Little War Island or Malo ratno ostrvo (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, t ...

: Мало ратно острво) or Horse Island or Konjsko ostrvo (

: Коњско острво) is a river island (''ada'') in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, located at the mouth of the

Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...

river into the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

. It is part of the Belgrade City proper, the capital of Serbia, and belongs to the municipality of

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

Location

The island is located between the southern bank of the

Great War Island Great War Island ( sr, Велико ратно острво, Veliko ratno ostrvo) is a river island in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of Sava and Danube rivers. Though uninhabited, the island is part of the Belgrade ...

and the right bank of the Danube in the municipality of

Novi Beograd New Belgrade ( sr, / , ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It is a planned city, built since 1948 in a previously uninhabited area on the left bank of the Sava river, opposite old Belgrade. In recent years, it has become the central bu ...

(the neighborhood of Ušće), just away from the Sava's confluence into the Danube.

Characteristics

The island used to be significantly larger before the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. When construction of Novi Beograd began in 1948, the sand from the island was transported to the mainland by large conveyor belts and used for covering the swamp on which the new city was to be built. In the process, the island shrank, and sometimes it is poetically said today that "Novi Beograd is a city on the island". What's left of the island is basically a thin strip of land, less than long and wide. The island is completely covered by vegetation (poplar trees) and inaccessible for visitors, but can be nicely observed from the

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s-restaurants on the Danube's bank.

History

The island was previously called ''Konjsko ostrvo'', "horse island". Origin of the name can't be confirmed by any specific source, but the island was used as a

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

for the livestock grazing. Also, when travelling to the other side of the river for trade or supplies, the Prečani were leaving their horses on the island.

References

Uninhabited islands of Serbia Neighborhoods of Belgrade Islands of the Danube River islands of Serbia {{BelgradeRS-geo-stub