Konjarnik

Konjarnik (Serbian Cyrillic: Коњарник, pronounced [kɔ̌ɲaːrniːk]) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is divided between Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac and Zvezdara (roughly Konjarnik I, Konjarnik II and Konjarnik III, respectively). As a large neighborhood, it has several sub-neighborhoods of its own, including Denkova Bašta, Učiteljsko Naselje and Rudo.

Location

Konjarnik begins 4 km south-east of downtown Belgrade (Terazije) and itself stretched for over 2 km, mostly along Ustanička street, right side of the Highway Belgrade–Niš and between Ustanička and Vojislava Ilića streets. It borders the neighborhoods of Dušanovac on the west, Šumice on the south-west, Cvetkova Pijaca on the north, Mali Mokri Lug on the east, while the entire southern border of Konjarnik is marked by the highway which divides it from the neighborhoods of Medaković III and Marinkova Bara. Westernmost section of Konjarnik belongs to the municipality of Voždovac, the rest is in Zvezdara.

History

After World War I, part of the neighborhood of Cvetkova Pijaca was settled by the Kalmyks from the shores of the Caspian Sea, which fled Imperial Russia after the October Revolution in 1917. In Budvanska street, they built Belgrade pagoda, a Mongolian-type Buddhist temple in 1929, which was abandoned in 1944 and demolished in the mid-1960s. They had vast horse herds which were kept and left to graze in the open area which gradually became known as Konjarnik (literally, horse breeding area). Building of a vast, modern neighborhood began in 1960s and continued in the 1970s, creating an urban connection between old Belgrade on the west and Mali Mokri Lug on the east.