Studentski Trg
Studentski Trg, or Students Square, is one of the central town squares and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad. In the Classical Antiquity, area of the modern square was the center of Singidunum, Roman precursor of modern Belgrade.
Location
Studentski Trg is located halfway between the Republic Square and the Kalemegdan park-fortress. It is adjacent to the Academy Park. To the north it extends into the neighborhood of Dorćol, while the pedestrian zone of Knez Mihailova is located to the south.History
Roman period
Predecessor of Belgrade was Singidunum, Celtic and, later, Roman fortified town. The original earthen and wooden fort stretched around the Studentski Trg and Knez Mihailova Street. The oldest Roman graves were discovered in this section, dated to the 1st and early 2nd century. The central axis of the city grid was in the modern Uzun Mirkova-Studentski Trg-Vasina-Republic Square direction, thus the area od modern square was the "heart" of ancient Singidunum. Part of the main axis was an additional turning at modern Rajićeva Street. There was a gate at the entrance into the military camp. The gate was located where the City Library, the last building in the Knez Mihailova Street before the Kalemegdan Park, is located today.Northern section of the Academy Park was excavated in 1968 in the project of building a furnace oil tank for the boiler room of the Belgrade's City Committee of the League of Communists located nearby. Under the lawn, the remnants of the ancient Roman thermae were discovered, including the frigidarium, laconicum, caldarium and tepidarium. The site became an archaeological dig in 1969 and 8 rooms in total were discovered, including the remains of the brick furnace which heated the water. Despite the military character of Singidunum, it was a public unisex bath. It is dated to 3rd or 4th century. Almost the entire building was unearthed, covering with walls being preserved up to the height of.
The building had the system of floor and wall heating, made of special, hollow bricks which allowed for the hot air to circulate through the rooms. The canals which conducted the water to the thermae, and were discovered in 2013 when the manhole was dug in front of the Ethnographic Museum. The canals were connected to the main aqueduct built by the Romans, which conducted water from the springs in modern Mali Mokri Lug. The thermae was built by the Roman military, as attested by the inscriptions on the bricks which contain markings of the Legio IV Flavia Felix. The entire area of the park is actually within the borders of the "Protected zone of Roman Singidunum". It is situated in the area that used to be the civilian sector of the city, outside the fortress. The remnants were visible until 1978 and due to the lack of funds to continue excavations or to cover it with the roof or a marquee, the remains were conserved and buried again. There are remains of another thermae, at the nearby Faculty of Philosophy Plateau. They are still visible and are used as benches.
In general, the entire surrounding area is rich in Roman remains from the 1st to the 3rd century AD. They also include remains below modern Faculty of Philosophy, hotel Square 9 and Ethnographic Museum. Below the roundabout are extremely well preserved walls, surrounded by the intact Roman floors and barriers. This section was discovered in 1989, but wasn't archaeologically surveyed.
Some of the oldest remains are those discovered under the faculty building. They are dated to c.100 and were still made of wattle and lep, a wall plaster made of mud. Apart from the thermae, there are also remains of a large building, with three apses and floor heating system.
Ottoman period
During the Ottoman period, the area was occupied by the Turkish cemetery, mezarlık. The cemetery stretched to the modern streets of Knez Mihailova and Zmaj Jovina. Numerous remains from this period were discovered since the 1950s, during the various communal works conducted on the square and the surrounding areas.Great Market
At the place of the modern square, there was an open green marketplace for over a century. At the beginning of the 19th century, farmers were selling goods at the entrances to the city. However, Turkish soldiers would often forcibly buy goods from them at the small prices, and then sell it themselves in the city for much higher amounts. After constant complaints from the farmers, vizier of Belgrade, after counseling with the city merchants, agreed to choose one place for the market: da se učini u Beogradu jedno pazarište ili Toržište.Also, in 1821, the state government decided to put the food trade in order and to establish the quantity and quality of the goods imported to the city. Part of the project was introduction of the excise on the goods and setting of a series of excise check points on the roads leading to the city. That same year, the city's first proper greenmarket became operational. Originally, it opened in 1824 right across the Belgrade Fortress, in the modern Pariska street, stretching between the Uzun Mirkova and Knez Mihailova streets, where the City Library is today. Only 4 days later, it was moved to the location above the old, defunct Turkish cemetery. The chosen location was situated above the Tekija building and the Kizlar Aga's Mosque, close to the starting section of the Tsarigrad Road. The market was soon equipped with market stalls for selling fruits and vegetables and barracks for the dairy products, eggs and dried meat. Raw meat was not allowed at the market. Poultry was sold alive and only in pairs. Other meat was prepared and sold in butcher shops and, since there were no refrigerators, had to be sold by noon. Apart from being the first arranged and planned market in the city, it also was the first to have a sanitary inspection which checked the hygiene, quality and freshness of the goods.
