The second Western Balkans Digital Summit will be held at the Palace of Serbia, a cultural monument and a symbol of an era. Salons of this building will be redecorated especially for this event. Read below for more information about the premises.
The idea of building the Palace of Federal Executive Council of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY) coincides with the beginning of the formation of a new city on the left bank of the Sava River, which was supposed to take over the role of the capital of the new socialist republic. According to the terms of the competition announced in 1947, the palace was understood not only as architectural, but also as an urban example of future New Belgrade.
The history of Palace of the Federal Executive Council’s construction demonstrates the complexity of political, social, cultural and artistic circumstances in Yugoslavia in the period from 1947 until 1962.
The architectural design competition was officially announced on January 1st 1947. Its main feature was the fact that the competition was quite unusual compared to pre-war public competition announcements. All citizens of the FPRY, as well as all state design organizations, had the right to participate in open competition, regardless of their professional qualifications. The first prize for the final design was awarded to a design bureau from Zagreb with architect Vladimir Potočnjak as the head of the team and other members Zlatko Nojman, Anton Urlih and Dragica Perak.
The structure’s composition takes the form of the letter H. It consists of two concave wings connected by a central arc.
Two parks surround the palace with total surface area of 22 hectares. The parks are formal yet diverse with a vast array of flowers, bushes and trees of different species. The connection between the building and its natural environment has been achieved by placing the vegetation right around the building. In its time, this park used pioneering methods to sustain plants in infertile soil. It consisted of 3300 trees and 11000 bushes from each continent. The axis of the main park with low vegetation is a plateau with a central fountain. The fountain was based on similar designs in European capitals and the mechanism was custom made in German company “Siemens”.
