InfoAnda - Belgrade patches up scars from turbulent past

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Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Asia Pacific World Search Search: Belgrade patches up scars from turbulent past AFP - 1 hour 17 minutes ago BELGRADE (AFP) - - Dangling festive lights marking Christmas and the New Year fail to hide scars on the buildings of Belgrade, which has endured more than 40 battles throughout its troubled 7,000-year history. Once communist leader Josip Broz Tito's stately centre of power, Beograd -- "White City" in Serbian -- has slowly been undergoing a facelift after neglect since the 1990s, when NATO targeted the old Yugoslav capital over Kosovo. Besides bombed-out towers that still stand in ruins, most buildings emerged from the 1990s with sooty frontages whose crumbling balconies and stonework pose a threat to pedestrians. But the city government is beautifying Serbia's capital in the hope tourists no longer make one of their first photo stops Kneza Milosa, the avenue lined by massive buildings that NATO's Tomahawk cruise missiles precisely struck in 1999. "The city is great, especially for partying, but some of the buildings need to be fixed," said Marcus, a Swedish tourist in his 30s visiting for the first time. Thanks to a government policy to help residents foot the bill, many streets are lined with scaffolding and workers busy sand-blasting and plastering on new facades. "We have passed a law for the regeneration of facades -- the city pays 70 percent (of the cost) and residents 30 percent. It should embellish the city in the long-term," Deputy Mayor Milan Krkobabic told AFP. After more than a decade of isolation under a trade blockade up until Slobodan Milosevic's ouster in 2000, Belgrade has flourished as the engine of a country whose economy has posted growth of up to eight percent in recent years. Already struggling to house war refugees, Belgrade, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of Serbia's industrial output, is bursting at its seams with and additional 30,000 job-seekers each year, according to Krkobabic. Its population stood at 1.5 million in a 2001 census, by it has swelled by estimates of up to one million due to the influx of refugees, putting pressure notably on its residential property market and transport networks. At least another 10,000 buildings representing 44 percent of residences were awaiting work on their facades and roofs, according to figures obtained by the state-run daily Politika. "In the past several months, we have restored around 60 structures," Politika quoted Boris Micanovic of the city housing authority as saying in early December. Strategically located at the confluence of two internationally navigable rivers, Old Belgrade's architecture reflects its turbulent past. "As one famous architect once said, 'There's no more beautiful place for a city that isn't that beautiful'," said Krkobabic. In the downtown area, neo-Byzantine, Ottoman Turkish and Vienna Secessionist styles are interspersed by communist-era monoliths constructed in place of historic buildings the Nazi Luftwaffe destroyed in World War II. "Belgrade's face is marked with scars from past wars. The city was completely destroyed many times," expatriate columnist Pat Andjelkovic wrote recently. "But if you take the time to look around, you can find some striking houses that have miraculously managed to avoid fire, bombs and man's folly," she wrote in the newsweekly Belgrade Insight. Many facades have since been restored with the help of old postcards, which have often helped architects to reconstruct the "ornate but often neglected... window to the city's soul," Andjelkovic wrote. "The fabulous figures, caryatids, stone heads, tile work, that adorn them reflect... the city's soul and identity," she said. As well as constantly being plugged by authorities for winning the 2006 Financial Times "city of the future" award for southeastern Europe, Belgrade has a growing reputation for its energetic youth culture. Around 10 percent of foreigners say they visit for fun, taking advantage of rock and Roma music festivals, and New Year celebrations, says the Tourist Organisation of Belgrade (TOB). "There are restaurants, cafes and kafanas open all night, and tourists are surprised at how relaxed they feel (despite) media obviously giving them different prejudices about Belgrade," said TOB director Jasna Dimitrijevic. But a large number of visitors, particularly elderly Danube River cruise tourists from the West and ex-Yugoslavs, are also drawn to the tomb of Marshal Tito, the defunct federation's former president. Like much of Belgrade, even the facility that houses his grave, Kuca Cveca or "the House of Flowers," and museum is a hive of activity, with workers busy overhauling the site. The museum is being readied to attract a younger clientele with a pop-art themed exhibition of Tito's life, highlighting his heyday in the 1970s, said its director Katarina Zivanovic. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: Entertainment & Lifestyle Nazi themes dominate holiday cinema seasonAP - Thursday, December 25 Disney pulls out of third 'Narnia' filmAFP - Thursday, December 25 CBS sued over 'Two and a Half Men'AP - Thursday, December 25 Jazz pianist-singer Page Cavanaugh dies at 86AP - Thursday, December 25 ESPN's `Monday Night Football' leads cable ratingsAP - Thursday, December 25 Enlarge Photo Monument to Serbian king Mihajlo in front of the National Museum, at main square in downtown Belgrade, seen on December 22. Once communist leader Josip Broz Tito's stately centre of power, Beograd -- "White City" in Serbian -- has slowly been undergoing a facelift after neglect since the 1990s, when NATO targeted the old Yugoslav capital over Kosovo. 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