Old Fairground

Staro Sajmište (Old Fairground) wasbuilt as the first Belgrade Fair in 1937, owing to the joint endeavors of Serbia’s industrial owners, merchants and the Belgrade Municipality and according tothe design of three municipal architects, Rajko Tatić, Milivoje Tričković and Dordje Lukić. Its construction meant that Belgrade would crossthe Sava for the first time, thus opening the way for the future engineers of New Belgrade. The Belgrade Fair had a good start – its rich offer made it a popular place to visit among the residents of Belgrade. In 1938, the first television programin the Balkans was broadcast from the Belgrade Fair. Foreign countries also built their pavilions here: Italy, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary in 1937, Turkey in 1938, then Germany in 1939. Skoda’s Parachute Tower was erected afterwards, and the Dutch company ‘Philips’ and the famous Belgrade merchant Nikola Spasić soon created their own pavilions. Further development was stopped at the beginning of World War II, when the German administration chose this location for a concentration camp. Gestapo formed the concentration camp ‘Sajmište’, or, as translated from German,‘Jewish Camp Zemun’ (German: SemlinJudenlager), for the purpose of terminating the Jewish and Roma residentsin Belgrade and Serbia.