Interesting Buildings in Majdanpek

You would not suspect that Majdanpek (Мајданпек) is a secret architectural treat! It is a little town with 10'000 inhabitants in Eastern Serbia and is actually in one of the poorest regions of Serbia. But just economically speaking. The town was famous as a copper mine district, since the early 17th century. The origin of the name is based on the words majdan (fromTurkish madän, mine) and river Pek (mine on river Pek). Throughout its history, mining development was held by many foreign owners (Czechs, Belgians, Austrians), and was extensively exploited.

A postcard from 1975

The town was industrialized in the mid-20th century, by the industrial program supported by SFR Yugoslavia's Government of that time, and was under the personal influence of Tito; and this you can literally see on the urban layout and the main constructions.

 

the administration building

Through the late 20th century, the town was in a period of industrial progress and one of the most developed areas in copper mining and metallurgy of former Yugoslavia.

 

Older postcard (60's) from the same building

Being in the SFRJ industrial program produced a row of interesting buildings, in socialist mood and rather unexpected shapes and layouts.

Here some cool highrise buildings. Similar like the blocks in Novi Beograd, the goal was to produce a lot of apartments in a very short time to accommodate all the miners.

The fall of industrial production was a consequence of war and NATO sanctions during the 1990s. Now, Majdanpek is struggling to renew industrial production.

The former Hotel Kasina (now Golden Inn) but actually closed.

Stylish Interiors of the Golden Inn; Kasina Hotel, Majdanpek, 2001, C-print by Vesna Pavlovic (on flickr)

More stylish interiors (from the Hotel's website)

 

Another angle of the Hotel and the city center

the city park

The combination of apartment modern buildings and a old style church (the church was built in non-orthodox Style (a Swiss Style was imitated) to satisfy the foreign workers. For the same reason it was conceived as serbian-orthodox AND!  a catholic church.

The Youth Club Majdanpek: a UFO-like building

In the wild mountainous beauty of Eastern Serbia, Majdanpek with its clear layout stands out.

An overview of the carefully planned city center and below

An orientation plan for Majdanpek with all the interesting buildings

(pictures if not otherwise mentioned are from Skyscrapercity)

Interesting buildings in Arandjelovac

After checking out interesting buildings in Kragujevac (here) I collected here a few interesting buildings in Arandjelovac (Аранђеловац) in Central Serbia which like Kragujevac also lies in the Sumadija region and has about 50'000 inhabitants.

Architecture is not the reason why this city is visited by tourists, however I found a couple of interesting buildings I'd like to share here.

Arandjelovac is mostly known for  the spring of the popular mineral water "Knjaz Milos" and the appertaining Spa "Bukovicka Banja". The Spa has a great park loaded with sculptures international artists (since 1966 the city invites  artist from all over the world and let them have one of their sculptures exposited in the Park.

Inside the Spa facilities there is an example of Serbian Romaticism it's the "Staro Zdanje" (the Old Building) and is the oldest preserved building in Bukovicka Banja Spa. It was initiated by Prince Mihailo Obrenovic (that's why the mineral water is called "Knjaz Milos") in 1865 and was intended as his summer residence and for Assembly meetings.

Here an old picture of the building.
Its architect, Kosta Sreplovic, the Munich school of architecture graduate, landscaped the park area in front of the edifice as well. When the edifice was completed in 1872, the purpose of its use was changed due to altered political situation so that it became a spa edifice, probably the largest of the kind in Serbia of the time.

Today it is a hotel and the symbol of Arandjelovac that appears in its coat of arms, prospectus leaflets and postcards. 

This highrise building is known as the "arandjelovac soliter" and is in the center of the city.I love the rounded details and the material combinations.(picture source)

 Blocks like this remind a lot the Style of Novi Beograd.

 A really cool building and and a sign of past socialist times is the shopingcenter "Kolektiv" (Робна кућа Колектив) with its sculptural facade.(picture source)

Here an old Postcard with the Kolektiv-Building and the Arandjelovac-Soliter in the background.

Another interesting building is the the one with the "Pekabeta" on the ground-floor. The peculiar blue attic adds a fun touch to the edifice and makes it unique.(picture source)

 The building of the Municipal Court has also a socialist time touch.

And now a really beautiful example of Brutalism: the Bukulja observatory tower on the Bukulja Mountain near Arandjelovac on 660 m. above sealevel and 19m high, made in nice face concrete. From the top there is a nice view to the surrounding mountains. Now it's planned to put a telescope up there to make it a even better tourist attraction.

 Anrandjelovac is worth a trip also for the cultural meaningful surrounding: The Bukovicka Spa, Topola with the Oplenac Royal Mausoleum and the Risovaca Caves.

Interesting Buildings in Kragujevac

Now that the traveling season starts and a few of my readers were asking for architectural tips outside from Belgrade, I decided to publish the most interesting buildings of smaller Serbian cities next to useful traveling information.

I started with Kragujevac and I choose the buildings that I like the most. Kragujevac is the center of the Sumadija region, the region that represent Serbia in all its stereotypes (for instance the Sumadija folk costume stands generally as illustration for Serbian national costume).

Blocks in Kragujevac (from flickr)

The architecture of Kragujevac is a mix of various styles: there are Oriental-Style buildings  (like the Amidža Konak from 1819-24) and Secession Style buildings  from 19th century. Then there are modern post-war concrete buildings (apartments to house those left homeless during World War II), high-rise commies (communist time blocks)  and some eye-catching buildings from the 70'ies (like the "Ipsilon" and the City Hall) that now characterize the city's panorama.

