Below the modern monument and railway station, there is an underground water well, sort of a "twin" of the better known
Roman Well in the
Belgrade Fortress. The well was built on the same principle and being about the same depth as its fortress counterpart, which is not "Roman" but was actually built by the Austrians in the first half of the 18th century. The area of the future Vukov Spomenik was the location of the first Serbian hippodrome. The
Belgrade Hippodrome was moved to the neighborhood of
Marinkova Bara in the 1890s. Area of the former race tracks was turned into the park in 1907. It developed into the modern Park Ćirilo i Metodije in 1928, projected by Sava Nikolić. The park was named after one of the first
Slavic enlighteners,
Cyril and Methodius. The park was renovated in May 2017 when seedlings of
horse-chestnut,
red horse-chestnut and the
weeping birch were planted. In 2010, the park covered . The area formed an eastern outskirts of Belgrade until the 1930s. A football field was set in the area and the oldest
campus in Serbia was built here, too, in 1928. A donor of the campus was king
Alexander I of Yugoslavia, so the campus was named "King Alexander the First". Prior to
World War II, the campus was used as a seat of the
Grand Lodge of
Yugoslavia's
Freemasons. At the time, the neighborhood was known as Kamenović, after the kafana of the same name, which was located in the boulevard between Molerova and Stiška (today Golsvordijeva) streets. On 7 November 1937, on the corner of the
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra and
Ruzveltova street, a
monument to Vuk Karadžić (by sculptor
Đorđe Jovanović), a major reformer of Serbian language, celebrating 150 years of his birth, was erected. It was declared a cultural monument in 1965. The original intended location for the monument was the
Academic Park in 1932, in front of the Belgrade University's
Rectorate Building. The park already hosted the monument to the other major cultural reformer
Dositej Obradović. However, the monument to Vuk Karadžić was deemed too big for this location, so the current location was chosen. New location, and the fact that the monument is on the edge of the park, facing the street, made the sculptor Jovanović very upset with the city administration. Unsatisfied with the location at city's periphery, Jovanović refused to participate in all festivities regarding dedication of the monument. He was present at the liturgy in Alexander Nevsky Church, but was absent from the unveiling at the location, and a ceremonial gathering at the
Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment. Still, after the monument, the entire neighborhood got its modern name (Vukov spomenik is Serbian for Vuk's monument), and former name, Kamenović, went out of use soon after World War II. The design was selected in April 2022. The inner yard within the complex will be transformed into the mixed communal and students area, with garages, structural connections between the old buildings and construction of two new glass, 5-storey buildings. Everything will be covered with a green roof, which would descend to the Ruzveltova Street, right across the Vuk's monument. This will be the main entrance into the interior of the complex, with the roof providing the green connection between the
Tašmajdan Park and the Park of Cyril and Methodius. In August 2022, a 9.3 million dinars (€79,000) heavy reconstruction of the monument itself was announced. Works began on 7 November 2022, on the monuments 85th birthday. The statue and the entire memorial complex were in bad shape, aggravated by the hasty works in 1995, when the hurried construction of the underground railway station was in progress. The bronze statue wasn't treated properly, while the low-quality stone was used for paving the pedestal and the surrounding stairs and plateau. Works, which include temporary removal of the statue and the new price of 11 million dinars (€93,000), will be finished in March 2023. == Characteristics ==