Belgrade New Cemetery

The cemetery is located along the Ruzveltova (official seat, at No. 50) and Mije Kovačevića streets, which divide it in two sections, left or western, which is in the municipality of Palilula and right or eastern, which is in the municipality of Zvezdara. Larger, eastern section is bordered by the streets of Mije Kovačevića on the north, Severni bulevar on the east and Svetog Nikole on the south. North of this section are the neighborhoods of Bogoslovija and Stara Karaburma, Zvezdara II is on the east, while Slavujev Venac and Bulbulder are on the south. Smaller, western section is marked by the streets Čarlija Čaplina (northeast) and Preradovićeva (southwest). It is situated next to the neighborhood of Hadžipopovac. == History ==

The first burials on the cemeteries that still exist today in the Belgrade's territory, were held in Zemun, at the end of the 18th century. However, the New Cemetery was the first which has been planned and projected specifically for this purpose, with all the infrastructure needed, so it is today considered to be the oldest of Belgrade's cemeteries. In 1886–2017 period, 340,000 people were buried. Mayors Živko Karabiberović and Mijailo Bogićević also worked on the establishment of the cemetery. The cemetery was charted in the city plans in 1884 but the citizens originally disapproved the new location, as it was distant from downtown, so a horse-operated tram line was established, Terazije-New Cemetery. The adaptation of the lot was finished on 16 August 1886 and the first person was buried next day. It was Dragutin Dimić, son of the cemetery gardener Veljko Dimić. The graveyard originally covered , but by 2017 grew to . In 1964, the first year the crematory was operational, there were only 6 cremations, 5 of which were organized for the foreign citizens. By the 1983 decision of the National Assembly of Serbia, the New Cemetery was declared as the cultural monument of great importance. == The Main (Eastern) portion ==

The main part of the complex, on the right side of the Ruzveltova street, consists of a small Ashkenazi Jewish cemetery and much larger Christian cemetery. The Christian cemetery contains graves of ordinary citizens, several military graveyards, and four memorial sections containing the graves of important persons: the Arcades, the Alley of the Greats, the Alley of Distinguished Citizens, and the Alley of People's Heroes. For a long time, the church also served for the parochial services, until the Church of Saint Lazar was built in the neighborhood of Bulbulder. In that period, weddings and baptisms were also performed in the church, while the public fairs were held in front of it. Military graveyards The oldest memorial at Novo groblje complex is the Serbian soldiers' ossuary built in 1907 which contains remains of the soldiers of Serbian-Ottoman Wars (1876–1878) and Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885) that were transferred from Tašmajdan cemetery. Important part of the complex are the military graveyards with the remains of soldiers from the Balkan Wars and World War I. It contains remains of Serbian and other Allied soldiers, as well as Central Powers soldiers. Beside the Serbian ossuary (Memorial Ossuary to the Defenders of Belgrade), there are separate French, Russian, Italian, The Russian Military Graveyard contains graves of over 3,000 Russian White émigrés who arrived to Yugoslavia after the 1917 Russian Revolution and the ensuing civil war. They include priests, soldiers and some important names in science and culture, who fled Bolshevik rule. At the edge of the Russian graveyard are the monumental "Russian Glory" memorial ossuary and the Iverskaya chapel. The Chapel was designed in 1931 by Valery Vladimirovich Stashevsky, a replica of the original chapel in Moscow which the Bolsheviks demolished that same year. