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Every time I write about Zemun, I am torn between two contradictory feelings: on the one hand I think that nothing could be easier than writing about the town I love, and on the other, I feel that nothing could be more difficult. The love I feel presents a singular obstacle and hinders my writing. It is irrelevant whether I am writing a story or an essay, whether I relate the imagined happenings of Zemun in fiction or attempt to describe a real town in moments when I am there once again after a longer or shorter absence. For a long time I couldn't understand that duality nor why it drew me into its net, but now I am inclined to believe that contradiction, in its own way, defines and explains Zemun.
| In contrast to other parts of Belgrade, Zemun has preserved its city streets and is a city within a city. All other sections of Belgrade mostly look like fragments of a larger urban whole, or at least like suburbs, the satellite settlements that circle the city core. Zemun, though joined to Belgrade long ago, has preserved its wholeness and has never ceased being a city on its own, with its own center, Main Street and outskirts. Even the unsuccessful attempt to visually merge Zemun and New Belgrade by constructing a series of new residential high rises couldn't annihilate it. The typical medieval organisation of a city from the Austro-Hungarian empire proved to be more resistant than the contemporary model of city planning, as is seen in New Belgrade, between Belgrade and Zemun. |
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Hence, going from Zemun to Belgrade has always been for me a journey, though a contradictory one. Despite the feeling that I am travelling from city to city, as it has been traveled for centuries, I actually travel through the same city. True, there is no longer a border, customs control nor quarantine, but in crossing the river the feeling of travel is still there.
Naturally, Zemun feels quite comfortable under the wing of Belgrade because these two cities have almost always suffered the whims of historic events together. They stood opposite each other for centuries, but were nevertheless tied together by visible and invisible threads, similar to twins who no one at first glance assumes are related. Though they stood for ages at the borders of two different empires, at the boundary between the East and West where some say the Balkans meet Europe, they have always looked like unhappy lovers who could not be together for long. No wonder that the most beautiful view of Zemun — apart from the view from the Danube — is from Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade, and likewise the most magnificent view of Belgrade opens from Gardoš.
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From Gardoš one also has the broadest panorama of Zemun, and the view of the old city centre nearly has a therapeutic quality. A visit to Gardoš and the view of Zemun's roofs and the church bell-towers has many times helped find serenity of soul. Though not very high, even that small elevation above the hustle and bustle of the city offers a precious feeling of freedom without restraints, and helps one regain peace. The same effect, at least to me, can be had in Zemun City Park, which is imbued with a deep sense of harmony between nature and man, and which looks much larger than it actually is.
The delights of strolling through Zemun do not end there, as many streets and city sections offer relief from life's everyday pressures. One such street is Dubrovačka, which is always waiting to be discovered anew by well-intentioned passersby.
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Dubrovačka Street, beginning with the "sun dial building" to the synagogue at its end, is a reminder of the three-hundred-year long presence of the Jewish community in Zemun. The rabbi renowned as one of the first Jews to bring up the idea of returning to Palestine, Jehuda Haj Alkalajm, lived in Zemun. This history- changing idea was later promoted by Teodor Hercl, whose family also came from Zemun, as so it may be said that Zemun is closely linked to Zionism, the movement whose goal was the foundation of the state of Israel. |
Zmaj Jovina Street is also fine for strolling. It begins between the bank building and Madlenianum, as if to signal a certain monumentality, but Zmaj Jovina is actually a street with small shops, surviving craftsmen and those fine Zemun gates.
Its side streets allow one to reach Gardoš quickly, while Gospodska Street leads the patient stroller to the Old Captaincy, the quay and the Danube. Of course, strolling along the old part of the quay is the genuine, essential experience of living in Zemun, and if I could choose what to dream every night, I would stay there in my dreams, gazing at the Danube.
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In contrast to the quay, I wouldn't like to dream of Zemun's Main Street. Not that it lacks special qualities - on the contrary. Some of the most beautiful and significant Zemun buildings are located there - like the house of Spirta, the post office or the house of Ivan Muhar - but it is unfortunately clogged with cars and buses whose number grows daily. Main Street has undergone numerous urban planning interventions but it has nevertheless managed to refashion new objects to the recognizable spirit of Zemun's city space. If only it could be free of traffic, Main Street would quickly become an attractive promenade. |
After all, several decades ago it really belonged to strollers in the evening hours. They used to walk for hours on end, first on one and then on the other side of the street between then cinemas "Central" and "Sloboda".
| The promenade no longer exists, but memories and dreams linger. When one is far from one's home city, it gains special value. None of my dreams about Zemun has turned into a nightmare; on the contrary, after such dreams I wake up ready to write about real and imagined events at home. Zemun has become a mythic place in my life and my prose, and every opportunity to be in there, if only in the world of dreams, is an opportunity to renew myself in Zemun and, of course, Zemun in myself. |
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Unfortunately words — however skillful one is with them — are not always enough to describe the beauty of a sight or the depth of an insight. However, there are photographs that can do this much better and there is a long tradition of photographers in Zemun, among them Aleksandar Dragutinović whose photographs record my dreams in an almost magic way; indeed those things which, using old-fashioned means, show the soul of Zemun — his, mine, our worlds
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