A 19th Century Charm - Konak kneginje Ljubice

Konak kneginje Ljubice is one of my favorite places in Belgrade. But, first, let me explain you what this name means. The word "konak" is an old Serbian word for "residence" or "place to sleep", "kneginja" is pronounced as "kneghinya" and it is a title similar to duchess, but at that time (end of 19th century) it was the highest title, as her husband, knez Miloš Obrenović (pronounced as Milosh Obrenovich) was the sovereign of Serbia. Finally, Ljubica (Lyubitsa) is duchess name, so it means "The Residence of duchess Ljubica".

It was built in two years, 1829 - 1831, as royal residence, by order of knez Miloš, who never lived there. One could ask "why"? Well, actually, knez Miloš was separated from his wife - although he was known as intimidating and harsh man, he was afraid to live with his wife, after she killed his mistress with a holster. He built himself another residence (1831 - 1834), outside former territory of Belgrade, and lived there with his numerous mistresses until he died. Enough gossiping!

The architecture of this building is clearly in Balkan Oriental style, but with obvious influence of Western architecture in some details. Knez Miloš had very complex personality, although half-literate, unpredictable and rude, he was also brave, innovative and dedicated to modernize Belgrade. He was the first one to introduce glass windows in Serbia. It is the best preserved residence from the 19th century, but there is no original furniture, since it became Lyceum, with uprising of a new dynasty of Karađorđević (Karageorgevich). The building changed its purpose many times, until 1980, when it became memorial type museum. Today, the house is furnished with 19th century furniture from Belgrade houses, which is nicely arranged and well incorporated with the house, giving you the feeling that the time was stopped inside its walls. The only part of the house that preserved it original look is bathroom, built in oriental hammam style, but with strong influence of old Roman bathrooms. The walls of the house are very thick, preserving constant temperature inside the house - once (I've been there many times), custodian told us that body heat was sufficient to keep the in-house temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius during winter.

When I went there few years ago (not for the first time, of course), the custodian was on the "lunch break" (a truly long one), so the guard let us in and told us many interesting stories about how they lived, where did they sleep and even how many children did she have (it was something between 7 and 12, I've forgot) and how most of them died young. He was truly friendly and helpful, and made our tour interesting, but at the end he did not want to charge us for tickets "because you haven't received a full service, since the tour wasn't guided by an expert custodian".

This year's visit gave me a surprise: they said that photographing is not allowed, although there is no sign on the entrance. Plus, I was shocked to find out that once beautiful marble bathroom was destroyed in a fire, caused by the crew of some stupid movie shooting. Luckily, the rest of the house was not affected, and it looks intact.

Konak is located in the center of Belgrade, literally surrounded by many other attractions like Kalemegdan, Saborna Crkva, Knez Mihajlova Street, "?" (or Question Mark) restaurant and Kosančićev Venac. You can get there by all three ways of public transportation (bus, trolley-bus and tram) and if you go by car, there is a public garage at 10 minutes walking distance, but it is often full, since there is almost impossible to find parking space in and around the center, which is normal for all cities. There is another, much larger garage, below Stari Dvor, next to the Parliament, which requires about 20 minutes walk through the Pasic Square with big fountain and Knez Mihajlova Street (if you don't stop too often to take photographs).

Note: the new web site http://www.mgb.org.rs is still under construction.  

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

  

 

It really deserves the name Arena

Belgrade Arena

My first visit inside of this colossal building was on September 7th 2008 when I was taking my daughter to a concert of ultra-mega-extra popular teenage band. As if the fact that I have to attend the teenagers' concert wasn't terrible enough for itself, the temperature that day was some 37 degrees Celsius - complete hell!