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintain the Commonwealth graves. The ''Alley of the People's Heroes'' is located around the Serbian ossuary. It contains graves of 312 persons, 118 of whom were the People's Heroes of Yugoslavia. The complex also includes graveyards of the victims of 1941 and 1944 Bombings of Belgrade, and the Alley of Executed Patriots 1941–1944. File:Споменик помрлим рањеницима из ратова 1876-77, 1878. и 1885. године, Ново Гробље у Београду DSC 2331.jpg|Monument at the Military graveyard of the Serbian-Ottoman Wars (1876–1878) File:Novo groblje3.jpg|Memorial Ossuary to the Defenders of Belgrade 1914–1918 with the ''Alley of the People's Heroes'' around it. File:Свјетлопис талијанског војног гробља у Биограду.jpg|Italian WWI military graveyard File:Француско војничко гробље, Ново гробље у Београду DSC 2553.jpg|French WWI military graveyard File:Свјетлопис аустроугарског војног гробља у Биограду, Ново гробље.jpg|Austro-Hungarian WWI military graveyard File:Спомен костурница руском војницима погинулим уПрвом светском рату, Ново Гробље у Београду DSC 2359.jpg|Russian Ossuary File:Свјетлопис бугарског војног гробља у Биограду.jpg|Bulgarian WWI Military Graveyard File:Британско војно гробље у Биограду.jpg|British WWII military graveyard File:Aleja streljannih rodoljuba Novo groblje Beograd.JPG|The Alley of Executed Patriots 1941–1944 Arcades and Janko Vukotić Though this section is next to the wall, it was originally envisioned as a series of arches ("arcades"). Eventually, arcades remained only as ornamental and architectural part of the outer wall of the cemetery. The section was built in 1926–1927, concurrently with the Alley of the Greats. It contains tombs of important public figures and wealthier citizens, as the lots in this section were not given to the commoners. Here are the graves of Milenko Vesnić (1863–1921), politician and diplomat, Nikola Pašić (1844–1926), politician, Janko Vukotić (1866–1927), general and politician, Sreten Stojanović (1898–1960), sculptor, Svetlana Velmar-Janković (1933–2014), writer. • Ilija Milosavljević Kolarac (1789–1878), donator • Stevan Vladislav Kaćanski (1829–90), poet • Radomir Putnik (1847–1917), fieldmarshal • Jovan Cvijić (1865–1927), geographer • Miloš Vasić (1859–1935), general and weapons constructor • Slobodan Jovanović (1869–1958), philosopher and politician • Stevan Hristić (1885–1958), composer • Milunka Savić (1892–1973), female soldier Some of the people buried at the Alley of Distinguished Citizens are: • Paja Jovanović (1859–1957), painter. The urn with his ashes was transferred here after his wife's death. • Slobodan Jovanović (1869–1958), historian, lawyer, literary critic and politician • Bojan Stupica (1910–1970), theater and film director • Petar Lubarda (1907–1974), painter • Ivo Andrić (1892–1975), writer and Nobel Prize winner • Miloš Crnjanski (1893–1977), poet, author, and a diplomat • Ivan Tabaković (1898–1977), painter • Stojan Aralica (1883–1980), painter • Branko Ćopić (1915–1984), writer • Matija Vuković (1925–1985), sculptor • Oskar Davičo (1909–1989), writer • Milić od Mačve (1934–2000), painter • Bata Paskaljević (1923–2004), actor • Žika Mitrović (1921–2005), movie director and screenwriter • Mira Alečković (1924–2008), poet • Jelena Genčić (1936–2013), tennis and handball player and coach • Ružica Sokić (1934–2013), actress • Dragan Nikolić (1943–2016), actor • Milena Dravić (1940–2018), actress • Džej Ramadanovski (1964–2020), singer • Vlasta Velisavljević (1926–2021), actor • Sanja Ilić (1951–2021), musician and composer • Đorđe Marjanović (1931–2021), singer • Bora Ivkov (1933–2022), chess player • Miodrag Kostić (1959–2024), businessman == The Western portion ==

This part of the complex consists of a memorial military graveyard and a Sephardic Jewish cemetery, on the left side of the Ruzveltova street. Cemetery of Belgrade Liberators During the Belgrade Offensive, in which the Partisans and the Red Army expelled occupying Germans from Belgrade on 20 October 1944, 24 Red Army tank crewmen were killed. On 23 October 1944, a funeral procession consisting of 24 tanks moved from the Slavija Square to the Republic Square, where the crewmen were buried. In 1954 the crypt and the monument, so as the remains of all the other soldiers, were moved to the Belgrade New Cemetery and the Cemetery of Belgrade Liberators has been formed. Officially opened on 20 October 1954, to mark the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade, the design of the complex became a blueprint for numerous other memorial sites in Yugoslavia. Cemetery of Belgrade Liberators (Гробље ослободилаца Београда / Groblje oslobodilaca Beograda), though part of the cemetery complex, is located on the other (western) side of the street, across from the main part of the Belgrade New Cemetery. The cemetery was partially renovated in 2019, celebrating 75 years of World War II liberation. A three-colored decorative lights were placed, white, blue and red, in the colors of both Serbian and Russian flags. The colorful lights on the cemetery of the killed soldiers wasn't received well by the