Krnjača

Krnjača (Serbian Cyrillic: Крњача) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.

Location and population

Krnjača is located on the left bank of the Danube, across the "Old" Belgrade to which it is connected only by one bridge, the "Pančevački most". The settlement is built behind the long embankment along the Danube, but it is still often flooded by the river. Krnjača is much scattered and stretched along two major roads in this area, the "Pančevački put" which connects Belgrade to the town of Pančevo and "Zrenjaninski put" which connects Belgrade to the town of Zrenjanin. From the south Krnjača is bordered by the Danube, from the west by the "Jojkićev Dunavac" canal, from the north by the "Mokri Sebeš" canal and the bog of Veliko Blato and from the east by the Sebeš stream. The "Kalovita" canal flows through the middle of the neighborhood. Through its northern extension of Dunavski Venac Krnjača makes an urban connection to Borča and on the east it stretches all the way to Pančevo.

By the Census of 1971, the last one which recorded Krnjača as a separate town, population was 11,834. According to the 2002 census, population of the area which made Krnjača before 1970s is 23,509 (Krnjača and Dunavski Venac 13,414, Reva 2,808 and Kotež 7,287).

History

First mention of the name Krnjača, as part of the Borča village's area, dates back from 1823. Settlement is much younger and originally was known as "Nova Borča" ("New Borča"). Between the two World wars it was still part of Borča under the name of "Rit-Krnjača" ("Marsh-Krnjača"). After 1945 Krnjača split as a separate village and became seat of its own municipality on May 30, 1952. In 1955, with new territorial reorganization, neighboring municipalities of Borča, Ovča and Padinska Skela were annexed to the municipality of Krnjača. In turn, in 1965 municipality of Krnjača was abolished and annexed to the municipality of Paliula. A movement for separating area of the former municipality from Paliula has been vocal in the last 10 years and as a result in 2005 Palilula's Municipal assembly proposed to the Belgrade City assembly to allow the formation of the new municipality of Dunavski Venac.

Neighborhoods

Being scattered, Krnjača has many sub-neighborhoods, like Dunavski Venac, Reva, Kotež, Kožara, Mika Alas and a cluster of blocks in its central part. Unlike Novi Beograd's blocks, these are not real blocks of buildings in either architectonic or geographical form, simply named so when they were constructed as the neighborhoods didn't exist and had no previous, historical names.

Blok Braća Marić

Blok Braća Marić is located east of the Pančevački most, bordered by the Pančevački put to the north, which divides it from Blok Branko Momirov to the west, Blok Grga Andrijanović and Blok Zaga Malivuk to the north. To the west it is bordered by the neighborhood of Reva and to the south by the embankment on the Danube and the entire area is often flooded.

It is entirely a residential area, with a gas station and a motel along the Pančevački put. Even though it stretches for almost 2 km and with a population of 5,000 is the largest single neighborhood of Krnjača (almost one third of its population), it is notorious for not having any social infrastructure (clinics, post offices, schools, kindergartens, etc).

Blok Branko Momirov

Blok Branko Momirov is located west of the Pančevački most. The Zrenjaninski put makes its eastern border, separating it from Blok Braća Marić and Blok Grga Andrijanović. To the north it borders Partizanski Blok, while weekend-settlement of Mika Alas is located to the southwest. Southern border of the neighborhood is the embankment on the Danube. It is almost entirely residential area with large nursery garden ("Rasadnik: Reka 2").

Blok Grga Andrijanović

Blok Grga Andrijanović is located in the central part of Krnjača. On the north it borders the "Kalovita" stream and Blok Sava Kovačević, on the east the Belgrade-Pančevo and Blok Zaga Malivuk, on the south the Pančevački put and Blok Braća Marić and on the west the Zrenjaninski put and Blok Branko Momirov and Partizanski Blok.

As a central section of Krnjača it has the most developed infrastructure: an elementary school and Secondary agricultural school, a clinic, two churches, nursery garden, OMV gas station, stadium of the "Bratstvo" soccer team, etc.

Blok Sava Kovačević

Blok Sava Kovačević borders the "Kalovita" stream and Blok Grga Andrijanović to the south, Blok Zaga Malivuk to the extreme east, the Zrenjaninski put and Blok Sutjeska to the west and the Veliko Blato bog to the north.

It is the smallest of all blocks, a thin patch of land stretched between the Kalovita and Veliko Blato. The facilities of Belgrade's brewery of Beogradska industrija piva or "BIP" are located in the western part of the neighborhood, along the Zrenjaninski put. Settlement got its name after the very popular Partisan World War II war hero Sava Kovačević (1905-43).

Blok Sutjeska

Blok Sutjeska is bordered by the Zrenjaninski put on the east, which separates it from Blok Sava Kovačević, by the "Kalovita" stream on the south, which separates it from Partizanski Blok and the neighborhoods of Kotež and Dunavski Venac on the west and north, respectively.

It is a small, residential neighborhood, built to provide urban connection of Krnjača and Kotež. It was named after the Battle of Sutjeska which took place in 1943 between Partisans and the Axis forces, where Partisan leader Sava Kovačević (who also got its own block) was killed. Interestingly, back-to-back neighborhoods of Sutjeska and Sava Kovačević also exist in Zemun.

Blok Zaga Malivuk

Blok Zaga Malivuk is the easternmost part of Krnjača bordered by the "Kalovita" stream (and Blok Sava Kovačević) and the Sebeš river to the north and east, Belgrade-Pančevo railway and Blok Grga Andrijanović to the west and the Pančevački put (and Blok Braća Marić and the bog and neighborhood of Reva) to the south.

It is the most industrialized part of Krnjača as here begins the series of factories, hangars, work shops and store houses which stretch all the way to Pančevo. The main facilities are: "Janko Lisjak", "Progres", "Politika"'s printing-house, "Balkan", "Dom", "IMK Beograd", etc. Krnjača railway station is also located in this neighborhood.

Neighborhood was named after a Partisan war hero, Zagorka Zaga Malivuk (1919-42).

Partizanski Blok

Partizanski Blok is located west of the Zrenjaninski put which separates it from Blok Grga Andrijanović. It borders Blok Sutjeska and the "Kalovita" stream to the north, southern extension of the neighborhood of Kotež to the west and Blok Branko Momirov to the south.

It is a residential area, with two important facilities: stadium of the Palilulac soccer club in the extreme west and new "Metro" megastore in the east, along the Zrenjaninski put.

Krnjača port

In November 2007 plans for construction of the Krnjača port were announced. [Politika daily, Nov 6, 2007, p.23] It is suppose to be an international freight port, downstream from the Pančevo Bridge. It is projected to occupy 434 hectares, with additional 170 hectares for approaching railroad and roads, hangars, depots, etc. It should be completely finished by 2030.

Geographical references

* "Beograd - plan grada"; M@gic M@p, 2006; ISBN 86-83501-53-1
* "Beograd - plan i vodič"; Geokarta, 1999; ISBN 86-459-0006-8

References

External links

* [http://www.sm-network.com/tomson/krnjaca Krnjača site]