Bežanija

Bežanija (Бежанија, bɛʒǎnija) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd, in the Syrmia region. Bežanija is located west of the downtown Belgrade, across the Sava river, in the Syrmia region. It is situated in the central part of the Novi Beograd municipality, on the southern extension of the elongated, crescent-shaped yellow loess ridge of Bežanijska kosa. The ridge (or slope, as it is called in Serbian, kosa) gives its name to the northern extension of Bežanija, Bežanijska Kosa, and stretches to the right banks of the Danube in the neighborhood of Zemun. Once a suburb of Belgrade, separated from it by the vast marshlands on the Sava's left bank, Bežanija today forms one completely urbanized area with Belgrade thanks to the rapid development of Novi Beograd after World War II. Today, Bežanija extends to the northeast into Bežanijska Kosa and the west into Ledine. After the World War II ended, Belgrade was divided into raions and Bežanija was part of the Raion X. When this division was abolished in 1952, Bežanija became a municipality. In 1955 it was annexed to the municipality of New Belgrade, but remained as the separate settlement until 1971, when it became a local community (Serbian: mesna zajednica) within Belgrade. In the 1990s, local community was administratively divided into Bežanija and Bežanijska Kosa. Bežanija experienced a rapid growth of population after 1948 as it was almost immediately attached to the newly constructed city-within-the city of Novi Beograd. As internal communal boundaries changed a lot since the 1970s, despite further expansion, censuses showed a reduced number of population as many border areas (entirely or partially) were detached from Bežanija (Bežanijska Kosa, blocks 61-65, etc.). Historical population of Bežanija (1921-61 as the separate settlement, 1971-81 as a local community, 2002-11 as local communities of Bežanija and Bežanijska kosa): 1921 - 2,069 1953 - 3,330 1961 - 7,129 1971 - 15,580 1981 - 14,067 2002 - 32,416 2011 - 38,204 Bežanija is the oldest part of today's Novi Beograd, where a settlement existed from the neolithic to the Roman period.