ZEMUN THEN AND NOW

Particularly convenient location by the river, elevated on the loess and protected against floods, attracted the prehistoric man who settled here. The traces of the oldest settlement in Zemun have been found on Gardoš, at the site of today's cemetery. This settlement dates back to the early Neolithic, to the time of its oldest culture in the Danube basin.

People, the culture bearers of that time, lived in sod houses – dugouts. On the basis of the remains of the material culture we can speak about the general level of the cultural development of that time, and it is possible to establish, with relative certainty, that the earliest inhabitants of Zemun founded their settlements between 4500-3000 BC. This cultural group was replaced by the cultures of the middle and late Neolithic. People belonging to this culture inhabited today's Gardoš. On the borderline of today's Orthodox and Catholic cemeteries in Zemun you can pretty clearly see the floors of their houses, burnt down in fire, cut in two. Around the year 2000 BC, in the territory of Srem this culture was replaced by the Baden Culture, which was among the first ones to use copper in the manufacture of weapons and tools. Gardoš in Zemun is the site of one of the largest and most enduring settlements of this culture in the territory of Srem. The next culture in this area was Vuchedol Culture. Zemun's Pregrevica was the site at which this culture took hold. The evidence to this are archeological finds on the bank of the Danube.

The earliest settlement at the site of today's Zemun about which it is possible to say something more is Celtic Taurunum. According to the data from the ancient sources this settlement was erected c. 85 BC. This settlement was situated at the site of today's Gardoš, including the cemetery and later on the mediaeval citadels. In a series of the wars of conquest waged by the Romans in order to enslave the tribes of the Illyrians and Celts, and after the crushing of the so-called Pannonian uprising in 12 AD, Taurunum was built up as a town of classical antiquity. It was the oldest Roman settlement on the plateau of Gardoš Hill. Taurunum got its final view and the greatest importance as a port town and the seat of the Roman Danube fleet. In the time of the late antiquity Taurunum was a fortified port and a trading town on the main road leading to the newly founded Constantinople. As such it represented a provocation to many conquerors, and in the early V century AD it was damaged and plundered by the Huns. In the late VIII century the territory of Srem was conquered by the Franks, and at the site of the ancient Taurunum there appeared Mallevila, which later on became the Slavic Zemlin, meaning the earthen town (the first half of IX century), which was associated to the Serbian settlers and to the reign of the Bulgarians who had driven the Franks out of the territory of Srem. In the XI and XII centuries the participants of the Second and Third Crusades passed through Zemun. In the same period, retreating from Belgrade, the Hungarians fortified the town of Zemun with the stones from the destroyed Belgrade Fort. Thirty years later, the Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus seized Zemun, had its walls knocked down and had stones built into the ramparts of the Belgrade Fort again.

Nine years later Zemun was seized and destroyed by the Eastern Romans. In the XVI century Zemun got a new enemy. It was plundered and burnt down by the Turks. In 1456 the Turkish army laid siege of Belgrade, and near Zemun the Christian fleet broke through the barrier consisting of the Turkish boats tied with one another with chains, running to the help of Belgrade in the most critical moment under the lead of Janos Hunyadi. After the victory over the Turks, because of the war troubles, Zemun was inflicted by the plague which took many inhabitants. Janos Hunyadi was one of the victims of that epidemic. Since Hunyadi lived in the mediaeval fort, the tower was called "Janko Sybinyanin's Tower". In 1522 the Turks invaded Belgrade and the Sultan ordered the Bey of Smederevo to capture Zemun. From then on Zemun was a part of the territory of the Srem Sanjak. Devastations and the winds of Austro-Turkish wars in the late XVII and early XVIII centuries ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. It was then that Austria finally got Zemun, holding it until the end of World War One, i.e. until the fall of its empire. With the arrival of the Austrian authorities the circumstances in Zemun greatly changed. The Moslem population went to the South never to return, and the Christian people who had fled before, now came back to their homes. Apart from the indigenous Serbs, to Zemun came German artisan families. Being included in Austria, Zemun and the surrounding villages became the possession of the Schönborns. In 1730 there was opened a very important Zemun institution (Kontumats), the main pass-through and sanitary station for goods, passengers and mail, and the secondary station for everyday trade. After the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), with which the border between Austria and Turkey was stabilized on the Danube and Sava, the importance of this area greatly increased. In 1746 the administration of the landed nobility was abolished, and all settlements of South-East Srem were included in the Military Border, and Zemun became a free military community with regulated administration (City Government). In 1789, when the Austrians won control of Belgrade from the Turks, there occurred a very curious thing. Once in its history Belgrade was "under Zemun", i.e. the Lord Mayor of Zemun was the administrator of Belgrade Town.

Since in the XVIII and XIX centuries Zemun was a station on the Vienna-Constantinople land trade route, it was a very important trading town. Unfortunately, in 1842 the closure of the famous Zemun Kontumats dealt a heavy blow to the economic growth of Zemun.

The town of Zemun was situated at the meeting point of the West anf East. This is why the inhabitants of Zemun spoke several languages. In 1871, after the reconstruction of the state under the name Austria-Hungary, Zemun became a free town with an elected Lord Mayor. A little later the Military Border was abolished, and Zemun became the centre of the education county seat.

In 1873 the town got the railway line which connected it with Europe, and later with the East via Belgrade. This meant the increase of trade and the revival of economy, which was reflected in the opening of workshops, first factories, steam mills, first banks, modern hotels, and the restoration of the building funds, setting streets in order, digging the first artesian wells (1892), and introducing electrical street lighting (1901).

On November 5 1918, at the very end of World War One, the Serbian Army entered Zemun, and the town became part of the newly formed State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.

Its connections with Belgrade grew more and more. In 1934 there was erected a bridge on the Sava and Zemun was administratively joined to Belgrade. It was part of Belgrade until 1941.

In March of 1941 the town residents condemned the treaty with the Axis Forces. It was the immediate cause for the invasion of Yugoslavia by Germany. On April 12 Zemun was occupied and the German authorities were installed, and very soon the authorities of the puppet Independent State of Croatia. In the same year the first forms of resistence appeared in the town, and in the middle of 1942 there started the armed actions of the members of the antifascist movement in the villages of South-East Srem. The struggle against the occupying forces went on permanently and human and material losses were enormous. Two days after the liberation of Belgrade, on October 22, 1944, the units of the People's Liberation Army and of the Red Army entered Zemun.

The country devastated by the war destruction was gradually rebuilt, and Zemun was growing into an important industrial centre, especially in the fields of agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. At the same time Zemun became an important centre of education and science. Today the youngsters in Zemun attend not only primary and secondary schools, but the Agricultural College, Medical Collegiate School, Mecahnical Collegiate School, and Police Collegiate School. Since 1945 Zemun has been one of the Belgrade municipalities.

Excerpts from "The Cultural History of Zemun"
secondary-school teacher Stevan Radovanović