SASA: Belgrade Fair must be preserved as architectural whole

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) believes that the competent organs must find a solution whereby the Belgrade Fair will be preserved as an architectural unit with its halls and purpose, in line with the indisputable values of that important edifice. The Executive Board of the SASA announced this “on the occasion of the announcement of the potential demolition of a majority of the facilities and the repurposing of the land of the Belgrade Fair.”

As said, on that occasion, at the proposition of the Department of Technical Sciences and with the support of the Department of Arts of the SASA, the Executive Board has adopted the statement which points to the history of the construction and the importance of the Belgrade Fair. It is reminded that the Belgrade Fair was planned, designed and built only twelve years after the end of the Second World War and that the academy members Milorad Pantovic and Branko Zezelj and the engineer Milan Krstic are the designers of the Belgrade Fair.

The statement says that, by designing the Belgrade Fair, they “gave an invaluable contribution to the Serbian, Yugoslav and world architecture and construction.”

The Belgrade Fair opened on August 23, 1957, and the first event was the Fair of Technical Achievements, with over a million visitors, it is said. Just a year later, from a studio located at the Fair, TV Beograd broadcast its first show, it is added. As they remind, the Belgrade Fair organizes numerous fair events, among which is the Book Fair, which has been held without a break since 1957. The Fair has also played an extremely important role in crisis situations and the recent pandemics, the statement emphasizes.

– What’s especially symbolic is the fact that the future engineers and builders of Serbia, high school graduates, take their entrance exams for the technical faculties in the facilities which, with their beauty and functionality, point to the potentials of the engineering profession. Thanks to its urban planning and architectural design, beauty, functionality and monumentality, the Belgrade Fair is, without a doubt, one of the most valuable works of the Serbian architecture and construction – the statement says.

It is also reminded that Hall 1 of the Belgrade Fair has been pronounced an immovable cultural good, as a cultural monument, thanks to its architectural features and the manner of construction.

– Due to all of the above, the Executive Board of the SASA believes that the competent organs must find a solution by which the Belgrade Fair will be preserved as an architectural whole with its halls and a purpose which will be in line with the indisputable values of this important edifice – the statement emphasizes.

Beogradski sajam doo Beograd

SANU Beograd

Belgrade Fair

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

SASA

SASA Department of Technical Sciences

SASA Department of Arts

Milorad Pantović

Branko Žeželj

Milan Krstić

TV Beograd