It was an awkward position to hold; as awkward, perhaps as Tito’s place in history. He was, by most definitions, a dictator, who ruled his land for 36 years (until his death in 1980). Yet he remains hugely beloved in a Serbia that was a prime part of his power-base.
He is still in Belgrade too, in wealthy hillside Dedinje, where his former residence is now the Museum of Yugoslavia. He lies under a weighty marble slab in the House of Flowers, his onetime winter garden. On the morning I pass by, there is no shortage of mourners, silent and subdued, heads bowed at the grave. The wider museum also pays respect – in nostalgic photos of life in Tito’s Balkans; in a range of trinkets given to the president by other world leaders, including a fragment of Moon rock gifted by Richard Nixon in 1970.
By the time I’m back in the centre on Birčaninova Ulica, gazing at the derelict bulk of the old Ministry of Defence building – all but destroyed by the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, during Yugoslavia’s bitter disintegration – I’m convinced that the Serbian capital is trapped in a series of different yesterdays, each of them chiselled into its infrastructure.
But look around, and it isn’t difficult to spot the city of now. It is there in Belgrade Design District, where fashion boutiques (Klasa Klasa; Marija Handmade), art stores (Gallery 1250) and chocolatiers (Aguara) offer chic 21st-century shopping just behind the crumbling Bezistan. It is there at Crna Ovca (Black Sheep), a local ice cream company with five gelaterias across the city, and wild frozen flavours such as “custard cream pie” and “sesame coffee”. It is certainly there at New Balkan Cuisine, on Kneginje Ljubice, where the Michelin-listed menu includes oven-baked cheese with raspberries and truffles.
And it is there, most seductively, below Kalemegdan Park, behind an (almost) unmarked door at Uzun Mirkova 7, where Beograd Koktel Klub revels in a speakeasy vibe. At least, I think it does. After my third King Cole (named after Nat; a potent twist on an Old Fashioned, with extra honey), the year has ceased to matter.
Pick an era, any era, in this faultline city. It will be here – hemmed in by the Danube, and its eternal eastward motion.
Getting there
British Airways (0344 493 0787) flies to Belgrade three times a week from London Heathrow. Return fares from £105.
Staying there
Double rooms at the Hotel Moskva (00381 11364 2000) start at £113.
Touring there
Regent Holidays (0117 453 3001) offers a four-night “Belgrade Short Break” that explores the city in depth, then takes a side-trip to Novi Sad. From £1,155 a head – including flights, transfers, guides and accommodation at Hotel Moskva. For more information see serbia.travel.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/serbia/british-airways-new-flight-to-belgrade-serbia/
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Publish date : 2023-12-19 03:00:00
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