopes of World War I, it was fought between the invading Austro-Hungarian forces, and the Montenegrin army which defended the retreating Serbian army which headed for the Albanian Golgotha.
In August 2021 it was announced that city's Institute for the Cultural Monuments' Protection is conducting a study on declaring Senjak a protected spatial cultural-historical unit.
Park Military High School in the south-central area of the neighborhood covers.

Features

Buildings

King Peter's House
A vacant summer house of King Peter I Karađorđević. The house stands across the football pitch of "Grafičar" and close to the building of the military academy. The house, called the "White villa", was built in 1896 and it belonged to the merchant Živko Pavlović. In 1919 the state, represented by the Ministry of education, leased the house for the king who lived there from 1919 to his death in 1921. Monthly rent was 3,000 dinars in silver. The king lived quite modestly. His own room was equipped with bed, small cabinet with the sink, locker, lamp, sable and chandelier. The king had his own library, with the books printed by the Srpska književna zadruga. He spent much time on the vast terrace and in the garden. After king's death in August 1921, the Royal Intendancy bought the house out in order to make it a museum. In the 1930s it was declared a king's memorial-house.
After 1945 residents changed and mostly included the high-ranking members of the new Communist elite and in that period majority of the exhibited artifacts, the legacy of the king, were either destroyed od taken away. Missing items include the king's death mask and the only remaining artifact was the king's bed. In 1945 the house was adapted into the elementary school which was closed in 1951 and the house, for the most part since then, remained abandoned and left to the elements. In 2010 the house was adapted into the cultural center. Within the house, a memorial room for the king was set, which includes a mosaic of 100 photographs of the king and his family.
In the house's yard, there are two trees, protected by the law since 1998. One is a 20 meters high gingko and the other is a 10 meters high magnolia tree. As of 2017, both trees are estimated at being 110 years old.
Faculty of Fine Arts complex
Bordered by the streets of Mila Milunovića, Župana Časlava and Vojvoda Putnik's Boulevard, the complex is part of the University of Arts in Belgrade's Faculty of Fine Arts. It includes three buildings, one of which is the former atelier, built in 1947, of painter Milo Milunović who died in 1967. The atelier hosts the painting section of the faculty. Other building hosts the graphics section, while the third is administrative building. Modernist, one-floor new building which would connect the existing, separate structures, which, in turn, will be expanded, was announced in September 2022. The green areas will be transformed into the park, which would also serve as an open air gallery.
Other buildings
  • Military Academy; after World War I, military academy was constructed by orders of King Peter I. The academy's building is majestic, with heavy cream-colored walls and tall windows. During World War II the occupational German forces made it the headquarters for their military operations in the Balkans. The Allies bombed the neighborhood during the war in order to destroy the headquarters and the bridge over the Sava, but they didn't manage to hit it or cause any damage to the building or the bridge.
  • Museum of African Art; it was established from the private collection of a Yugoslav diplomat, and contains many rare pieces.
  • Museum of Toma Rosandić; located in the house, where the sculptor lived and worked until his death, was built by himself in 1929, and now holds a unique collection that is, unfortunately, not open to public, except on certain days.
  • Ecole Française de Belgrade, an international French school founded in 1951. The school is composed of a nursery school, an elementary school, a middle school and a high school.
  • Senjak Gymnastics Club, which was a starting point for the future career of the renowned Yugoslav rhythmic gymnast Milena Reljin.
  • The Archives of Yugoslavia and stadium and restaurant "FK Grafičar", both in the vicinity of Topčiderska zvezda, small roundabout with streets spreading in all directions connecting Senjak, Dedinje, downtown Belgrade, Topčider and further to the south.
  • BIGZ building
  • Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration
  • International School of Belgrade
  • Old Mill, a cultural monument since 1987, in 2014 adapted into the Radisson Blu Old Mill Hotel.
  • Senjak Greenmarket was located along the Sava river and was originally built for the workers of the Cardboard factory of Milan Vapa, which was right across it. The factory complex included the apartments for workers. Market is still operational, albeit smaller, along the Koste Glavinića Street.