Kalemegdan

Kalemegdan is the biggest and probably the most interesting park in Belgrade. It is also the most touristy place Belgrade has to offer, with its fortress and numerous tunnels (many of them still unexplored, so be careful).

The Victor Monument is probably the most famous site at Kalemegdan fortress and one of the most recognizable Belgrade symbols.

The most famous Belgrade landmark ended up in Kalemegdan by chance. It was previously planned to place the monument in the middle of Terazije square, together with two other smaller statues as a part of a grandiose monument complex that was supposed to be our version of Triumphant Arc - a symbol of Serbian victory over all the conquerors in the Balkan wars and throughout the turbulent history. But, just before everything was ready, the First World War broke out and the plan was postponed, everything but the Victor destroyed or never finished, and the plan had to be changed. After the war, somebody noticed that the monument was, well, naked, and that it didn't look very Serbian (I don't know if they were reffering to his nose or something else). The fact that the guy who made it, Ivan Mestrovic was Croatian didn't help Victor's case either. So, at the end, the city authorities placed him at the most secluded Kalemegdan area they could think of. Legend says that his frontal part was pointed towards the defeated Austro-Hungarian empire and the background towards the Ottoman empire, which indeed makes sense when you think about it.

pobednik - Early spring in Belgrade

photo by dungodung

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