Kneza Miloša Street


Kneza Miloša Street is a street in downtown Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was the main city’s korzo and today is one of the major traffic arteries of the city, location of some of the most important national institutions and a street with the largest number of embassies in Belgrade. It stretches through the territory of three municipalities: Stari Grad, Vračar and Savski Venac. Previously known as Topčider Road, it was later named after prince Miloš Obrenović, the first ruler of modern Serbia.

Location and course

Kneza Miloša begins at the intersection with Bulevar kralja Aleksandra. It receives the dead end Lazarevića street from the left and crosses the intersections with Andrićev venac street on the right and Krunska on the left, and with the city's main street, Kralja Milana. The next intersection is with the streets Kraljice Natalije on the right and Masarikova on the left, and then it receives Admirala Geprata street from the right. From then on, it crosses the streets Nemanjina, Birčaninova, Vojvode Milenka, Miloša Pocerca, Višegradska and Durmitorska. After of a straight line course in a south-westerly direction, the street ends at the Mostar interchange.

History

Development

The street originated during the rule of prince Miloš, and was originally called Topčiderski drum, as it connected the downtown with the Miloš' court in the Topčider wood. It was named after prince Miloš in 1872. At that time, National Assembly of Serbia was located at the intersection with the Kraljice Natalije street, like some of the ministries. The assembly building was a humble, low and unrepresentative edifice, so sometimes the deputies held sessions in the "Kasina" hotel on the Terazije square.
, engineer and urbanist, was charged with making the city greener. In the process of planting trees across Belgrade, he arranged the Košutnjak and Topčider parks and planted avenues along Terazije and Topčider Road. While he embellished Terazije with chestnut trees, he formed an avenue of Lombardy poplars in the upper, more urbanized part of Topčidеr Road, while on the lower Nikolić planted poplars.
In this period, the street marked an eastern border of urban Belgrade. The commercial zone, with grocery stores, spread from Terazije to the street, while from this point on, the gardens and fields extended to the east until the marshy pond where the Slavija Square is today, where local population went for duck hunting. Where the major crossroad of Kneza Miloša and steep Nemanjina streets is today, Topčider road was actually crossing over the stream of Vračarski Potok, which was draining the Slavija Pond into the pond of Bara Venecija in the Savamala neighborhood. Only after the Belgrade Main railway station was built in Bara Venecija in 1884, the stream was conducted underground and the Nemanjina was transformed into the proper street.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Kneza Miloša as it was known, was turned into the city's main promenade or korzo. Queen Natalija often walked down the korzo, mingling with the people. The lower section of the street passed between affluent households with gardens and the Military Academy was also located there, whose cadets often paraded down the street as there was a bridle path, parallel to the street. As the tram was introduced to the street, among the first in Belgrade, korzo lost its function. The tram line, Belgrade-Topčider, was a sort of an excursion line, which Queen Natalija also often used, travelling with her son and future king, Alexander I of Serbia. She preferred the tram over the fiacre. Also colloquially styled the Korzo of Queen Natalija, the street lots this function completely by 1910 when the central Knez Mihailova Street became the main Belgrade promenade.
Up to the 1890s, most of the street was populated with small, crumbly houses with orchards, fields and wooden fences. Only then construction of proper, nice houses began and after 1900 numerous villas were built along the street. At the end of the street, where the modern Mostar road interchange is, was kafana Kafana pocepanih gaća. Queen Draga ordered for the name to be changed to Tri ključa. Much later, this became the name of the park which was planted on this location, today also known as the Park Gazela, after the nearby bridge over the Sava river.

Events

The street gained somewhat of an assassination notoriety, due to the events connected with it, though they are results of the fact that most important government buildings are located in it. When Prince Mihailo Obrenović was fatally wounded in Topčider, it was this road through witch the carriage with the wounded prince, rushed downtown to try to save the prince's life. Still, the prince died during the ride, somewhere where the modern London building is.
On the corner with Masarikova street, a Communist Spasoje Stević attempted to assassinate the king Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1921. As the king was in the carriage with the prime minister Nikola Pašić, Stević threw the grenade at the carriage but hit the telegraph line instead. King and prime minister were unharmed, but several pedestrians were wounded. The assassination attempt was organized by Mustafa Golubić, and the dynamite grenade was thrown by Stević from the Trade Ministry building.
When prime minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated on 12 March 2003 in front of the building of the government, he was rushed to the ER via the Kneza Miloša, but the wounds were fatal.

1999 bombing

Kneza Miloša was heavily bombed by NATO in 1999. On 2/3 April 1999, both Ministry of the Interior buildings, federal and the republic's one, were bombed. On 29/30 April Ministry of Defense and Serbian General Staff were demolished, Federal MUP was hit again and the building of the Government of Serbia was damaged. On 7/8 May General Staff and Federal MUP were bombed again and on 24/25 May the Republic's MUP.

Characteristics

Kneza Miloša is one of 34 streets in downtown Belgrade which have never changed their names since the names were awarded to the streets for the first time in the 19th century.
From the beginning to the end, the street goes downhill, and since it is completely straight, it gives a nice panoramic view down the entire course. The street is wide, out of which is the driveway and sidewalks.
In its first section, Kneza Miloša marks the border between Savski Grad and Vračar, until the intersection with Kraljice Natalije/Masarikova, wher eit enters Savski Venac. It goes through and directly connects several old neighborhoods of Belgrade: Tašmajdan, Krunski Venac, Andrićev Venac, London, West Vračar and Mostar. Through its natural extensions on the north and south, it makes a direct traffic transversal which goes through the entire "Old" Belgrade, in the northeast to southwest direction.
Named after the founder of the Obrenović, prince Miloš, it crosses three other streets named after members of the same dynasty: queen Natalija, king Alexander and king Milan.
As it has many representative buildings, some of them were used by the Germans when they occupied Belgrade in 1941. During the 1998 façade cleaning of the building of the Ministry of the foreign affairs, Wehrmacht insignia were discovered below the surface layer.

Notable features

The street preserved many buildings from the Interbellum. A number of them are protected by the state as cultural and historical monuments.

Vicinity of the beginning of the street

Right side

Right side

. It was completely demolished in the 2010s

Left side

Right side

In 2016 city government announced a detailed reconstruction of the Kneza Miloša, based on the look of one of the main Barcelona's avenues, Passeig de Gràcia. Reconstruction was to include adding one more traffic lane, green island in the middle of street, thick avenues, widened sidewalks, bicycle paths, underground garage with 427 parking spots and glass, decorative entrances into the garage. According to the chief city urbanist Milutin Folić, the works were to begin by the mid-2017 and to finish by the summer of 2018. The garage was planned to cover an area of with the projected cost of €7 million and in August 2017 the building permits were obtained but the works were moved to the spring of 2018, In November 2017, construction of the garages was pushed to 2019.
In September 2019, when reconstruction of the sidewalks was to begin, the works were moved for spring 2020, with a major change in the plan - the underground, elongated garages stretching for a kilometer, were dropped from the project. Though the blueprints for the underground garages were made, it was decided then to build the one leveled, above the ground. As many military objects are in the street, the city contacted military authorities asking where the large garage should be located, but the Ministry of Defense didn't answer. The project would have to be changed again after the military picks the location. In April 2020, during the outbreak of the coronavirus, new chief city urbanist Marko Stojčić sad that the project is moved to 2021-2022, not because of the pandemic, but because the construction is not ready anyway. Some reporters referred to the project as the "dream of Spanish boulevard".