Vračar plateau () is a plateau on top of the Vračar Hill in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, with an absolute height of above sea level. It is the purported location of the 1594 Burning of Saint Sava's relics by the Ottomans. The dominant position in Belgrade's cityscape made the plateau a natural location for the first meteorological observatory in Serbia, Belgrade Meteorological Station, built in 1891. The most distinctive feature of the plateau today is a massive Church of Saint Sava, visible from almost all approaches to the city, and one of the Belgrade's main landmarks. The plateau also houses Karađorđe's Park, Park Milutin Milanković, monument of Karađorđe Petrović and National Library of Serbia.
In May 2021, the plateau was protected as the spatial cultural-historical unit under the name Saint Sava's Plateau. The government noted "symbolical, memorial, cultural-historical, architectural-urban and artistic values of the locality, which represents memory spot of two turning points in Serbian history: Burning of Saint Sava's relics and the First Serbian Uprising".
Location
The plateau is located on top of the Vračar Hill, in the Vračar municipality. To the north, it descends to the Slavija Square via the neighborhoods of Savinac and Englezovac. In the east, it extends into the neighborhood of Čubura. On the southern slope are Karađorđe's Park and the Neimar neighborhood, descending to Autokomanda. This entire area was known as East Vračar. Western section is occupied by the Park Milutin Milanković and Old Belgrade Observatory, extending into the vast Clinical Center of Serbia complex and West Vračar. The main thoroughfare passing across the plateau is the Liberation Boulevard ().
History 16th century
In 1594, Serbs rebelled against Ottoman rule in Banat, during the Long War (1591–1606) between Austrian and Ottoman Empire, along the border of two states. Serbian clergy and rebels established relations with foreign states, and in a short time captured several towns, including Vršac, Bečkerek, Lipova, Titel and Bečej, although the uprising was quickly suppressed. The rebels had, in the character of a holy war, carried war flags with the icon of Saint Sava, medieval Serbian prince and later first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, founder of Serbian law and education, and a diplomat. He was one of the most revered saints among the Serbs.
Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha decided to punish rebellious Serbs and ordered that the sarcophagus and relics of Saint Sava located in the Mileševa monastery be brought by military convoy to Belgrade. Along the way, the Ottoman convoy had people killed in their path so that the rebels in the woods would hear of it. The relics were publicly incinerated by the Ottomans, on 27 April 1595, as it was placed on a pyre and burnt on the Vračar plateau, and the ashes were scattered. According to Nikolaj Velimirović the flames were seen over both the Danube and the Sava rivers. The event, however, only sparked an increase in rebel activity, until the rebellion was fully suppressed in 1595.
Date and location of the Burning of Saint Sava's relics remained disputed. Even the exact year is unknown, with 1594 and 1595 being mentioned, so as the proposed locations, since the term Vračar was historically applied to the much wider territory than it occupies today. Propositions include: Crveni Krst, suggested by who erected reddish Vozarev Krst at the spot, which gave name to the entire neighborhood of Crveni Krst ("Red Cross"); mound of "Čupina Humka", in Tašmajdan, previously known as Little Vračar, which is the preferred location of modern historians; Vračar plateau, which attracted the widest public acceptance.
19th century
In 1806 during the siege of Belgrade in the First Serbian Uprising, Serbian army set a camp at the top of the plateau's southern slope. After the Serbs secured Belgrade, soldiers killed in the battle on the liberation day, 30 November 1806, were buried at this place, which was arranged as the Insurgents Cemetery in 1848, when the Monument to the Liberators of Belgrade was also erected. The tall memorial was one of the first public monuments in Belgrade. Out of the 50 original tombstones, 12 still survived into the 2020s. The patron of the monument was Aleksandar Karađorđević, the ruling prince of Serbia, and son of the First Serbian Uprising leader and the founder of the Karađorđević royal family, Karađorđe.
After the monument was erected, it was suggested that the park should be planted around it. City administration dismissed the idea, claiming lack of funds. One of the first avenues in Belgrade was planted along the Kragujevac Road (modern Liberation Boulevard), in 1848, from which the modern Karađorđe's Park developed in time. The planted seedlings were of chestnut trees, and the chestnut alley descending from the original one still survives in the park. By 1887, the cemetery and monument became neglected.
After ascending to the throne in 1889, king Alexander Obrenović ordered for the cemetery to be arranged. The remaining tombs were rearranged, the monument was renovated, and the metal fence was placed around it, while the seedlings of black locust were planted in order to form the memorial park. As the king was coming from the Obrenović dynasty, a fierce rival of the former (and future) Karađorđević dynasty, this was seen as the kings attempt to reconcile two ruling families. This prompted creation of numerous other memorial parks throughout Serbia.
