Neimar

The settlement was originally named Kotež Neimar.^[1] Kotež is a Serbian rendering of the French cottage, a suburban settlement of individual residential houses.^[2] Neimar was the name of the construction society on whose land the neighborhood was built.^[3] The word itself, neimar, means a builder or mason, and entered Serbian language via Turkish from the Arabic mi'mar.

Neimar is located 2 km (1.2 mi) south-east of downtown Belgrade, in the south-western corner of the municipality. It occupies the south-eastern slope of the Vračar hill, which descends to the former valleys of the creeks of Mokroluški potok (now a highway) and Čuburski potok (now a South Boulevard). It borders the neighborhoods of Vračar on the north, Čubura on the north-east (sub-neighborhood of Gradić Pejton) and east, Autokomanda on the south while on the west it leans on the Karađorđev Park.^[4][5]

Uninhabited slope from Čubura to the Čuburski potok valley (modern South Boulevard) was included into the city's construction plans in 1906. At that time, it was occupied by the fields, orchards and vineyards, mostly belonging to the merchant Panta Tadić. First regulatory plan, which included proposed streets layout, is from 1907 and the land was parceled in 1908. It envisioned an irregular street plan, two squares and a park in the south-east part. Construction company "Neimar" was founded in 1919 and in 1920 they purchased the land from Tadić. Original plans for the neighborhood were made in 1921 by the Viennese architects Emil Hoppe, Otto Schönthal and Marcel Kammerer [de], all pupils of Otto Wagner. After several disagreements with the city administration, the plan was finally approved on 12 June 1924.^[1]

The area set for urbanization covered 24 ha (59 acres). The plan envisioned that the settlement will have only family villas. The villas were organized around the 8 small squares. The grid laid by the architects is the one still existing today. However, despite the massive illegal building throughout the city after the war, it took 3 years for "Neimar" to obtain the building permit. City asked architect Đorđe Kovaljevski, who was drafting the general plan for entire Belgrade, for his opinion on the plan, and he approved it, even commended it, though he suggested few minor corrections. Still, city rejected the project, saying the general plan wasn't finished. In order to speed up the construction, the company took on itself to construct fences around the blocks, waterworks, sewage system and sidewalks, which was city's obligation, and in the end took city administration to the court. Aware that they are not fulfilling their part of the contract, city acknowledged the plan in 1922.^[3][6]

Though the buyers could use the architects by their own choice, they had to follow the rules set by the original plan of the neighborhood. They could also contract the "Neimar" company, in which case they had a discount. The owners hired most eminent Serbian architects for their villas, including Branko Tanazević, Dragomir Tadić [sr], Milan Zloković, Milutin Borisavljević [sr]] and Momir Korunović. As it consisted solely of villas with yards, it took some time for Neimar to fully develop, but by the outbreak of World War II it was deemed one of the most beautiful neighborhoods of Belgrade. It had a direct public transportation bus line to downtown, Knežev spomenik-Neimar.^[3][6]

The inspiration for the design of the neighborhood came from the complex built in 1912 along the Daviel Street [fr] in Paris. It consisted of 40 one-floor houses with gardens, indented from the main street. As walkways became larger this way, lawns along the streets were introduced into the urban architecture. This style became very popular across the Europe. A whole string of new neighborhoods like this encircled eastern outskirts of Belgrade, including Neimar, with names usually containing "suburb" and some member of the royal family. These original names either never became popular or were suppressed after World War II and replaced.^[7]

Neimar is entirely a residential area. The neighborhood is bounded by some of the most important streets for city's transportation, like the Boulevard of the Liberation (west), South Boulevard and the highway (including the Autokomanda interchange, both south) but itself represents a web of short, narrow streets. Until the 1990s the neighborhood managed to preserve its old architecture (mostly short buildings and family houses with yards), but since then several blocks of modern complexes with higher buildings have been constructed.

There is an elementary school "Svetozar Marković" in the neighborhood. Founded in 1950 as the "10th Eight-grade School", it was renamed in 1951. The school had no permanent building until the present edifice was built specifically for this purpose, and opened on 20 October 1954.^[8]

A fragmented section of the Mačvanska Street was renamed Mome Kapora Street, in honor of author, painter and Belgrade chronicler Momo Kapor. A small square which connects two parts of the former street, and the third, Tamnavska Street, was adapted into the Plateau of Momo Kapor. The granite-cobbled square was opened on 28. December 2016, and serves as an outdoor cultural stage.^[9][10]

In the central area of the neighborhood there is a park. Formerly known as Neimar Park, it is today officially named Park of Jelena Šantić. It covers 0.59 hectares (1.5 acres).^[11]

In 2019, Branislav Mitrović, architect and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, said that "caricatural architecture, inept compilations and stylish nonsenses" turned once respectable residential neighborhood of Neimar, so as Senjak and Dedinje, into chaos.^[12]

At some point, the neighborhood was placed under the preliminary legal protection. This protection expired in December 2020, and the vacuum in the protection was used by some investors who rushed to purchase lots with villas and obtain building permits. Citizens' groups pushed for the full protection of the entire Neimar slope of the Vračar hill, under the name of Kotež Neimar. In April 2021 it was announced that, by June, city's Institute for the Cultural Monuments Protection will decide whether Neimar will be proclaimed a cultural monument.^[13][14] This didn't happen, and demolition of old villas continued, either without permits with inspections halting works when demolition is already finished, speedy demolishing them in only couple of hours, or even tearing down houses which are in the process of protection evaluation.^[15][16]

When Belgrade was administratively divided into the municipalities in 1952, Neimar became one of the city's municipalities, with the population of 28,885 by the 1953 census.^[17] On 1 January 1957 it merged with the municipality of Istočni Vračar and part of the municipality of Terazije to create the modern municipality of Vračar. Later, Neimar was organized as a local community (mesna zajednica), a sub-municipal unit within Vračar.

The local community of Neimar existed until the late 2000s, when the municipality of Vračar abolished local communities. In the 1990s, adjoining local community of France Rozman was annexed to Neimar. Population of Neimar in that period was 8,205 (14,493 with France Rozman) in 1981,^[18] 7,186 (12,800) in 1991^[19] and 12,058 in 2002.^[20]