Stop, Access Prohibited. The Tower in all its height plummetted to one side. roundings. It lived 44 years. On the night of April 29th, 1999, the tower was demolished in the NATO bombing. The tower outlived its designer, Uglješa Bogunović, by only five years. When it was destroyed, Belgraders could no longer recognise Avala, recognise the southern road to the city, nor could they accept the city without its tower. Of the many buildings destroyed during the bombing, Avala Tower was probably the one that united Belgraders in a most dramatic way in their disbelief and pain. Therefore, it is no wonder that only a few years later, fund raising initiatives were started to repair the tower. Enthusiasts from the Avala Tower Fans Association were later joined by the Serbian Association of Journalists and Radio Television of Serbia (RTS). Promotional, organisational and even material support to this project was offered by many important public figures in Serbia, including poet Ljubivoje Ršumović, musicians Zdravko Čolić, Dejan Cukić, Dragoljub Đuričić, Bora Đorđević, Kristina Kovač, painters Olja Ivanjicki and Branko Miljuš, actors Miki Manojlović, Anica Dobra, Voja Brajović, Lordan Zafranović, Aljoša Vučković, Rada Đuričin and many others. The funds for building the tower were provided by the government of the Republic of Serbia thanks to great engagement and active participation of Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and Minister of Capital Investment Velimir Ilić, who is also president of the committee for building the Avala Tower. The project to reconstrcut Avala Tower was done by transportation institute CIP. Reconstruction
8
SPRING 2007 BelGuest
began in 2005 by cleaning the residue, heaps of iron and concrete, which was a huge job in itself. The work on construction, which started on December 21st, 2006, was entrusted to construction company Ratko Mitrović-Dedinje whereas the works will be supervised by transportation institute CIP. Under the design project, the visual identity of the previous tower has to be fully preserved. Today, it is not even necessary to make it identical for telecommunication purposes, but construction of the tower in its previous shape is for clear reasons. Had Eiffel Tower, God forbid, been destroyed, it would be certainly have been rebuilt according to old design plans. Of course, many technical and technological innovations will be applied, including more expensive concrete, which is due to higher construction standards today than those applied when the previous tower was built, which is completely understandable bearing in mind the time when it was built, more than 40 years ago.
TOP OF BELGRADE Here are some technicalities about the tower. The tower is composed from two parts. The reinforced concrete construction that is 136.65 metres high and the iron antenna mast 66.20 metres above it make for a total of 202.85 metres if you measure from the foothill which stands on +439 metres above sea level. You reach the entrance of the tower through an approach ramp, which is some 60 metres long. The reinforced concrete construction is made of a tripod, tree and gondolas in the tower’s body. The dimensions of the foundations (concrete
blocks) under each of the three legs are 6.00m x 7.30m x 2.00m. The body of the tower is enforced with a concrete construction in the shape of an equilateral triangle whose side (measured on the axis of the wall) is 7.00 metres. From 102.78 metres and above there were gondolas and platforms. Technical floors, a café-restaurant and a belvedere terrace are located in the gondolas, some 122 metres up from the foothill. Communication in the tower will take place exclusively by two elevators. Each of them is equipped with state-of-the-art commands and will take passengers from the initial to the last station in less than a minute. All materials planned to be implemented are noncombustible or are separated by noncombustible panels. If a potential fire occurs, it would be extinguished by a fog system, which was applied for the first time in Serbia when Belgrade Arena was being built. But don’t think about all this as there will be no fire. If you come to Belgrade in a few years’ time, you should certainly visit the Tower, have a coffee there and take a look at the city. Our editorial offices are on Strahinjića Bana Street, which is just to the right when you see the already mentioned statue of Victor at Kalemegdan. LUKA STANISAVLJEVIĆ The editorial offices of BelGuest would like to thank Aleksandra Naumović, civic engineer from transportation institute CIP, Dušan Ćertić and Svetlana Protić from the Avala Tower Fan Association, for their help in preparing this article.