How Belgrade's central Terazije Square got its name: Fountain near "Moscow" symbolized life - waterworks hub

Terazije fountain, and Hotel Moskva; Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

The city now known as Belgrade (Serbian: Beograd) has had its waterworks system for 2,000 years. The system, that guarantees life, is historically inextricably linked to one of its parts - Terazije Square!

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And this is how this part of Belgrade got its present-day name - albeit officially, only in the 20th century.

About a hundred years ago, water towers built by the Ottoman Turks, who in teh past occupied Serbia's medieval state,, were called, "terazije". They no longer exist, and the word has since acquired a different meaning in Serbian. Terazije now means, balance scales.

In the past, such "scales" were used to regulate water pressure in the pipes and were located between what are today hotels Moskva (Serbian for "Moscow") and Balkan.

Over the millennia, water was supplied to Belgrade through three systems. Water from Mali Mokri Lug was delivered to the heart of Singidunum (original Celtic name of what is today Belgrade) through the old Roman waterworks, which date back to the first century AD.

The Turk occupiers of what in the meantime became a Serbian state built "the Bulbud waterworks" in the first half of the 17th century. During the Austrian occupation of Belgrade in the 18th century, another system was in use. And for the rest of the time they were still here, the Ottomans combined all three systems into one, with Terazije as the hub!

Thus this part of the city became the heart of the system. There was also a public fountain, which many citizens who did not have water pipes in their homes used to fetch water from.

Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

Even today, one of the most important memorials in the capital is located at that very place - the Terazijska Cesma ("Terazije Fountain"), carved out of Tasmajdan limestone. It bears the initials of Knjaz (or Knez, meaning, "Prince") Milos Obrenovic. This Serbian ruler built the fountain as a memorial in 1860, in honor of his return to the throne.

This fountain was removed in 1912 and until was kept out of sight in Topcider. It was brought back to to its rightful place - the former hub of the Belgrade water supply system - in 1975.

How important this site is, is evident by the historical fact that after the construction of the new, modernized Belgrade waterworks in 1892, the ceremony to launch it was held precisely on Terazije Square.

(Telegraf.rs)