Sava Center shines with its old glory

In the years before the corona virus epidemic, I often went to events organized in the Belgrade congress center - Sava Center.

Various concerts, festivals, fairs, New Year's celebrations, seminars were on the regular repertoire decades ago.

In addition, in the last decades of the 20th century, Sava Center (SC) housed some of the most exclusive foreign clothing stores, well-known and popular tourist agencies, as well as foreign representative offices.

The construction of this magnificent, and for the period when it was built, modern and one of the largest congress centers in this part of Europe, began in 1976 and lasted until 1979.
The reason for the accelerated construction was the meeting of the Conference on European Security and Cooperation (CESC), which was held in Belgrade in 1977. Today, this organization is known as the OSCE (OSCE).

The construction of the congress center had two phases.
The first, which was to be completed by the beginning of the KEBS meeting in June 1977, which included the construction of a large part of the congress halls.
And the second, the construction of a large hall (the famous Blue Hall) with over 4,000 seats, in which the annual assembly of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank was held immediately after the completion of construction.

And so for the decades that followed its construction, for the last 45 years, the convention center has been the center of events...

But time took its toll and the convention center lost its luster over the years.

I remember staying in SC until 2020: damaged windows of the green glass dome in front of the Blue Hall, worn carpets, outdated equipment, poor sound system, broken armchairs, outdated toilets, dirty walls.

This convention center was crying out for renovation...

I'm not going to go into the story of corruption and bribery, because the entire Sava Center was bought by a Serbian tycoon for a very small amount (but still at an auction, so let's say it's fair - they agreed and no other tycoon wanted to pay more), that's something that happens regularly in my city and country.

The topic of my post this Thursday, for #Throwbackthursday and #TBT will be remembering the history of a famous object and its new look today.

That tycoon, who bought SC in 2020, invested a lot of money (€120 million) in the reconstruction and the congress center was restored to its former glory.
Since September 2024, SC has continued hosting events and guests from various parts of the world.

I was at one such concert last weekend, for Women's Day (Sunday, March 8).
While I was waiting for the start of the concert in the lobby of the SC, I walked around the landscaped area, on the floor paved with granite or covered with thick soft carpet and listened to the murmur of water under the stairs that lead to the Blue Hall.

Today, a large green glass dome covers the area in front of the Blue Hall, where guests gather before a concert or seminar begins.
In the part of the ground floor, in addition to the large wardrobe and modern toilets, as a reminder of the past, several information boards have been placed, with the years and important events that took place in SC, as well as one board with information about the reconstruction.

The most interesting part for me was actually the one related to the technique of a convention center.

Spotlights, cameras, projectors, monitors, video mixers and the inevitable, congress microphones and headsets (which were on the heads of some of the most influential figures of the last century).

Considering that things used to be made to last, I'm quite sure that each of these elements works, the only thing is that they are all outdated, they have been overtaken by time (and also technology - although the lack of technological progress gives such old devices a special charm - there is no place for AI).

I pass the Sava Center almost every day, and this tower has always been like a beacon for me, when I wondered what part of the city I was in, and this green glass surface looks just as beautiful at night, when the lights give the whole building a new glow.

Now I know, I liked the "new" (reconstructed) Sava Center, so I will use every next opportunity to be a guest of the congress center or the Blue Hall again at one of the events that will be held there.