We came there two and a half hours earlier, because she has won the "Meet & Greet" (don't ask about it!), so we were able to find one of the last parking spots. Arena is really huge, with a large plateau in front, easy to find and reach, but the parking lot is definitely too small. Only 4.800 parking places comparing to up to 25.000 visitors - that is completely irrational. So if you're going by car you have to options: to come a lot earlier, or to look for parking somewhere else. If you decide to use taxi or public transportation, just think about that twice, because the crowds after events are enormous - it is easy to get there, but it is very hard to get out of there.

The building is very impressive during day and fantastic in the night. It is in perfect spot, next to the highway, not too far from the old part of town, surrounded by big and luxurious hotels. It is very easy to reach, either by car, or a large number of public transportation lines. It is impossible to miss it, so it is used as a landmark for explaining how to get somewhere in New Belgrade.

When we came there, there were already crowds of screaming teenagers waiting in front of many entrances. "Many" is the key word here: there are four main entrances which are easy to find as the signs for EWNS are visible and easy to follow. But if you have to find some smaller entrance, than you might have a problem, unless you're lucky enough to find it immediately. When you try to look for that smaller entrance, don't even bother asking any of Arena staff - they won't give you any info, because they don't know anything that you cannot see by yourself (I suppose that they are there just to look good in uniforms). Just go around and look for yourself using simple logic: you'll find what you're looking for, at the end, if you stick to the side of the Arena you need. And don't even try to ask security staff anything - they're rude and ignorant, and won't even hesitate to yell at you! In addition, they don't even understand their native tongue - so don't try their patience with foreign languages. The best and kindest info I've got from Police officers, who are not related to Arena in any way (they were just doing their regular jobs).

After more than 2 hours of waiting in the hell of a heat and constant sweating in front of the official entrance, where I was waiting for my daughter (to return from that "Meet and Greet" thing), I thought that I was going to drop dead when we enter the hall. But, none of that happened. We have entered without being pushed and pulled by a mass of kids (and their parents), because entrance points are nicely organized. We have freshened up in large toilets, with enough WC and lavatories, so we didn't have to wait in lines. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for enter the main hall, filled with screaming teenagers. It took a while before I've realized that the air wasn't moist and heavy, as one would expect, regardless of some 25.000 people present - the ventilation is so fantastic that all the way till the end of concert we didn't feel any difference. In fact, it was colder and easier to breathe inside the hall (away from the fact that you couldn't hear yourself thinking from all that screaming), than it was on the outside, where temperature did not dropping below 30 degrees (not even at 11 P.M.).

At the end I was completely exhausted, but very proud to know that my city has such modern and completely functional hall. The only two things that should be changed are the number of parking spots and staff friendliness.

My second time in Arena was for the Il Divo concert. Luckily, I did not have to interact with staff, too much, since there was only one (!) entrance. Correspondingly, only one exit - but still sufficient. I'm not an expert for the acoustic, but I think that the hall has perfect acoustic characteristics. As I have heard from others, who have also attended events in the Arena, there is no place in the hall from where you cannot see or cannot hear. This time there were no thousands of screaming girls, and I could really enjoy the perfect concert, with perfect performers, with perfect sound.

Now Arena has put me on real torture: in next two months, there will be three concerts of musicians I like - ZZ Top in October, and Eros Ramazzotti and Tom Jones in November. Three concerts in a row, and even two, are too much for the home budget, so I have to pick one. Poor Eros did not stand the chance with such competition, but I'm still in dillemma - ZZ Top or Tom Jones?

All photos are from Il Divo concert

Useful links about Belgrade

Here are some links that can help you if you travel to Belgrade:

1. Very precise map of Belgrade and a nuber of other Serbian towns. It is only in Serbian, but it is not difficult to manage: in the search bar on the left side "Mesto" means town, "Ulica" means street and "Broj" means (street) number
2. The web site of GSP (Belgrade public transportation company) can help you to find your way around Belgrade. The only thing is that the map is all written in ciryllic...but the rest is OK
3. Telephone company yellowpages - there's nothing to explain ;o)

This would make you manage your way around Belgrade much easier.