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ORDOTEMPLIINTERNETIS ago

Belgrade, Serbia has an abundance of religious architecture. The city has numerous Serbian Orthodox churches and temples and it is also the seat of the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Its two most prominent Orthodox Christian places of worship are the Saborna Crkva (the Cathedral Church) and the Temple of St. Sava, the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world.

Other notable Belgrade churches include St. Mark's Church, in which rests the body of the first Serbian Emperor, Stefan Dušan. The architecture of this church was greatly inspired by the Gračanica monastery in the province of Kosovo. The church of Sveta Ružica in the Kalemegdan Fortress is one of the holiest places in Belgrade for Serbian Orthodox Christians since this was the site where the body of St. Paraskeva was preserved for several years after the Ottoman conquest, before being taken to Romania where it still rests today. St. Paraskeva (Sv. Petka) is one of the most important saints to the Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Belgrade is the seat of a Catholic archdiocese, with a small Catholic community and several Catholic churches. One of these, St Anthony's, was designed by the noted Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik.

There is also a Muslim community in Belgrade and only one mosque, the Bajrakli Mosque built in 1526 by the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. It is one of the oldest surviving structures in contemporary Belgrade.

The Jewish community is served by the Belgrade Synagogue, which is the only currently active Jewish place of worship in the entire country, although not the only such structure within the city limits.

>>>>Belgrade also had an active Buddhist temple in the first half of the 20th century. It was built by East Russian expatriates fleeing the outcome of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

THE UNDERGROUND LABYRINTH OF BELGRADE

Belgrade is the city with a long history that was completely destroyed and built up again for the 44 times during many wars that have happened on its territory. There are many layers of history hidden in its grounds. There is actually a kind of underground city below the surface of Belgrade. One part of this underground city you can actually visit during your Belgrade tour, but there is a much bigger underground labyrinth of passages under the city streets.

In Belgrade there are many underground tunnels which were built in great secrecy. Such was their original purpose and, even now, when they have become less important or insignificant, they’ve remained as mysterious as they were in the times when they were built.

In Resavska Street, at number 38, there is still an unusually beautiful building, with a large bow that covers six evenly distributed entrances. This building was made before World War II, with the Naval Administration funds, and it was intended for habitation of the highest ranking officers of the time. The building is still exceptionally well preserved and it adorns the street with its exceptional architecture. Beneath it, but in accordance with the time when it was built, there are the underground corridors, which led to the present building of the Generalstab that was demolished during the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade.

Underground tunnels beneath this building were also leading to military facilities in the area and at the time they were built, they had a conspiratorial purpose. At that time there was no way for the immediate evacuation of important people by helicopters or similar transport, which would be efficient enough, as these secret underground corridors. After the World War second, the entrance to these underground passages was sealed with the wall. Today, it is just a basement space for the building tenants, and only the sealed part of the wall recalls the mysterious role it once had.