🌆 Underground Belgrade/ Roman Well
Two weeks ago while listening to my favorite Belgrade radio station Laguna, I listened to show where guest was one of the authors of book ''Belgrade Under Belgrade'', journalist and writer, and very interesting person Zoran Lj. Nikolic.
His stories and anecdotes from rich and colorful Belgrade history made me find his FB page, and book tour he was talking about also, that same Sunday.
Tour was made from visits of few interesting places located on Belgrade Fortes, also amazing places that I sincerely recommend to all of you to see if you ever visit Belgrade.
You can't miss this Fortress since it's in center of town where all tourist mainly go, and also everyone knows where it is :)
So, this exact tour he is leading is only guided on Serbian ( and I strongly recommend it to all of you living in Serbia. Tour costs 990 RSD or something like 8.5 Euro and it includes tickets for Roman Well, Military Bunker, Barutana and vine in wine cellar hidden in Karadjordjeva street in city walls called lagumi ), but if you search net you will find several tours also for foreigners with similar visit spots.
First spot we visited was place called ''Roman Well''. By historians say that from Roman it has only name :) since it is neither Roman nor a regular water well. It is located at area called "Gornji Grad", very close to Pobednik monument and the "King's Gate".
It's said that it existed as underground object during the Medieval period and apparently was a dungeon. Story says that during the 1456 Siege of Belgrade, 30 Hungarian conspirators died in it, after their plan to let the Turks into the fortress and surrender the city to them was discovered. They were meant to be payed by Turks , but were discovered and put into the pit. They were left there for days without food and after they began losing their minds, they were thrown knives to kill each other.
Moment we entered, guide told us to look after our cameras while taking shots of the well, he said, I won't go down to pick them..and when I climbed stairs to it, understood what he was saying :)
When Austrians occupied the northern Serbia in 1717,happened problem of providing water for the city within the fortress. Main sources were two large rivers, Danube and Sava, but since Belgrade was quite often under siege or a battleground, rivers were to far and not such practical water source.
So they stared looking for alternative.
During massive construction and reconstruction of Belgrade from 1717 to 1731 a present facility was dug and wooden mechanism was installed to lift the water up from the pit of 50 m (160 ft).
But as it said by our guide, while they were trying to dig and find water, all ground waters, that Belgrade is full with, started dropping into the well.
So, that's the reason why this is not regular well :)
On Austrian maps, it is named the Great Well, but when Serbian rebels liberated Belgrade from the Ottomans in the early 19th century they gradually named it the Roman Well as the common belief at the time was that all old buildings were Roman.
It was closed in 2007, reconstructed and reopened in 2014, but as of 2017 the upper section is open for visitors while the descent is forbidden for the safety reasons.
Each time I was passing by this place it was closed, so this was one of the reasons I decided to take a tour. And the other was guide, since this place is full with stories like urban legend of a hidden treasure. Allegedly in 1940 during the World War II gold from the National bank of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was hidden in the well. So it said that German occupation forces sent three divers to check the bottom, but all three disappeared.
There are many more interesting and also bloody tales about this place, like it's history was.
Personal feeling for this place I have now, is, that I like it a lot since I feel really good in all underground places. Love those dark and cold places radiating past and secrets.
Hope you will find this interesting and visit it sometimes.
Tomorrow I will try to make post about next spot of tour we visited, Military Bunker that was kept as a secret until 2008.
See you soon, and look up for Belgrade in travel maps, you would't be disappointed :)
Изузетно занимљива прича и добре фотографије, @jungwatercolor.
Hvala @lighteye, uzivala sam ..Predivna setnja od 3 i po sata, a vodic bajka od coveka :)
Sutra ako stignem nastavak :)
These sort of places are always fun to visit. I love to see crypts and I love the catacombs such as under the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.
Me too, there is something so calming for me in this places, despite people usually feel it like dark places @donnadavisart.
Obozavam da ga slusam @jungwatercolor, ali mi je nikada nije palo na pamet do sada da uplatim turu. Divna prica iz divnog grada. Eto ideje da iznenadim dragog mi coveka, kada budemo mogli da ukrademo malo vremena samo za nas dvoje, taman sledece godine za njegov rodjendan. :)
Ej obavezno idi, tura je prelepa a on je caroban nacisto :) Mi cekamo da otvore i Tasmajdenski bunker pa da idemo. Imas njegovu stranicu na Fb pa nadji telefon jer su mnogi poceli na racun njega da prave ture a ne kazu da ih on ne vodi. Nama se umalo desilo da odemo sa prevarantima :(
Hvala ti na informaciji više. E, srpska posla! Ovo me je baš zainteresovalo! :)
Oooo, omiljeni Kališ...lepo je podsetiti se tvrđave na jedan izuzetno nov način. Odličan post!
Uz put snimak iz prošlog Petka je na mom blogu, nisam htela da ti spamujem ovde, te u koliko te zanima kako smo te promovisali, svrati - biće nam drago.
Puno pozdrava!
Hocu, hocu, hvala jos jednom, vidim da je bilo divno po kolicini ljudi koji su mi ostavili komentare @ravijojla :)
Da, uz nekakvog broja ozbiljnih stvari mi se poprilično zezamo, ali su ljudi bili istininski oduševljeni s radovima kojim smo im predočili. Nadam se da je ovo dobar početak kako je naš talk šou samo jedan od načina podržavati autori do uspeha. Meni je pogotovo bilo veliko zadovoljstvo!
Drago mi je što sam naišla na ovaj tekst. Obožavam istoriju i arhitekturu. Nadam se ovakvom iskustvu pri sledećem odlasku u Beograd. :) ☆
Ako budes u prilici ikako nemoj propustiti, imala sam osecaj kao da se ne nalazim u gradu u kojem zivim vec 25 godina :)