Dorćol (; ) is an affluent urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad.
Located along the right bank of the Danube, Dorćol is the oldest surviving neighborhood in Belgrade. It is known for its specific urban charm and the mentality of its residents. The neighborhood has experienced artistic revival since the 2000s concurrently with the Savamala neighborhood on the opposite, Sava, bank. After being featured in numerous reports, including by the BBC and The Guardian, Time Out magazine placed Dorćol on their list of "50 coolest neighborhoods". It has been described as a Belgrade "phenomenon", an "exciting, creative and inventive spot", and the "authentic, organic soul of the city".
A section of Upper Dorćol was declared a spatial cultural-historical unit in 1989, and placed under protection as the "Area surrounding Dositej's Lyceum".
Location
Dorćol begins already some 700 meters north of Terazije, the central square of Belgrade. It can roughlyn be divided into two sections, Gornji (or Upper) Dorćol (formerly known as Zerek), which covers the area from Academy Park to Cara Dušana street, and Donji (or Lower) Dorćol, formerly called Jalija, which occupies the area between Cara Dušana, Bulevar despota Stefana and the right bank of the Danube. It borders (and largely overlaps) the neighborhoods of Stari Grad and Jevremovac (east and south) and the fortress of Kalemegdan (west). The population of the neighborhood in the widest sense was 22,707 in 2002.
History
Roman period
The predecessor to Belgrade was Singidunum, a Celtic and, later, Roman fortified town. The original earthen and wooden fort stretched around Studentski Trg and Knez Mihailova Street. The oldest Roman graves were discovered in this section, dated to the 1st and early 2nd centuries. During the period of the Roman Empire, the Danube was much wider and modern Lower Dorćol didn't exist. Upper Dorćol was included in the city. The civilian zone spread from Kralja Petra Street, over both the Sava and Danube banks to Kosančićev Venac, extending in a series of necropolises from Republic Square, along the Bulevar kralja Aleksandra all the way to the Mali Mokri Lug. The highest, ending section of Upper Dorćol was part of the central axis of the city grid in the direction of modern Uzun Mirkova-Vasina-Republic Square. The necropolis at Republic Square contained well-shaped graves from the 1st century AD. In general, the largest section of the civilian settlement was situated between modern Simina Street in Dorćol, Brankova Street in Savamala and Zeleni Venac, and Republic Square.
On the crossroads of Gospodar Jevremova and Kneginje Ljubice streets, a house of worship dedicated to the Greek goddess Hecate, a sort of "descent of Hades", was discovered in 1935. As foundations for a new building were being dug, a long architrave beam, with an inscription in Latin dedicated to Hecate, was discovered at the depth of . The inscription was written by Valerius Crescentio, a legionary of the Legio IV Flavia Felix, in the service of the emperor Maximinus Thrax. It is roughly dated to c. 235 AD. It disappeared after it was discovered but was found decades later and handed over to the National Museum in Belgrade. It is a rare finding of Hecate in Serbia. Her cult wasn't developed in this area, and she was mostly identified with the Roman goddess Diana, worshiped in the region as the protector of silver mines. The entire surrounding slope around the Gospodar Jevremova was a necropolis, so the temple was probably part of it since Hecate's temples were usually built on cemeteries. The beam ends in a step-like manner, so the temple was probably built in the Ionic order rather than the Tuscan order, which would be expected in Singidunum. Impressions of anta capital and their size on the lower side of the beam point to the existence of two columns and probably a rectangular gable above it. There is a possibility that due to the terrain, the temple was actually dug into the slope.