Belgrade
Belgrade - Stefano Perego Photography tower
April 2020. Partizan and Red Star ultras protest on the roofs of New Begrade buildings against lockdown measures with firecrakers and smoke bombs. City within the city, New Belgrade is a municipality built in the socialist age in a previously uninhabited area on the left bank of the Sava river, opposite old Belgrade. The collapse of Yugoslavia, the Balkan civil wars, the economic sanctions and the growing unemployement rate drove thousands of serbian families into poverty.In the ’90 this neighborhood, marked by its brutalist socialist architecture made of gigantic all concrete buildings, was a gang-land.
The stronghold of drug dealers and yugo-mafia high profile criminals such as the Pink Panther muggers and gunmen. Rotten Trips, reporters of global decadence, suggests you to take a deep breath and visit the Voždovac neighborhood and the infamous Bežanijski blokovi.
In New Belgrade you can admire the Genex Tower, the symbol of brutalist architecture. Also not to be missed is the Karaburma Housing Tower, nickenamed the “Toblerone tower”. A housing project with an unique design. “Belgrade is like a poor version of Berlin but it is far more underground than the Bronx”, says Rotten Trips reporter Bojan Djordjevic. Rotten Trips defentely recommends you to enjoy a stroll in deep New Belgrade with its small caffes and bars. Have a Jelen beer with a shot of home made slivovitz, the serbian national liquor. Try the Cevapcic spicy sausages and, if you dare, some Kiseli Kupus, a strong fermented raw cabbage.
And remember, what happens in Belgrade, stays in Belgrade.