The building of the First Serbian Observatory was specifically built for the astronomical and meteorological purposes at modern 8 Liberation Boulevard in 1891. It was constructed according to the design of architect Dimitrije T. Leko and equipped with the modern small instruments for astronomical and meteorological observations. Apart from its importance for astronomy and meteorology, the newly built observatory was a cradle of the seismic and geomagnetic research in Serbia. The observatory was also equipped with a seismograph.Đorđe Stanojević in works of Jules JanssenThey built Serbia – Đorđe Stanojević During the withdrawal from Belgrade at the end of the World War I in 1918, the occupational Austro-Hungarian army destroyed all the instruments in the observatory. The observatory was later relocated to the new complex built in Zvezdara from 1930 to 1932.Astronomical Observatory by Sasa Mihajlov That way, the building became known as the Old Zvezdara (Stara Zvezdara, meaning "old observatory").
In 1894, which was at the time celebrated as 300 years since the burning, consensus was reached to build the church on the plateau location. In 1895 the "Society for the Construction of the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar" was founded in Belgrade. A major part of the parcel donated for the construction came from Scottish missionary Francis Mackenzie, who purchased and developed this part of the city in the late 19th century. By the 1900 ukaz of King Alexander Obrenović, planned church was declared a "nationwide project". Small Church of Saint Sava was built on the location, until the proper, large church was finished.
20th century
Originally outside of the urban core of Belgrade, there were plans for the enlargement of the Karađorđe's Park 1903-1904, in order to mark the centennial of the First Serbian Uprising, which broke out in 1804. The works began only in 1907, after king Peter I Karađorđević became also president of the Society for the Embellishment of the Monuments, Parks and Environment. The society leveled the park's terrain, created pathways, planted grass, lindens, chestnuts and decorative shrubs. The hedge which encircled the park was also planted, while thujas were planted around the monument. This way, more or less, the present borders of the park were set. It covers an area of .
In 1906, an architectural design competition for the future church was announced. Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences was authorized to judge the project, and it rejected all five applications as not being good enough. A series of wars followed (First Balkan War in 1912, Second Balkan War in 1913, World War I in 1914-1918), which stopped all activities on the construction of the church. Plans were also made to erect a Monument to the Third-Class Reservists in 1914, but due to the outbreak of World War I, the monument was erected on 29 July 1923. After the war, additional monuments were erected in the park. Since in 1916 the Austro-Hungarian forces demolished the Karađorđe monument in Kalemegdan, built in 1913, it was proposed after the war that new monument should be built in the park, close to the tombs of his comrades-in-arms. Also, after the war, the park got its present name. A Monument to French poet Alphonse de Lamartine was erected in 1933 in the park.
After the war, in 1919, the Society was re-established. New design competition was announced in 1926. Beside the church itself, new project was to include buildings of the Patriarchate, Ministry of Religion, Seminary and . The competition rules stipulated that the new church must be in the style of the Serbo-Byzantine architecture, from the period of Prince Lazar (late 14th century). There were 24 submissions. Though the first and third prize were not awarded, the second-place submission by architect Bogdan Nestorović was selected, but the project itself, the idea of building a church, and its proposed style became a matter of fierce public debate.
Those opposing the church design pushed for the construction of the Vidovdan Temple instead, as the unified South Slav state was formed in 1918 and renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929. Especially vocal was art historian . He, and his supporters, opted for the "Yugoslav, not Serbian Pantheon". They also rejected the medieval Serbian design, as it only symbolized "one tribe". Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović, original proponent of the Vidovdan Temple, though on Kosovo, not in Belgrade, supported Strajnić, insisting that the new "Yugoslav style" should be created, instead of the sacral architecture that would fit only one of the denominations. King Alexander Karađorđević publicly didn't support any solution, but privately pushed for the Meštrović's temple. King was a major proponent of integral Yugoslavism and changed state's name to Yugoslavia. Meštrović, as the most important representative of the idea of the "autochthonous Yugoslav art and architecture", was his favorite artist.
After he was elected as the new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1930, Patriarch Varnava pushed for the traditional Serbian appearance of the church and in 1932 ordered the correction of the Nestorović design, which was done by architect Aleksandar Deroko and civil engineer Vojislav Zađin. Still, construction of the church couldn't start for several more years. King Alexander was assassinated in Marseille, France in 1934, and the idea of integral Yugoslavism died with him. The Vidovdan Temple was never built.