Zeleni Venac

Zeleni Venac (Literally: Green Wreath) or colloquially Zelenjak (Serbian: Зелени Венац or Зелењак, Zelenjak) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipalities of Savski Venac (major part) and Stari Grad.

Zeleni Venac is located in downtown Belgrade, just few minutes away to the east of Terazije, the designated center of the city, down Prizrenska street. It borders the neighborhood of Savamala to the south, while the northern border is Brankova street. The car tunnel (Terazije tunnel) under Terazije connects it to Republic Square while underground pedestrian passage connects it to Terazije and Prince Michael Street via Prizrenska and Sremska streets, respectively. Population of the local community of Zeleni Venac was 3,517 in 2002.

Zeleni Venac is built in the area that was previously part of the trench which surrounded the Kalemegdan fortress in the 18th century. When the trench was covered, a pond was formed. As Belgrade grew around it, the pond became a popular hunting attraction (for fowls, ducks, etc.) for the inhabitants of Belgrade. In the middle of the 19th century, the pond was partially drained as a designated area for the future National Theatre, but the area proved to be too marshy and unstable and after the foundations were laid down, the idea was abandoned and the theater was constructed on another site. The completely forgotten foundations were rediscovered during the 2005/06 reconstruction of Zeleni Venac. In the early 20th century the pond was drained completely.

The name of the neighborhood means the green wreath. Venac is usually used in Belgrade's geography in term of a round street (Obilićev Venac, Kosančićev Venac) or a rim of the river (Savski Venac, Dunavski Venac). However, in this case, it is used in the word's initial usage, meaning wreath. On the location of the present McDonald's restaurant in the Brankova street, for decades was located kafana Zeleni venac whose logo was a green wreath. Belgrade historians still debate whether the neighborhood was named after the kafana or the opposite. Kafana was demolished in the 1960's. In 2001, actor Dragan Maksimović was murdered in Zeleni Venac, his murder was never resolved.

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