Overview

This landmark edited collection investigates parks as places of pivotal significance in the social, cultural, architectural and economic history of the Balkan capitals. Parks are not simply places of recreation and retreat: they are a palimpsest where memory and identity are contested, where monuments of historical events are treasured or torn down, a constantly evolving microcosm of the urban landscape. They shelter activists, dissidents and conspirators; inspire writers and painters; host cultural, sporting and political events; mitigate pollution and allow nature to intrude into urban life. Focusing on parks in Athens, Belgrade, Chişinău, Skopje, Sofia and Zagreb, the authors of this volume take an interdisciplinary approach to the function of parks in the Balkan capitals. Collectively they engage with a huge range of historical and ethnographic sources, including novels, diaries, statues, maps, plans and interviews. In this context, they also examine concepts such as ‘invisible spaces’, ‘urban fragments’, ‘place and non-place’, creating a complex picture of mainstream and alternative use over the centuries. The first study of its kind, Parks in the Balkan Capitals will be essential reading for all those interested in the social and cultural history of the great cities of southeastern Europe. It is a project initiated by the Balkan History Association.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alexandra Milanova ,  Ana-Maria Lepăr
Publisher:   Peter Lang Publishing Inc
Imprint:   Peter Lang Publishing Inc
Edition:   New edition
Volume:   21
Weight:   0.413kg
ISBN:  

9781636678214

ISBN 10:   1636678211
Pages:   210
Publication Date:   08 April 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments - List of Figures - Introduction - Part I Parks and city modernization - University Park in Belgrade: The Spatial Structure of (In)visible Memory. Milja Mladenović - Narrating the Hidden Center: Exploring the Everyday Naming of Belgrade’s Park Luke Ćelović and Rewriting of Non-place from the Margins, Simon Campbell. Marta Stojić Mitrović - Belgrade Parks in the Urban Landscape Transformation, Dragana Ćorović, Zlata Vuksanović-Macura, Nevena Vasiljević. Marija Milinković - Parks as Sites of Nation-building: A Case Study of Belgrade’s Tašmajdan. Madeline Stull - Episodes from the City Park in Skopje, Violeta Bakalchev, Sasha Tasic, Aleksandar Petanovski. Minas Bakalchev - Ştefan cel Mare şi Sfânt Public Garden—The Green Heart of Chişinău. Alina Ostapov - Part II Parks as place of conspiracies - The Parks of Sofia—Spaces for Occult Societies (1890s–1980s). Georgeta Nazarska - Part III Parks in literature - Literary Representations of the Park Zrinjevac in Croatian Interwar Prose (1918–1941). Patrycja Chajęcka - Part IV Uncommon parks—church courtyards as city parks - “Between Religious and Secular Life in Town”: Church Courtyards that Also Function as Parks: The Ethnographic Example of the Church of St. Antonios in the Municipality of Peristeri, Athens, Greece. Georgios Ch. Kouzas - Notes on Contributors

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Author Information

Alexandra Milanova, PhD, is assistant professor at the Institute of Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She is also a lecturer at Sofia University and Osaka University. She has been repeatedly awarded for her outstanding achievements in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences. Alexandra is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a councillor of Europeana Network Association, and the first and only representative of Bulgaria to date in the Global Youth Academy (GYA). Ana-Maria Lepăr, PhD, is a member of the Balkan History Association. In 2015, she completed her doctoral dissertation on the history of Bucharest in the 18th and 19th centuries at the Nicolae Iorga Institute of History at the Romanian Academy, Bucharest. Between 2013 and 2021, she was assistant lecturer in history at the Faculty of History, University of Bucharest. Her research focuses on the history of Bucharest in the modern period.

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