public. During his visit to Belgrade in February 2020, Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu brought a pot of Russian earth from Saint Petersburg, which was poured at the location of the Eternal Flame, also marking the beginning of its construction. The sculptural-architectural composition is work of the Russian sculptor Andrey Tyrtyshnikov. It is the second memorial named Eternal Flame in Belgrade, after the 2000 memorial erected in Staro Sajmište. Opening was planned for 26 March, during the visit of the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to Serbia. This was all postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2020 it was announced that the memorial will be opened by the end of the year. On 14 December 2020, the flame was lit from the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow and transported to Belgrade by the Russian Defence ministry's plane. It was lit the next day, in the presence of Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić and minister Lavrov. Sephardic Jewish cemetery Next to the Cemetery of Liberators is the Jewish Sephardic cemetery with the remains of Jewish soldiers who died in the Balkan Wars and World War I, ossuary of Jewish refugees from Austria and the Memorial to the Holocaust victims and Jewish soldiers died in World War II by the architect Bogdan Bogdanović. It is one of two Jewish cemeteries in Belgrade which is cared for by the Chevra kadisha commission. The original Sephardic cemetery was established in 1888, further down the Dalmatinska Street. In 1925 it was moved across the New Cemetery, on the lot owned by Đorđe Kurtović, a merchant from Šabac, who sold it to the Jewish community. Today it covers and has over 4,000 tombstones. In July 2019, city decided to expand the cemetery as it became inadequate long time ago. The area of the cemetery will be enlarged more than a double, with additional . The cemetery is divided by the central pathway with an avenue of pines. Close to the entrance is the impressive monument to dead soldiers from the 1912–1919 wars, erected in 1927. Officially named "Monument to the fallen warriors for the salvation, freedom and unification of the homeland", it has inscribed 132 names of the Serbian Jewish soldiers. The monument combines Serbian (two headed eagle, fire-steels, lyrics by Njegoš), Jewish (Star of David) and military symbols (rifle, sabre, šajkača). In Jewish tradition, the pebbles have been placed next to the soldier's names. The stone-made Holocaust memorial which commemorates Jewish victims from 1941 to 1945 is at the end of the path. More specifically, it is dedicated to the 1941 execution of the Austrian Jews in the Zasavica bog in western Serbia. The access paths to the memorial are made from the remains of the Jewish houses demolished during the bombings of Belgrade and occupation in World War II. Though the monument was sculptured by Bogdanović in 1952 and it is not that old, its exact symbolism is unknown. There are three explanations: 1) two wings represent the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic Jews while the space between with the menorah symbolizes the parting of the Red Sea by Moses and road to freedom; 2) tablets with 10 commands; 3) hands on one wing represent the Kohen while the pitcher on another represents the Tribe of Levi. Within the memorial are the ossuary with 197 skeletons and the urn with the remains of Bogdanović, upon his wish even though he was not Jewish, which was approved by the Serbian Jewish community. Other monuments include the one above the joint tomb of the children died from the Spanish flu during the Interbellum and the sarcophagi-shaped memorial with the remains of 13 rabbis and teachers reinterred from the old cemetery in the Dalmatinska Street in 1928. There is also a monument to the ill-fated 1939–1941 Kladovo transport. It was erected in 1959 on a design by Andrija Mešulam, after 800 bodies of the victims were collected and reinterred here. Other notable feature is the tomb of the Buli family (, banker and politician; Hugo Buli, who brought football to Serbia. He is not buried in the tomb as he was killed in a gas van and thrown out of it on an unknown location). A Holocaust victim, Avram S. Lević (1869–1941), who saved and protected the Miroslav Gospel in World War I, is also buried here. There is also a genizah, a "grave for the books", built in 1928. The monument is ornamented with an open scroll of Torah and books made of stone. == References ==