Obilićev Venac

Obilićev Venac (Serbian: "Обилићев венац"), a partial pedestrian and shopping zone, is located in the city center of Belgrade, Serbia, within the "Knez Mihailova Street" spatial unit protected by law, and contains a number of residential and office buildings dating from the year 1900 to 2000.

Obilićev Venac is without a doubt one of the old and valuable city monument areas in Belgrade. Connected to Knez Mihailova Street, Kosančićev Venac and the Belgrade Fortress, it forms essentially the only material testimony to the continuity of the city of Belgrade, from its oldest Roman times to today.

In Ancient times the area of the street, due to the specific layout of the terrain, used the highest point as the communication route, namely the ridge that slopes gently downwards towards the Sava riverbank. Thus in later historical times the geographical location of the ridge was the main factor behind the shaping and purpose of Obilićev Venac. The street was certainly set out as far back as the Roman times, when the center of the Singidunum settlement was already located in Knez Mihailova Street. Under the onslaught of Barbarians the area of Obilićev Venac was devastated. The agony of the street's ruination continued throughout the Middle Ages and culminated in the street disappearing from the urban map of Belgrade and turning into a green field.

The street came back to life in the 15th century, during the reign of Despot Stefan Lazarević, primarily due to the reestablishment of what was once the via cardo, i.e. today's Knez Mihailova Street, through which the settlement on the Upper Town plateau was reached.

The revival of Obilićev Venac was temporarily suspended in 1456 because of the Turkish siege of Belgrade, when the area was used to erect tents for the Turkish troops, with the camp of Sultan Mohamed II located behind them, towards Vračar. Six and a half decades later, through the devastated fields at Obilićev Venac, the Turkish conquerors commanded by Suleyman the Magnificent finally conquered Belgrade on August 29, 1521.

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Wikipedia