Dorćol

Dorćol (Serbian Cyrillic: Дорћол, Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [dɔ̝̌rt͡ɕɔ̝l]) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.

Location

Dorćol begins already some 700 meters north of Terazije, the central square of Belgrade. It roughly can be divided in two sections, Gornji (or Upper) Dorćol, which covers the area from Akademski park to the Cara Dušana street, and Donji (or Lower) Dorćol which occupies the area between the Cara Dušana and Bulevar despota Stefana streets and the right bank of the Danube. The Lower Dorćol used to be known as Jalija (Turkish yali, strand, bank). It borders (and largely overlaps) the neighborhoods of Stari Grad and Jevremovac (east and south) and the fortress of Kalemegdan (west), which is sometimes considered as part of Dorćol as well. The population of the neighborhood in the widest sense was 22,707 in 2002.

History

The name of the neighborhood comes from Turkish words dört (four) and yol (road), literally meaning "four roads" or colloquially "intersection (of four roads)", "crossroads". There is a town in Anatolian section of modern Turkey with the same name (Dörtyol). During the Turkish occupation of Belgrade, Dorćol was a well known trading centre, with many markets and traders of different nationalities, among others it was a center of Belgrade's Jewish community, remnant of which is the modern Jevrejska ("Jewish") street in Dorćol. After Belgrade became a capital of independent Serbia, Dorćol kept its multinational character for a long time. During the temporary Austrian occupation of northern Serbia 1717-1739, Jalija (Lower Dorćol) was the seat of the Prince Eugene of Savoy's court. Eventually the old low houses and narrow streets were changed into modern buildings. Still, some parts, though vanishing one by one, resemble the old look.