SIV Palace

The Palace of Serbia is the largest and most spectacular masterpiece of modernist architecture in Belgrade, and one of the first buildings to be constructed in the New Belgrade district. Built as the palace of the Federal Executive council of Yugoslavia, today it is home to several ministries and offices of the Serbian government. Perhaps even more interesting than it’s architectural features is it’s interior decoration, featuring halls dedicated to each of the republics of the former Yugoslavia, decorated according to the ethnic styles of the republics.

The construction of the building was started in 1947, just after the end of WWII, symbolizing the birth of a new socialist futurist nation with it’s own symbols and landmarks.

The building was constructed in the mixed stripped down classicist (the main structure) and modernist (the glass domed great hall with front entrance) architectural styles. Common misconception about it being in socialist realism/Stalinist style is due to lack of such buildings in Belgrade in general. Due to Tito – Stalin split occurring before major new construction began in the city, the style, with the exception of Trade Unions Building, never took hold in Yugoslavia. While it is the most monumental building of the early socialist period, unfamiliar with Soviet construction of the time, yet familiar with the term used for it, come to this obviously erroneous conclusion.

Its H-shaped base covers an area of approximately 65,000 m², thus making it the largest building in Serbia by area covered. It has 744 offices, about 30 m² each, 13 conference rooms, six salons, three large halls and two garages. The highlight of the building is a huge luster (glass dome), believed to be the largest in the world. It has a diameter of 18 meters and weighs over 9 tons, and at night it shines with 4300 light bulbs.

This building  features departments for  federal ministries, administration, special commissions, federal agencies, and it was designed under the influence of large and powerful architectural-urban movements of architects Le Corbusier and Nervi and their doctrine, but as interpreted through the prism of soc-realism style.  It is a freestanding composition made of white stone, based on purified modern-neo classical architectural setting. Grounds of the palace is symmetrical with a central corpus and two side wings. In front of the middle wing is the lower part situated under the glass dome, and it represents the Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate 2000 guests.

The palace contains six lounges, practically and symbolically created for six republics of the former Yugoslavia, as well as about a thousand of offices.The facade is covered with white Brač marble, while the openings are edged with white metal. The palace was constructed in 1947. by architects Antona Urlih, Vladimira Potocnjak, Zlatko Najman and Dragica Perak. In 1961. another architect Mihailo Janković elaborated, amended, revised and implemented the entire project and the building.

 After the terrain was evenly covered with sand from the Sava and the Danube rivers in an effort to dry out the land and raise it above the reach of flooding , construction started in 1947 and went through 1954. The building was designed by an architectural team from Zagreb: Vladimir Potočnjak, Zlatko Neumann, Anton Urlich and Dragica Perak. Actually the building was only completed in 1961 by belgradian architect Mihailo Jankovic, for the occasion of the first Conference of Non-Aligned Heads of State or Government. When it was designed New Belgrade had the symbolic function of a new capital city of the new Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Its concept follows the plans for radical modernisation and urbanisation of the country. So the project asked for a monumental and representativ architecure (that shows political power!). The style is related to the modernist architecture (elimination of ornaments and unnecessary details, rejection of historical styles, and adoption of expressed structure) but the strong symmetry and monumental stucture remind the classical style. Even if it’s said that the SIV-Building represents the ultimate failure of the strategy of hegemony and centralisation, the overall impression has a captivating charme and surely doesn’t get unnoticed! (on the street and on the map!) The building has been preserved and is in the list of cultural properties of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade , is currently unused and officially not open to the public. Howewer it was (for the first time) re-opened for Belgrade Design Week in 2007 where the conferences took place in the biggest auditorium “The Jugoslavija Salon”. Here the reportage from cicciosax (burekeaters) a lucky guy who actually was there.

And here an old picture of the same saloon where at his golden time Tito met people like Jimmy Carter, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Margaret Thatcher and Nicolae Ceauşescu.