Belgrade New Cemetery

The New Cemetery (Serbian: , Novo groblje) is a cemetery complex in Belgrade, Serbia, with a distinct history. It is located in Ruzveltova street in Zvezdara municipality. The cemetery was built in 1886 as the third Christian cemetery in Belgrade and as the first architecturally and urbanistically planned cemetery in Serbia. In addition to graves of ordinary citizens, the cemetery complex also includes special sections: military graves from Serbian-Ottoman War (1876–1877), Serbo-Bulgarian War, Balkan Wars and World Wars, the Alley of the Greats and the Alley of Distinguished Citizens, where some of the most important persons in the history of Serbia are buried. Two Jewish cemeteries (a Sephardic and an Ashkenazi one) are located adjacent to the New Cemetery, but are administrated separately.

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.

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. As the city expanded, Belgrade's old cemetery at Tašmajdan became inadequate. On the one side, it became too small for the city's main graveyard. On the other, once projected to be on the outskirts of the city, as Belgrade grew, Tašmajdan practically became downtown and close to the Royal court. The first official initiative for the removal of the cemetery came in 1871 from Mihailo Jovanović, Metropolitan Bishop of Belgrade. As the city was in the financial crisis at the time and wasn't able to buy such a large lot for the new cemetery, mayor of Belgrade Vladan Đorđević donated a patch of his land to the city for the purpose of establishing a new cemetery. In the next decades, the area, including the graveyard itself was known as Vladanovac (after the mayor), but gradually was replaced with the name New Cemetery. 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 2 ha (4.9 acres), but by 2017 grew to 30 ha (74 acres). The reinterment of the remains from the Tašmajdan dragged on for the several decades, being finished only in 1927. First memorial monument was built in 1907, when remains of the Serbian soldiers who died in wars against the Turks and Bulgarians in the 19th century were reinterred from the Tašmajdan. During the bombardment of Belgrade in the World War I, cemetery was damaged in 1915. In the Interbellum, seven military graveyards were also formed together with th

Cemetery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).