As per Serbian-Turkish agreement anyone could bring and sell goods, the market quickly grew and became city's commercial center. Though it was officially named "Saint Andrew's Market" it became known as the Great Market.
Formation of the square
The square developed around the market, also occupying parts of the former Turkish graveyard. It was originally called Veliki trg. As the ceremony of proclamation of Serbia into the kingdom in 1882 was held here, the square was renamed to Kraljev trg. In 1863 the Captain Miša's Mansion was built and the Great School moved in. In the direction of Kalemegdan, municipal administration of Belgrade was located and the building was later used for the municipal court. Later city administration building was also located here, just on the northern side. At the corner with the Zmaja od Noćaja Street, the fire brigade was situated. They used the lookout on the top of the Captain Miša's Mansion to inspect the city. As the city had no tall buildings at the time, the guard from the lookout was able to pinpoint a specific house anywhere in the city if the fire broke out. He would then alarm his colleagues below using a trumpet. In the kafana Kod Rajića junaka serbskog, prince Mihailo Obrenović organized festivities after he was handed over the keys to the city from the Ottomans, who had to evacuate the Belgrade Fortress.Prince Mihailo was assassinated on 10 June 1868. The Board for the erection of the monument was formed already on 14 June 1868 and decided to collect donations for the construction of both the church in Košutnjak, at the assassination location, and a monumental sculpture in the city itself. Russian sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin, after arriving in Belgrade in October 1868, and inspecting the city, in cooperation with the government and the Board, proposed two designs for the monument to the prince, which was to be erected at the Great Market. After the public display, the citizens apparently liked the designs and approved the building. However, the process of building the memorial dragged on, and in 1871 Mikeshin's propositions were rejected. Also in 1871, the government opted to build only the monument in the city. It announced the international design competition but dissatisfied with the results, the government repeated the competition in 1873. This time, the location for the monument was set at the Theatre Square, across the National Theatre in Belgrade, which was built by prince Michael. Its were the Prince Mihailo Monument was ultimately built in 1882.
In one of the houses at the future square, the Red Cross of Serbia was founded on 6 February 1876. During the Serbian-Ottoman wars from 1876 to 1878, Mikhail Chernyayev headed a corps of Russian volunteers to Belgrade. A mobile military church dedicated to the Holly Prince Alexander Nevsky also came from Russia and followed them to the battlefields. It was located at the Great Market in 1876, and was used for eucharists and requiem masses. When the church was permanently moved in 1876, residents of Dorćol formed a board for the construction of the church and a small, stone church was built further down the hill and a bit below the modern one, dedicated to Alexander Nevsky, too. In turn, it was demolished in 1891 and modern Church if the Holy Alexander Nevsky was finished by 1930.
First modern Belgrade's urbanist Emilijan Josimović suggested dislocation of the market in 1887, as it was placed in the sole center of the city. Plus, he deemed it inappropriate for the Great School to be across the market. But when the horse-drawn tram was introduced in Belgrade 1892, and it passed through this part of the city, the market actually bloomed even more. Josimović met with much resistance and only some time before his death, he managed for the city to decide to split the market in two and to form a park in one of the sections. The open space area around the market, which was now a defunct Turkish cemetery, and the northwestern section were turned into the park, as Josimović originally envisioned. He also proposed for the nearby buffer zone between the city and the Fortress to be adapted into the Kalemegdan Park, as he considered parks the "air reservoirs". The park was opened on 11 May 1897, just two weeks before Josimović's death. On the same day, the monument to Josif Pančić, work of sculptor Đorđe Jovanović was erected in the park. As the monument was covered with cloth for a long time, citizens colloquially nicknamed the square a "plateau of the bagged man".
The market itself continued to operate until 1926 when was finally closed. With the closing of the Great Market, city government built several other markets in the city, bit further from the downtown: Zeleni Venac, Kalenić market, Bajloni market and Jovanova market. The park that was created was named Pančićev Park, after his monument in the park, and is today known as the Akademski Park. Pančić's monument was coupled with the monument dedicated to Dositej Obradović in 1914, which was transferred to the Akadameski park in the early 1930s from his previous location at the end of the Knez Mihailova street. The square was finally formed in its present shape by 1927, with the park in the central part. Park was planned by architect Đorđe Kovaljski while the recognizable enclosure and the gates were added in 1929, on the project of Milutin Borisavljević.