Updated: Jun 5, The city of Belgrade has many wonderful public squares, each of which has its own special and unique history. Created from scratch in the center of Belgrade as Yugoslavia's socialist period began in , it was named after the two fathers of "scientific socialism", with city political leaders having grand ideas about the square operating as a hub for proletariat gathering. However, things did not go to plan. As the years went on, what was supposed to be the city's center of socialist thought and action operated during the s as a site of large-scale protest and unrest the kind of social action the city's authorities weren't so happy about and then morphed during the 70s into the city center's largest parking lot.
Being so close to the National Assembly Building , ambitions aimed towards creating a grand public square at this location. However, in the year just before the war, that street corner was occupied by a famous kafana called "Topola", as well as the District Court Building. As Josip Broz Tito the Communist Party of Yugoslavia came to power after the end of WWII in , the opportunity was firmly taken by the new Belgrade administration and its city planners to finally develop this intersection into a proper square.
Huge swaths of ruined buildings were subsequently demolished and cleared away in order to make room for the square, furthermore, significant earthworks were also required to level out the undulating terrain of this new space into a flat uninterrupted plateau.
The first motion made towards achieving this lofty goal was completing the centerpiece of the square, the " Dom Sindikata " or " Trade Union Hall " in English. To make way for this project, much room had to be cleared, particularly the former District Court Building, which housed the Gestapo's secret prison during WWII. As such, its demolition became quite symbolic. Also around the time of the beginning of this construction of both the Dom Sindikata and the square complex, the name of King Alexander Boulevard was changed to " Boulevard of the Red Army ".
In fact, the work force initially tasked with the construction of the Dom Sindikata was Soviet laborers. He designed the building style of Socialist Realism, with additional influences from early 20th century modernism, all displayed through the structure's stark unadorned facade.