Kragujevac City Hall (Скупштина града)from Dinke at flickr


The Y - Building (Ипсилон) in Erdoglija District was built in the 70's and is Kragujevac's tallest building (60m, 17 floors)

 

Ipsilon Building from woodland at Skyscrapercity

The Golden Rose Shopping Center "Златна Ружа" is a cool building, however it needs some remodeling work. (from Johnny-kg at skyscrapercity)

Fire station in ulica Miloja Pavlovića (Ватрогасци дом) picture from skyscrapercity. Below an old picture of the building.

The fire station is a modernist building from 1932 (built in less than one year!)after the project of Đorđe Kovaljevski i Mihailo Radovanović, two Belgrade architects.

The "Zastava"-Building is a good example of soc-realism. (Picture from kawasaki KG at skyscrapercity)

The history behind the building and what happened to the Zastava Industry is a bit complexer. In a very simple and short form I see it like this: The biggest and flourishing Industry that produced some Yugoslavian legendary cars was wrecked by NATO bombings and later through Embargo  and Sanctions. Now Italy (who 11 years ago was bombing the buildings) is trying to produce FIAT cars in these buildings, to make cheaper production with cheap Serbian workers and taking away the works to many Torino based workers in Italy…..but that's business…
Main site of Zastava

An interesting building (I already wrote about this one here) is located a little outside Kragujevac in the Šumarice Memorial Park (Меморијални парк Шумарице), is the Museum of Genocide, on the site where  in WW II between 2'300 and 7'000 men and boys (the numbers differs a lot from source to source, but that's another issue…) were executed by the German occupation forces on October 20, 1941.
The project is made by Ivan Antic.
Antic designed the Museum of the Genocide in 1967. The grandness of the monumental building is emphasized by a series of tall pillar-like rectangular shapes, the tallest ones on the central part from which go the same ones of various height with massive parts of the walls built in brick.
The modern expression relates to medieval sacral architecture, and the symbol of the Museum of the Genocide is even stronger in the interior which lets natural light from roof lanterns, connecting the view to the skies with earthly life: the building and the crypt.

On May 14th 1999 due to the detonation of NATO attacks in the nearest vicinity the facades of the Museum were damaged and all glazed panels and roof lanterns destroyed. The nearby building of the Archives was badly damaged. (picture from skyscrapercity)

There is also a famous monument called "Broken Wings"-Monument created in 1963 by Serbian sculptor Miodrag Zivkovic.
 The monument is dedicated to the killed schoolchildren and their teachers.

"Broken wings" monument in Sumarice memorial park (picture from Balkanforum)


Here a few links with travel tips for Kragujevac:

http://www.kragujevac.rs
http://wikitravel.org/en/Kragujevac

And here a cool blog from JohnnyKG  that has pictures and further Kragujevac links.

http://johnny_kg.mojblog.rs/

5 great Panoramas of Belgrade

There are good places to see Belgrade from the bird's view. Let's be honest: seeing a city from the top of a building looks pretty similar in a lot of cities. The best is always to visit first the city and to enjoy its atmosphere and only after that climb up a high-rise building or tower to understand the city even better.

In Belgrade there a a lot of possibilities to have amazing panorama views. Here are 5 great ways to do that:

1. The view from Kalemegdan Fortress

For this view you don't even have to travel to Belgrade. Just open this link and you can enjoy 360-degree-view of Belgrade and surroundings!

The real view from the Kalemegdan Fortress has a lower angle but is likewise amazing. You see where the Sava River flows into the Danube and on clear days you see the Banat and Srem plains and the hills of the Sumadija region.

Information to Kalemegdan Fortress:

http://www.belgradeeye.com/kalemegdan.html

Map of the fortress

2. The view when landing/departing in/from Belgrade Airport "Nikola Tesla"

Even before arriving in Belgrade, the first panorama of the city is amazing: on one sight you can get a whole view of the blocks of Novi Beograd (New Belgrade).

(photo from st-stev)

An interesting aspect about New Belgrade is that it is a pre-planned city, and from the bird's view you understand some of the lay-out-plan of this 1947 started project.

(photo from 6opucc) 

My posts about New Belgrade:

The Future of New Belgrade

Block 23

Block 70

Televisorke Buildings in New Belgrade

3. The view from Avala Tower near Belgrade

From the newly renovated Avala Tower (it was destroyed in NATO Bombing of 1999) there is an amazing view over the Belgrade area and Sumadija region.

 

A made already a few posts about this tower, and it surely an amazing cool building.

Avala Tower almost finished

Avala Tower finished

The tower still has no website and information in english about the current tower is difficult to find, so I can't give links for visiting.

Opening hours: on working days 10.00 - 16.30, on weekend to 18.00, entrance is a symbolic amount of 50 dinars (or 30 for groups).

4. The view from Gardos Tower in Zemun

Zemun is a municipality of the city of Belgrade that lays on the Danube river and has an attractive old town with old cobblestone roads and old-style houses.

Gardoš is one of three hills on which the historical core of Zemun was built and rises on the right bank of the Danube river and is a natural lookout to the area across the river (Palilula municipality). 

Kula Sibinjanin Janka (Gardos Tower) is an opulent tower with a mix of various historic styles. Now again open to public, you can have a wonderful panorama view.

Here a link for a virtual view around the tower.

Here a good website about the tower

5. The view from the Beogradjanka Tower

The "Beogradjanka" or Belgrade Palace is a high-rise building from the 1970's on Kralja Milana (my post here)
Above the view from the top (photo from Kovac Mihajlo) 

Here the night view from 5th floor toward the St. Sava Cathedral.

(photo from mcveja) 

And here one more link for a 360°-view on Belgrade:

• View from a high-rise building in Zemun > link