Belo Brdo Site Being Prepared for Construction of Archaeology Park – Plan Includes Outdoor and Indoor Center for Visitors, Neolithic Science and Research Center, Thematic Archeology Park, Dock…

The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure has advertised early public insight on the occasion of the amendments to the spatial plan of the special purpose area of the archaeology site Belo Brdo in Vinca, Belgrade municipality of Grocka.

The archeology site Belo Brdo is the most significant cultural good in the Vinca settlement, on the coast itself, hiding remains of an early neolithic culture (5800 BC).

The document prepared by the Urban Planning Institute of Belgrade covers an area of around 52 hectares, on which the construction of an archaeology park, traffic routes and infrastructure is planned.

The archeology park is planned as a complex with an archaeology site, a center for visitors, a neolithic science and research center and an archaeology park.

The archeology site itself will have a triage center with a space for the triage of archeological artifacts, a field depot, a space for the processing of materials, a photo laboratory, a laboratory for conservation, a workshop and side rooms (a toilet and a tea kitchen).

The visitors’ center is planned with an outdoor and an indoor part. A one-story facility on 1,700 m2 entails all the spaces meant for taking in tourists, as well as spaces for the work of the employees at the center, an info center, spaces for presentation and lectures, gift shops, cafeterias and side features (toilets, spaces for disposing of things…).

The outdoor part of the visitors’ center will encompass an area of 0.02 hectares. A developed green space will serve for exhibiting items and for presentations, and it will also have a garden for the hospitality part, as well as other features in the function of a center for visitors, the document says.

The neolithic science and research center, as the third unit of the future archaeology park, is planned on the space on which the facility of the old elementary school, which is out of function, is located. The center will have a research part meant for the work of the researchers and presentations and an accommodation part meant for the stay of the researchers.

Finally, the fourth unit, the archaeology park, is planned as a developed green area, which enables to the visitors pedestrian and bicycle access to the Centers for Visitors and the entire Archaeology Park.

As said, varied thematic content will be secured within the highly developed park, primarily the presentation of the environment in which everyday activities of the residents of the neolithic Vinca took part, exhibitions, outdoor workshops and spaces for rest and relaxation. The park will be connected with the Danube and the Bolecica River and it will also be connected by footpaths with the archaeology site itself.

In a part of the park, a parking lot for cars (around 250 parking spaces) and tourist buses (around 10 buses) is planned, as is the information and technical block for the purposes of access control and the maintenance of the complex (a garage space, maintenance, a car wash and mechanization).

When it comes to the traffic routes, a new street, named Povljenska, is planned, and Vincanska Street is to be extended.

The plan also includes the construction of cycling lanes continuously along the Danube and the Bolecica, the Vinca ferry slip and the Vinca dock for smaller tourist boats and public transport vessels within Belgrade’s new water public transport (east corridor: Sava dock – Karaburma – Visnjica – Velikoselski rit – Forkontumac – Pancevo – Vinca – Ritopek – Grocka).

Of the infrastructure facilities, among other things, the construction and reconstruction of an embankment is planned, and in the coastal area, it is possible, as added, to set up stages for cultural and art events.

The use of renewable energy sources is proposed, because, due to the remoteness, the supply of the location with gas is not certain.

Among other things, the solution for heating and preparation of hot water is envisaged through hydro-thermal energy, because there are indications that the Vinca area features thermal waters with temperatures over 80 degrees Celsius in places.

The strategic plan of the development of the tourism of Belgrade also envisages the forming of a botanical garden within the archaeology park, as well as an archaeological safari, a green labyrinth, a restaurant on the water surface… if the state finds funds for those additional features, but they are not mentioned in this document.

We will not know what the Belo Brdo archaeology park will look like before mid-September, considering that the deadline for the submission of the works for the preparation of the preliminary design at the contest which opened in March has been moved from August 8 to September 4.

The results of the contest, as the Union of Architects of Serbia, which is the organizer, confirmed for us, has been moved from September 1 to September 15.

B. P.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

JUP Urbanistički zavod Beograda

Udruženje arhitekata Srbije

Belo brdo archaeology site in Vinča

amendments to the spatial plan of a special purpose area

archaeology park

construction

neolithic period

Belo brdo

Vinča

construction of an archaeology park