Gardoš

Gardoš (Гардош; Gárdos) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun. Located on the slopes of the hill of the same name, with its tower and preserved old architecture, Gardoš is the major historical landmark of Zemun. Remnants of the Gardoš Fortress, built in the 14th century and the 15th century, are the oldest surviving parts of Zemun. Gardoš is one of three hills on which the historical core of Zemun was built (other two are Ćukovac and Kalvarija). Gardoš rises on the right bank of the Danube and is the natural lookout to the area across the river (Crvenka section of the Pančevački Rit in the municipality of Palilula). Gardoš borders the neighborhoods of Gornji Grad on the northwest, Ćukovac and Muhar on the south and Donji Grad on the southeast. Gardoš, Ćukovac and Kalvarija hills are not natural features. Zemun loess plateau is the former southern shelf of the ancient, now dried, Pannonian Sea. Modern area of Zemun's Donji Grad was regularly flooded by the Danube and the water would carve canals through the loess. Citizens would then build pathways along those canals and so created the passages, carving the hills out of the plateau. After massive 1876 floods, local authorities began the construction of the stony levee along the Danube's bank. Levee, a kilometer long, was finished in 1889. Today it appears that Zemun is built on several hills, with passages between them turned into modern streets, but the hills are actually manmade. Due to its position above the river, it has been an excellent military lookout through history. The hilly appearance is enhanced by the centuries of fortification of the Gardoš, mostly using stone from Belgrade's side of the Sava river, which made Gardoš even higher. Loess terrain of Gardoš, Kalvarija, Ćukovac is one of the most active landslide areas in Belgrade. Being cut into for centuries, the loess in some sections have cliffs vertical up to 90%.