Jatagan Mala
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Jatagan Mala () is a former urban neighborhood of
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
, the capital of
Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
. It existed from 1919 to 1961 and was located in the municipality of
Savski Venac Savski Venac ( sr-cyr, Савски Венац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2022 census results, the municipality has a population of 36,699 inhabitants. It is one of the three municipalities which constitute the ...
. Jatagan Mala became a point of media interest in 2017 with the broadcast of TV serial
Shadows over Balkan ''Shadows over the Balkans'' (), also known as ''Balkan Shadows'' and ''Black Sun'', is a Cinema of Serbia, Serbian Period film, period Crime film, crime Television show, television series created by Dragan Bjelogrlić. The series is set in the Ki ...
, which was partially located in Jatagan Mala during the
Interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
.


Location

Jatagan Mala was situated some south of downtown Belgrade, east of the
Sava The Sava, is a river in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. From its source in Slovenia it flows through Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally reac ...
river. It originated on the location where the modern headquarters of the Medical Emergency Office (''Hitna pomoć'') is, below the "Višegradska" Maternity Hospital. In time, it expanded occupying the entire slope between the ''Sarajevska'' Street on the west and
Autokomanda Autokomanda ( sr-cyr, Аутокоманда, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located on the tripoint of the Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac, Savski Venac and Vračar. Location Autokomanda is located ...
on the east, stretching above the Kragujevac road, modern ''Franše d'Еpere'' section of the
highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
. It occupied roughly the area across the present neighborhoods of
Mostar Mostar () is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is situated on the Neretva Riv ...
and
Prokop Prokop may mean either of two Hussite generals, both of whom died in the 1434 battle of Lipan: * Prokop the Great * Prokop the Lesser Other people who bore the name Prokop: * Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ...
, on the northern slopes of
Topčidersko Brdo Topčidersko Brdo ( sr-cyr, Топчидерско Брдо; ) is an urban neighborhood and former municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac. Location Topčidersko Brdo (from ...
.


History

The name of the neighborhood derives from two words in Turkish, ''jatagan'' (short sword or sabre, Turkish
yatagan The yatagan, yataghan, or ataghan (from Turkish ''yatağan''), also called varsak, is a type of Ottoman knife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th century. The yatagan was extensively used in Ottoman Turkey and in areas under imm ...
, dagger) and ''ma aa'' (Turkish
mahalle is an Arabic word variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or neighborhood in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations. History Historically, mahallas were autonomous social ins ...
, neighborhood), meaning "sword neighborhood". Belgrade was left battered after the
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and Austro-Hungarian and German occupation. There was a major lack of dwellings and large number of internal migrants from the rest of Serbia poured into the capital searching for jobs. Many squatted in abandoned and torn-down dwellings. The neighborhood was established in the late 1919. A group of citizens who had been expelled from their illegal residences built the first shanty houses. The area that they occupied was a municipal lot, but was not urbanized at all and was overgrown with weeds and shrubs. The settlement grew constantly and soon became notorious for the prostitution, gambling, robbing, brawls, etc., and even the police hesitated to enforce the law and order in Jatagan Mala. Jatagan Mala was a typical
shanty town A shanty town, squatter area, squatter settlement, or squatter camp is a settlement of improvised buildings known as shanties or shacks, typically made of materials such as mud and wood, or from cheap building materials such as corrugated iron s ...
. The dwellings were all small, but built in various "styles" and from all sorts of materials. There were half-dugouts, shanties built of
adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
or tin sheets, etc. Still, the streets developed in the settlement and there were grocery and craft shops. As a curiosity, Jatagan Mala had electricity, which was very expensive then. In time, some of the wealthier settlers built big palaces from proper, hard materials. By the late 1920s the settlement had 300 houses and over 1,000 people. At that time the first attempt at demolishing the settlement occurred, in the joint action of the police and firemen. Efforts to demolish Jatagan Mala resumed in several partial actions, but it continued to grow nevertheless: "new shanty houses are constantly built, so often an inhabitant of Jatagan Mala, when he gets up in the morning, sees a new, someone else's house in his yard". In 1933 the police demolished one part of the settlement. In 1938, it had 5,000 inhabitants, and the major section of the settlement, between modern
interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...
s of Autokomanda and Mostar, was demolished that year. City administration constructed "Worker's colony", a barracks settlement in the ''Severni bulevar'' street, in the neighborhood of
Zvezdara Zvezdara ( sr-cyr, Звездара, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. The municipality is geographically hilly and with many forests. According to the 2022 census results, the municipality has a population of 172,625 inhabitants. The ...
, to relocate settlers of Jatagan Mala, but the outbreak of the war put the project on hold. Still, the largest part was demolished in 1939–40, when 450 houses were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants were forcibly resettled to
Marinkova Bara Marinkova Bara () is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Voždovac. Location Marinkova Bara (Serbian for "Marinko's bog") is located in the northern section of the municipality, alon ...
. There was a permanent circus in the neighborhood. One of the attractions was a long baby whale. After it died in 1936, the carcass was purchased by Vladeta Simić, professor at the University of Belgrade's Veterinary Faculty. It turned out that it was actually a fully grown
beaked whale Beaked whales (systematic name Ziphiidae) are a Family (biology), family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least-known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat, reclusive behavior and apparent low abundance. Only three or four of ...
. Simić exhibited whale's skeleton as the first item in the faculty's Museum of Anatomy. A temporary facility, which hosted the
University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...
's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, was set in the neighborhood in 1936, when the faculty was established. Present faculty's building was finished in 1948, above the neighborhood. When construction of the new highway through Belgrade began in 1960s, population of Jatagan Mala was dislocated into the newly constructed residential blocks of
New Belgrade New Belgrade (, ) is a Subdivisions of Belgrade, municipality of the city of Belgrade. It was a Planned community, planned city and now is the central business district of Serbia and South East Europe. Construction began in 1948 in a previously un ...
across the
Sava The Sava, is a river in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. From its source in Slovenia it flows through Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally reac ...
and the neighborhood was demolished to make way for the interchange of Mostar and the still not completely finished Belgrade Centre railway station, colloquially called Prokop. Among his first, amateur films, film director
Dušan Makavejev Dušan Makavejev ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Макавејев, ; 13 October 1932 – 25 January 2019) was a Serbian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s—many ...
made a movie ''Jatagan Mala'' in 1953. It was described as an original, insightful and provocative debunking of the big city's backside. The settlement was completely demolished by 1961, in the process of city beautification due to the First Summit of the Non-Aligned countries. The inhabitants were resettled into the neighborhood of Ledine.


Romani

Though the settlement developed after World War I, settling of the Romani people in the area was already recorded in the 19th century. It was a poor, neglected neighborhood inhabited by the
Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
and by today's standards it would probably be classified as an
informal settlement Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the info ...
. Ironically, it bordered two wealthiest neighborhoods of Belgrade,
Senjak Senjak ( sr-Cyrl, Сењак, ) 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 emba ...
and
Dedinje Dedinje ( sr-cyrl, Дедиње, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac. Dedinje is generally considered the wealthiest part of Belgrade, and is the site of numero ...
. The case of Jatagan Mala is today often cited as a successful way of handling informal settlements problems (regarding today existing similar settlements like Kartonsko naselje, Deponija, etc.), but no proper study was ever made how fully the Romani population was really integrated.


References


Further reading

* {{Romani diaspora Neighborhoods of Belgrade Romani communities in Serbia Savski Venac Squatting in Serbia 1919 establishments in Serbia 1960s disestablishments in Yugoslavia