BELGRADE 555St Sava’s Church q
Hram svetog save
Krušedolska 2a. Map F2. @ 9. 10.
- 31, 33, 39, 47, 48. # 7am–7pm
daily. http://www.hramsvetogsave.com
Dedicated to St Sava, the
Serbian prince and holy man
who is regarded as the founder
of the Serbian Orthodox
Church, St Sava’s Church is
the largest working Orthodox
church in the world. It is the
result of a Herculean building
project that has lasted several
decades and is still in the
pro cess of com ple tion. The
location of the church is
con sidered sacred, as it was
here that the saint’s remains
were ritually burned by the
Ottomans in 1595 after being
seized from the Mileševa
Monastery in southwest Serbia.
Begun in the 1930s,
construction was halted
mid way with the onset
of World War II and
only resumed in 1984.
The basic structure of
the church is now in
place. It is styled on
the Byzantine cross-
in-square model,
with a central dome
flan ked by four half-
domes. Faced with white-
col ou red marble plates, it has
a luminous appear ance. The
inte rior, still unfinished, covers
an area of 3,650 sq m (36,288
sq ft) and boasts a ca pac ity of
10,000 worshippers.
Tito’s Mausoleum
and the 25th May
Museum w
Kuća Cveća, Muzej 25. majBotićeva 6. Map F2. Tel (011)
367 1485. 40, 41. @ 94.
# 10am–4pm Tue–Sun. &
http://www.mij.rsCommunist leader Josip Broz
Tito led partisan forces during
World War II and was the
archi tect of the federal
Yugoslav state that emerged
from the ashes of the war. He
served as dictator of
Yugoslavia from 1945 until
his death on 4 May 1980,
when his body was laid to
rest in a mausoleum in western
Belgrade called the House of
Flowers (Kuća Cveća). Despite
the fact that Tito’s Yugoslavia
no longer exists, his tomb
continues to attract plenty
of visi tors curious about
the statesman and his
legacy. An adjacent
building houses the
25th May Museum,
where the former
leader’s Rolls Royce
and a collection of
relay batons are dis-
played. The batons
serve as a reminder of the
bombas tic ritual surround ing
Tito’s offi cial birthday
(25 May), when relay run ners
crisscrossed Yugoslavia before
con verging on Belgrade on
the momentous day.Zemun e
Map E1. @ 15, 84, 704, 706.
n Zemun Tourist Centre, Zmaj
Jovina 14, (011) 219 2904.Sprawled along the west bank
of the Danube, 4 km (3 miles)
from central Belgrade, lies the
suburb of Zemun. Unlike the
rest of Belgrade, Zemun was
part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire from the late 17th cen-
tury until World War I, and
retains the pleasant atmos-
phere of a small central
European town.
The most interesting part of
Zemun is Gardoš, an area of
steep cobbled alleyways on a
hillside over looking the river.
Tower ing over Gardoš from
the top of the hill is the
Millennium Monument
(Milenijumski spomenik), a
red-brick tower built by the
Hungarians in 1896 to cele-
brate the 1,000-year anni ver-
sary of the creation of their
state. From the foot of the
tower, there is a wonder ful
view of central Belgrade, and
key landmarks such as the
Kalemegdan Fortress (see
pp550–51) and St Sava’s
Church are clearly visible.
Zemun’s other attraction is
Kej Oslobođenja (Freedom
Quay), a foot-and-cycle path
that runs along the banks of
the Danube and is popular
with strol lers on Sunday after-
noons. This is also the heart of
Belgrade’s night life due to the
long line of rafts moored here,
most of which have been
turned into restaurants, bars,
pubs and clubs.Statue of Tito,
25th May MuseumThe striking Millennium Monument
in Gardoš, ZemunMonumental structure of St Sava’s Church