Page 21 - PowerPoint Presentation
P. 21
“Tasmajdan park Belgrade”
Tasmajdan Park (colloquially called Tash) is the second largest park located in
the very heart of Belgrade. In the past fifty years, it has become one of the
all-time favourite playgrounds of the capital and a popular gathering, leisure
and recreation spot. As was the case with other parts of Serbia, the long,
interesting and, at times, peculiar history hasn’t bypassed Tasmajdan either.
The name of the park and its neighbourhood is of Turkish origin. The “word
taş“ means stone, whereas “maden” means a pit, so Tasmajdan is really
nothing more than a loanword for a quarry. Indeed, Tasmajdan has been the
main extraction point of stone used in the city, and later on saltpeter as well.
Natural tunnels in rock have served as shelters to both citizens and
authorities, or as storage rooms and hideouts.
Turks were not the first to discover this abundant source of building
materials. Namely, Tasmajdan has been in use for at least two millennia
before their arrival – since Roman times. The limestone from Tashmaydan is
the building block of practically all sarcophagi, which are scattered around
town, and every single stone built into the Belgrade Fortress was dug and
shaped here.
