Prokop ( sr-cyr, Прокоп) is an
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 is located in Belgrade's 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 ...
. The major facility in the neighborhood is the new
Belgrade Centre railway station, opened for limited use in 2016. Due to the name of the main street in the old section of the neighborhood, and the name of the local community (sub-municipal administrative unit) which includes Prokop, the neighborhood's name is occasionally reported as Stjepan Filipović.
Location
Prokop is located at the southern edges of downtown Belgrade to which it is directly connected by the ''
Kneza Miloša street''. It borders the area of former
Zapadni Vračar on the north,
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
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 ...
on the west 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 ...
on the south. It is bounded by three boulevards: ''Franše D'Eperea'' (named after
general D'Esperey and in fact a part of
A1 highway), ''Vojvode Putnika'' and ''Kneza Aleksandra Karađorđevića'' (named after
Prince Alexandre).
History
Prokop is located in the eastern section of the former neighborhood of
Jatagan Mala. Previously, it was a geographical reference, as the area was located in the lower valley of the now underground stream of
Mokroluški Potok. The gully already existed, which by the late 19th century already marked the division between the urbanized city territory and unurbanized outskirts. The earth and gravel were dug here and used to cover and drain the swamps on 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 ...
's right bank, so that neighborhoods of
Savamala and
Bara Venecija could be constructed, and especially because of the construction of the
Belgrade Main railway station in 1884. After the works were completed, the area around Mokroluški Potok was left as a steep, elongated cut in the ground and so got its name (Serbian ''prokop'', cut or dug through).
Ruling prince, later
king Milan
Milan Obrenović IV ( sr-cyr, Милан Обреновић, Milan Obrenović; 22 August 1854 – 11 February 1901) reigned as the Prince of Serbia from 10 June 1868 until 1882, when he became King of Serbia, a title he held until his abdica ...
personally suggested this area, which stretched above the
Đorđe Vajfert
Đorđe Vajfert ( sr-cyr, Ђорђе Вајферт, ; 15 July 185012 January 1937) was a Serbs, Serbian industrialist, List of governors of national banks of Serbia and Yugoslavia, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia and after 1920 the Natio ...
's brewery and the neighborhood of
Smutekovac. He cited many reasons like the quality of the earth or closeness to the construction site which would reduce the transportation costs, as the money was indeed lacking. However, that land belonged to his wife,
Princess Natalie, so the prince even earned money from the station's construction. In a historical twist, the Prokop is today location of the central railway station in Belgrade.
Digging of the material continued until 1898, when the filling of Bara Venecija was completely finished. During the digging of the materials, the former gully was expanded and became long, wide and deep. As the ground was fertile, the gully was first cultivated, mainly for corn and vegetables. After
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 ...
, the settlement began to develop, just like the neighboring Jatagan Mala. First settlers were railroad workers and those who were employed in the neighboring factories, and had to leave their crumbly houses in the city, which were demolished in order to make way for the new, modern residential blocks. The main street was laid as the central thoroughfare at the bottom of the gully, while the side streets were parallel, almost as if the settlement was planned. This original section of Prokop had no hovels, but only proper houses and even junior clerks from city and state administration moved in.
[
Growing into the eastern extension of the already impoverished ]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 ...
Jatagan Mala, some parts of Prokop grew even more destitute and were considered some of the poorest neighborhoods of Belgrade. Due to that, as well as the lack of any communal infrastructure or plans for the area, and a fact that geographically the settlement actually existed at the bottom of a big hole, during rains floods and mudslides were common, like in the winter of 1935. It was reported that at extremely snowy winters, due to the defile-like configuration, people would exit houses through chimneys as the bottom of the gully would be completely buried under the snow.[
As a curiosity, the daily newspaper '']Politika
( sr-Cyrl, Политика, lit=Politics) is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and ownership
is publ ...
'' from 8 March 2007 reprinted its own article from 1957 about Prokop. The article, titled "For how long will Prokop defy the construction of the city", colors Prokop as a black hole in the city center and describes the project of the reconstruction of the ''Franše d'Eperea'' street (modern highway) which would include an artificial lake with many restaurants, foreseeing that Prokop will be the most beautiful part of Belgrade. In another reprint, ''Politika
( sr-Cyrl, Политика, lit=Politics) is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and ownership
is publ ...
'' published its article from 1 April 1965 about Prokop titled ''New settlement on Čukarica will be built for the inhabitants of Prokop''. In it, Prokop is depicted as the largest informal settlement in Belgrade which basically has no roads, grocery stores and is regularly being flooded during rains. Demolition of Prokop was scheduled for 1965 but had to be postponed and instead of the settlement, whose inhabitants were to be resettled to the neighborhood of Čukarica
Čukarica ( sr-cyr, Чукарица, ) is a Subdivisions of Belgrade, municipality of the city of Belgrade, Serbia.
