88 | spective. The city attracted people from di erent parts of the country and abroad, mostly representing the impoverishedworld. Residential conditions for Belgraders di ered greatly. Therewere residential palaces that dominated the city centre, villas in newly formed cottages and colonies, as well as more modest buildings and family houses. Themost numerous were small houses and poor, unhealthy apartments for rent scattered all over the city. The beauti cation and construction of the city, particularly its centre, were among the priorities of the city authorities. An international urbancontestwas conducted and aGeneral Plan for 1923-1924was developed.The construction of thewater supply and sewage networks continued, while public lighting and transport, regular streets, landscapedparks andcity squareswere introduced. Constructedthenwerepublic buildings,ministries, banks, insurance companies, department stores, hotels, hospitals and schools. Two bridges were erected, one over the Sava, the other over the Danube. Although the Belgrade of the interwar years has been described as one of the liveliest urban centres in this part of Europe, the fact is that it was lled with numerous contrasts and opposites. Belgrade was devastated several times during World War II. Among the damaged structures were public and residential buildings, urban infrastructure developments and industrial enterprises. It was in 1947 that the National Committee of the City of Belgrade, then a new body of the city authorities, adopted the Five-Year Development Plan of Belgrade, withwhich the development of Belgrade was directed towards it being the country’s capital city and its political, economic, cultural and administrative centre. It was necessary to develop the economy, improve the scant and unhygienic housing fund, as well as the network of health centres and social institutions, but also to increase the number of institutions of culture and education. As early as 1950, the General Urban Planwas adopted, with the construction and expansion of the city then continuing in accordance with it. Over the following two decades, numerous areas of the city were arranged, completelynewsettlementswere constructedandbuildings and complexes were erected that today represent symbols of Belgrade. An important element in the development of the city was the formation of New Belgrade, which was conceived as the administrative and political centre of the socialist Yugoslavia, and thus represented amajor undertaking in every sense. Upon becoming the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, it was during the interwar period that Belgrade underwent the urban transformation and modernisation that has largely de ned its identity. Many architects, employed both in state institutions and the private sector, gave their own contributions to the construction of Belgrade. Many of them have been written about to date by historiographers in an array of works and monographs. However, very little is known about a certain number of builders who contributed in di erent ways to the construction of Belgrade. Their lives and architectural creativity have not been the subject of more extensive research to date. Many of them remained completely unknown until recently. This presentation is thus dedicated speci cally to some of the unjustly forgotten protagonists of the architectural scene of the interwar period, such as Franjo Urban, Katarina Marković-Šajinović and Alfred Melamed, but also others who in- uenced the architectural development of Belgrade in their own way. Novi Beograd gledan sa Kalemegdana, Fotografija Branka Turina iz 1965. New Belgrade as viewed from Kalemegdan, photography by Branko Turin from 1965 Izgradnja Pančevačkog mosta, oko 1933. Construction of Pančevo Bridge, circa 1933
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