Re-thinking city space in the context of nineteenth century Belgrade

Abstract

The split into “nature” and “culture” has lasted for centuries in Western civilization and remains the framework through which we consider various important problems of contemporary society. In the last decades of the twentieth century there has been a clear reaction to this dichotomy, first in a geography discourse then elsewhere, and a move towards studying the construction and representation of nature in cultural history. A very important feature in the approach to design for recovering contemporary urban landscape is urban greenery regeneration as well as the study of the urban greenery past. The broader historical context of our study is the establishment of new capitalist relations towards urban territory in nineteenth century Belgrade, and with it a new distribution of political and economic power. This process led to the disappearance of the main green spaces in the city and the suppression of the memory they carried. The reconstruction of Belgrade’s historic core was implemented according to Emilijan Josimović’s urban plan (1867). Nevertheless, it contained some very important indications of ecological thinking. In order to elaborate a refined approach to environmental and cultural problems that Belgrade, like other cities, faces today, we bring to light and critically examine those features and aspects of Josimović’s plan that established organic relations and balance between nature, culture, city memory and city development.