Kalvarija, Zemun

Kalvarija, also known as Marija Bursać (Serbian Cyrillic: Калварија or Марија Бурсаћ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun.

Location

Kalvarija is located southwest of downtown Zemun. It borders the neighborhoods of Sava Kovačević on the north, Železnička Kolonija on the west, the northernmost extension of Bežanijska Kosa on the south and Tošin Bunar on the east and southeast.

Characteristics

Kalvarija is one of three hills on which the old town of Zemun developed. The other two are Ćukovac, into which Kalvarija extends in the northeast, and Gardoš, on the right bank of the Danube.

The neighborhood was officially called Marija Bursać, after a Yugoslav Partisan war hero. It is also name of the central street in the neighborhood and name of the local community (mesna zajednica), municipal sub-administrative unit which covers Kalvarija, with a population of 11,002 in 2002 census of population. Surrounding neighborhoods are also named in memory of Partisans, like the commander Sava Kovačević, or battles, like the Battle of Sutjeska (Sutjeska).

Zemun

Zemun (Serbian Cyrillic: Земун, pronounced [zěmuːn]) is a historical town and one of the 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Before 1934, it was a town separate from Belgrade. The development of New Belgrade in the late 20th century, joined them together in a continuous urban area.

Name

In ancient times, the Celtic and Roman settlement was known as Taurunum. The Frankish chroniclers of the Crusades mentioned it as Mallevila, a toponym from the 9th century. This was also a period when a Slavic name Zemln was recorded for the first time. Believed to be derived from the word zemlja, meaning earth, it was a basis for all other future names of the city: modern Serbian Земун (Cyrillic) or Zemun (Latin), Hungarian Zimony and German Semlin.

History