Name
Like several other neighborhoods of Belgrade, Čukarica was named after a kafana. At the present location of the Sugar Refin ...
, a large garage and depot for Belgrade’s public transit company GSP Belgrade was to be built. Both projects were scrapped later. After several attempts, the last remains of Jatagan Mala were fully demolished in 1961.
Oldest section of the neighborhood was a railway workers settlement, connected by the Stjepana Filipovića Street to the Rudo Institute. Known as the Railway Colony, it was located on the mass wasting slope so by the 1960s its resettling began. The entire Colony was destroyed in the extremely rainy autumn of 1969, when the slope totally collapsed. This caused permanent discontinuation of the street in two parts. In February 1969 another relocation was announced. The municipality of Savski Venac obtained 270 apartments in the neighborhoods of Žarkovo
Žarkovo ( sr-Cyrl, Жарково, ) is an List of Belgrade neighborhoods, urban neighborhood of Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica.
Location and divisions
Žarkovo (Greater Žarkovo) is one of the most po ...
and Kanarevo Brdo, so the moving of the population by the spring brought the closing of the slum section of the neighborhood, which was, at the time, one of the oldest surviving such parts of the city.
In the 1970s, the mass wasting was temporarily fixed. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the long, concrete retaining wall
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
was built, to prevent future landslides. The wall is anchored to the bedrock with underground anchors, which are in some sections long.[
The population of the modern local community was 2,710 in 1981, 2,467 in 1991, 2,103 in 2002 and 1,786 in 2011.
]
Railway station
The ill-fated construction of the new railway station which was supposed to replace the old one in Savamala has lasted for decades. The official work began in 1977, it was halted in the 1980s, resumed in the 1990s and halted again in 2000. Originally, in the late 1960s, it was supposed to be constructed near the present interchange of 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 ...
, but the idea was suddenly dropped, and one of the major authorities at the time, Branko Žeželj, picked Prokop instead, which ultimately left the Autokomanda interchange unfinished. Despite constant attempts to build it and upgrade it, after years of starting and then halting works and bankrupted companies, Prokop railway station is still just one of a dozen secondary stations in Belgrade.
After the Avala Tower was destroyed in NATO bombing of Serbia 1999, certain Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
companies offered to build a new, higher (300 meters) TV tower in Prokop. No one took it seriously so the news was mostly used for publicity purposes.
The construction of the Belgrade Waterfront
Belgrade Waterfront (), is an urban renewal development project headed by the Government of Serbia aimed at changing Belgrade's cityscape and economy by revitalizing the Sava amphitheater, between the Belgrade Fair and Branko's bridge, includin ...
and track removal in Savamala restarted the construction of the station once again in December 2014. Energoprojekt AD was once again selected as the contracting company and was given nearly 26 million euros and 14 months to complete the construction. For the first time the deadline was kept and the station was officially opened on 26 January 2016.
In March 2021 city decided to build additional residential buildings in the neighborhood, in the section between the streets Stjepana Filipovića and Dragana Mancea, and the railway station itself. It is planned as the part of the wider railway station complex. The selected lot used to be a green area, until the temporary worker's quarters for the employees of "Energoprojekt" were placed in the 1990s, when the construction of the station was resumed. The quarters were largely abandoned after 2005, and the residents hoped to return the greenery, plant trees and build a children's playground. Tenants' associations of the buildings in the vicinity of the planned construction coordinated against the project, and city responded that "nothing is definite yet".
In October 2021, city announced plans to build of commercial and residential space on this location. The total area of will be filled with high-rise building
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...
s up to tall. The investor is the "Railway City Belgrade" company, which also builds the station. They planned to build two buildings, 11 and 23 storeys high. Local residents continually organized protests, announcing they will withhold all permits which the investor has to obtain from them.[ In December 2021, city announced it is backing off from construction of the buildings in this area, cause they "accepted citizens' complaints", and because the construction could "indeed trigger the mass wasting again". Existing structure on the lot will be adapted into the communal center in 2022.
In November 2022 it was announced that city awarded another lot, in ]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 ...
's Block No. 40, to "Railway City Belgrade" as a compensation for not building additional skyscrapers in Prokop. Though the area of the lot is smaller, compared to , the total floor area of two planned buildings (one residential, one commercial), remained roughly the same at . The company was conditioned to finish the station in Prokop first, before it can build anything in New Belgrade.
References
{{Neighbourhoods of Savski Venac
Neighborhoods of Belgrade
Savski Venac