FEATURE
BELGRADE
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2012
WIZZ MAGAZINE
51
“
By exploring the tunnels and
what they were used for, we
get a picture of our city’s past”
tunnel network. “Those are ventilation
shafts,” says Markovic´, pointing to a
brick chimney. “There are tunnels right
under where we’re standing.” He opens
a set of wooden doors and leads us
down into a cellar. Dozens of white
spiders hang from the rafters and
metre-high oak barrels are aligned in
neat rows. The air down here is cool,
perfect for storing wine, which is why
Savamala was once popular with vintners.
A great many of the cellars are linked by
earthen passageways, few of which are
still in use. Markovic´ tells us that often
the people who now occupy the premises
have no idea where the tunnels leading
off from their cellars go. Meanwhile, as
part of the revitalisation of Savamala,
a wine trade of sorts is making a
comeback and, above ground once more,
our party stops for a glass of Serbian wine
in a newly opened courtyard bar.
High above the cellars of Savamala is
Belgrade Fortress, which has existed in one
form or another since 535AD. It sits on a
125
metre-high bluff surrounded by the
wooded Kalemegdan Park, and overlooking
the meeting of the Sava and the Danube
rivers. Predictably, the hill upon which
the citadel stands is riddled with buried
passageways, storage chambers and
strongholds. It’s surprising that the ground
doesn’t simply give way.
TOP:
THE HILLSIDE OF
BELGRADE FORTRESS IS
RIDDLED WITH TUNNELS
ABOVE:
A WINE CELLAR
IN SAVAMALA
“
Oh, that has happened,” says Markovic´,
as we make our way down into the
fortress’s former gunpowder store, now
a small underground museum filled with
a miscellany of Roman statues, pots and
tombstones. We venture on, to a Cold
War-era bunker of long, whitewashed
corridors and cramped sleeping quarters.
Alfred Hitchcock was a visitor to the
fortress in 1964 (he’d been invited to
Belgrade to speak at the university),
during which he asked to be shown
something scary. His guides took him to
the “Roman” well, actually dug in the
18
th Century and for a time used as a
prison. We pass through large metal doors
that are closed behind us and locked, and
peer down a large circular opening into the
void before tackling the grimy spiralling
THE BELGRADE FORTRESS
GUNPOWDER STORE
AND MUSEUM
THE COOL AIR IN THE
SAVAMALA TUNNELS IS
USEFUL FOR STORING WINE
DJORDJE BOSKOVIC / VLADAN MILISAVLJEVIC
