Travel Report: Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade.

Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade.

August 2019.

I’ll never forget my first summer in Belgrade. It was the early days of my relationship with Sladja and there was a palpable sense of excitement and expectancy between us. In fact, I had come to the Serbian capital so that… at long last… we could finally hang out. An opportunity, we both knew, to see if we had a future together beyond this two-week adventure.

One of the first things we did was take a long, leisurely walk around Tasmajdan Park. Created in 1954 and having gone through a huge renovation between 2010 and 2011, this city centre park is a treasured and protected cultural monument. Its name translates loosely as quarry, because back in ancient times the land used to be a quarry and then a cemetery.

Image courtesy of Gmihail. 

Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, some of the battles fought for the liberation of Belgrade took place here. In World War I, locals hid in the area’s underground tunnels during the worst of the bombing. In World War II, meanwhile, this is where The Nazis rounded up a great number of the city’s Jews for execution.

I guess Sladja and I were both a little nervy that afternoon. Full of that largely positive but anxiety-tinged energy that channels between people in the early throes of a promising relationship. Happily, the conditions helped us relax and enjoy the moment for what it was.

With the sun in full force, the people of Belgrade had flocked to the park. And here they were before us, sitting chatting, reading and simply enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of urban nature. It really makes me smile to think of this uncomplicated, pre-pandemic world.

Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade.

However, I can’t pretend that it was an idyllic summer afternoon for everyone. Indeed this was the first time I saw evidence of Belgrade’s homelessness. As I would come to know, this is a common sight around the city. On a summer’s day like this, not too awful I suppose. Though I couldn’t help but wonder what this poor guy had to go through during the winter.

As we strolled the park that day, feeling thankful for our blessings in life, there was much to take in. Thankfully Sladja was my guide and interpreter, bringing to life the stories behind many of the park’s fascinating slabs of history.

Take this sculpture, for example, of the renowned Serbian poet Desanka Maksimovic. Born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1898, this talented poet shot to fame as a young woman with poems published in the literary journal Misao and the Serbian Literary Herald.

She later went to university in Paris before returning to Belgrade to work as a professor at the prestigious High School for Girls. When World War II hit, Desanka soon found herself fired by occupying Nazi forces. As a result, her life rapidly descended into a state of poverty.

After the war, she published a number of harrowing poems detailing the horrors of life under Nazi rule. One of these, A Bloody Tale (Krvava Bajka) focused on the awful murder of schoolchildren in the Kragujevac Massacre. The piece fast became one of Serbia’s most popular poems. Despite her hardships, Maksimovic lived to be 94 years old, passing away in 1993.

Exploring the Serbian Capital.

A short while later, Sladja introduced me to another of Serbia’s celebrated writers, a certain Milorad Pavic. Although he was also a poet and the writer of numerous short stories, he is best known for the 1984 novel Dictionary of the Khazars.

Next, came the unexpected sight of a headless Don Quixote atop his faithful, battered horse Rocinante. It’s a curious and somewhat grisly sculpture by Jovan Soldatović. The piece shows off the artist’s signature approach, which often mixed figurative and abstract elements with the surreal. We couldn’t help but wonder where Quixote’s chatty companion Sancho Panza was.

Naturally, there are some war memorials too. Without Sladja, I’d have had little clue as to what or who they were dedicated to. The first, pictured below, honours Serbian victims of war between 1991-2000. A group called Families of Missing Persons from the Territory of Former Yugoslavia were behind the memorial, unveiled in August 2010.

The much more decorative Monument to Milica Rakić and the Children Killed in the Nato Bombing certainly demands your attention. We Were Just Children, states the memorial, funded by the tabloid newspaper Večernje novosti. It laments the young lives lost in the infamous NATO Air Raids of 1999.

Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade.

The girl on the memorial stone represents Milica Rakić, a 3 year old Serb killed by shrapnel which flew into the bathroom of her Belgrade home. The girl’s death was a tragic consequence of NATO’s bombing of Batajnica Air Base, located nearby. She had been sitting on a training potty when the shrapnel entered the bathroom, killing her instantly.

Finally, we paused to observe the unusual Monument to the Bulgarian Legion Who Fought the Turks in Belgrade. The memorial says a heartfelt thank you to those Bulgarians who, in the summer of 1862, pitched in to help defend Belgrade Fortress from the invading Turks. The two dudes featured on the memorial stone are the legion’s founder Georgi Rakovski and the revered revolutionary Vasil Levski.

Well fed with the park’s abundance of history and art, it was definitely time for us to rest our legs. Thus we found a bench that offered a bit of shade and kicked back for a bit to watch the world go by.

As luck would have it, there was an ice cream vendor nearby. He was a kindly, gravelly voiced gentlemen who took a keen interest in Sladja and her odd, foreign companion. Fishing our chosen chocolate delights from his freezer, he smiled and asked if I was “a potential son-in-law” or “just a guest”. Following some communal laughter, Sladja replied “Well, he’s on a trial period”. To which the man merely smiled and shot me a sympathetic look.

Exploring the Serbian Capital.

Back on the park’s stone pathways, we eventually came across Tash Inn Hostel. My first thought was wow, what a great location. Unfortunately, when I looked into its online reviews, the general consensus is that it’s a big old dump. Nevertheless, Tash seems like a good budget option if you’re not fussy and want to base yourself in central Belgrade.

In another corner of the park, we stopped to consider one last memorial, The Why Monument. It stands in remembrance of the 16 RTS (Radio Television of Serbia) workers who died when NATO bombed the National Television Building on the 23rd of April 1999.

Erected by the families of those who perished, the memorial stands in a powerful location just across the road from the building itself. It is a sobering sight, a blackened shell that’s been deliberately left just as it was in order to serve as a memorial.

It’s another depressing chapter of Serbian war history that makes for grim reading. Especially when one learns that in 2002, RTS general manager Dragoljub Milanović was sentenced to ten years in prison. Why? He had failed to evacuate the building after repeated NATO threats that a bombing was imminent.

Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade.

There are a number of lovely cafes to unwind in around Tasmajdan Park. The first we tried was Giordino, a fine spot for cooked breakfasts, pancakes, burgers, pizzas, beers, wines and cocktails.

For elevated views, we made our way up to the popular rooftop terrace. On one side there are great vantage points across the park itself.

On the other side, one can gaze across the dramatic Tasmajdan Swimming Pool. Dating back to 1961, the pool is part of Tašmajdan Sports and Recreation Center, which has facilities for football, hockey and basketball. In addition to sport, it has also served as a concert venue for the likes of Ray Charles, Elton John and Tina Turner.

We also had some cool drinks at Poslednja Sansa (Last Chance Cafe), where the tables and chairs spill out into the park near a row of trees. It’s a lovely little spot.

Unfortunately, friendly service in the cafes and restaurants of Belgrade is not always a given. Indeed poor reviews on this front seem to be plentiful for The Last Chance, though we didn’t have any problems ourselves.

Exploring the Serbian Capital.

One could be forgiven for thinking that we had finally seen all of Tasmajdan Park’s delights. And yet, we still had to tick off its most dominant landmark. Hence we downed the last of our drinks and set off towards the handsome Serbo-Byzantine towers of St. Mark’s Church.

Like this? Check out my many articles from across Belgrade.

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