Vukov Spomenik - History

History

The area formed an eastern outskirts of Belgrade until 1930s. A football field was set in the area and the oldest campus in Serbia was built here too in 1928. A donor of the campus was king Alexander I of Yugoslavia, so the campus was named "King Alexander the First". Prior to World War II, the campus was used as a seat of the Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia's Freemasons. In 1937, on the corner of the Bulevar kralja Aleksandra and Ruzveltova street, a monument to Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (by sculptor Đorđe Jovanović), a major reformer of Serbian language, celebrating 150 years of his birth. After the monument, the entire neighborhood got its name (Vukov spomenik is Serbian for Vuk's monument). The entire neighborhood developed into an academic area, as University Library, Archives of Serbia and Technical faculties are located here and the park built to surround the monument was named after one of the first Slavic enlighteners, Cyril and Methodius.