Balkanska street

Balkanska Street or Balkanska ulica (Serbian Cyrillic: Балканска улица; English: Balkan Street) is a street in downtown Belgrade, a capital of Serbia. It is one of the most recognizable streets in the city and one of the oldest still bearing its original name since the first official naming of the city streets in 1872. It is located in the municipalities of Stari Grad and Savski Venac.

Balkanska originates at the Terazije Square, sole center of Belgrade. Its entire course, some 700 meters, is in the southern direction. It receives a short Pajsijeva street from the right and then crosses the Kraljice Natalije street, where it leaves the municipality of Stari Grad and enters Savski Venac. It then receives the Lomina street from the right and passes through the intersection where it crosses the streets of Gavrila Principa, Admirala Geprata and Milovana Milovanovića. It ends at the meeting with the Nemanjina Street, though its natural extension is the Hajduk Veljkov Venac and further, Sarajevska street.

The street was constructed in 1872, when it got its name it still bears today. Originally, it was routed as a connection between the Abadžijska (modern Kraljice Natalije) and Savamalska (modern Gavrila Principa streets. This entire section of the city was projected by the Viennese architect Franz Janke. First proper building in the street was built in 1876, at the corner with the Abadžijska. In 1885, a tailor (abadžija) Đorđe Arsenijević opened his tailor store in that building and placed a plastered relief of a scissors on the building's front façade. As it was prolongued on both sides, it became the direct, and shortest, connection between downtown and Savamala, on the bank of the Sava river. In the 19th century, Balkanska was famous for its artisan shops: tailors, waxers, opančari, quilters. In the 20th century it became known for the food, as a location of some of the best pastries in Belgrade, especially known for its ice-creams and halva. At the top of the street one of the first fast-food facilities in Belgrade was open, "Leskovčanin", which used to sell Leskovačka pljeskavica. In general, Balkanska was a place where you could buy almost any type of goods. Today, only few of the old craftsman's shops survived, like pastry shops and bakeries, but as of 2015, the tanner shop, hat maker or purse tailor can still be found in the street.

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Wikipedia