Heritage Sites Vs. Construction Sites – Belgrade’s Ušće

Abstract

The paper explores sensitive relation between built heritage and modernisation in the urban context. Heritage reflects the past, but it is now widely accepted to be inherently present-orientated and political, because decisions concerning which parts of the past should be protected and in what way, play a key role in how groups portray their peoples’ history, shared identity and collective memory to the outside world. The focus of the analysis is on the area around the confluence of two international rivers – the Sava and the Danube – in Belgrade, locally called Ušće, which was a strategic point for the city’s birth and development on the account of its topographical and natural features. Once again in Belgrade’s history, this area is in the centre of attention, this time as the main location of the ongoing process of Belgrade`s radical urban change/development. Impossible to separate from heritage, the term landscape will be explored in the context of Ušće, as it refers to a complex and fluid concept, which perfectly depicts the relation between physical environment and cultural and social meanings of a certain place. Hence, the tools and processes of identification, conservation and management of both extraordinary heritage and ordinary landscape are growing ever closer (Council of Europe, 2000).