Zeleni Venac - History

History

Zeleni Venac is built in the area that was previously part of the trench which surrounded the Kalemegdan fortress in the 18th century. When the trench was covered, a pond was formed. As the Belgrade grew around it, the pond became popular hunting attraction (for fowls, ducks, etc.) for the inhabitants of Belgrade. In the middle of the 19th century, the pond was partially drained as a designated area for the future National Theatre, but the area proved to be unstable and after the foundations were laid down, the idea was abandoned and the theater was constructed on another site. The completely forgotten foundation were rediscovered during the 2005/06 reconstruction of Zeleni Venac. In the early 20th century the pond was drained completely.

The name of the neighborhood means the green wreath. Venac is usually used in Belgrade's geography in term of a round street (Obilićev Venac, Kosančićev Venac) or a rim of the river (Savski Venac, Dunavski Venac). However, in this case, it is used in the word's initial usage, meaning wreath. On the location of the present McDonald's restaurant in the Brankova street, for decades was located kafana Zeleni venac whose logo was a green wreath. Belgrade historians still debate whether the neighborhood was named after the kafana or the opposite.