City park in Zemun

Zemun is an antique town. It dates back to prehistoric era and ancient history. In the Roman times the settlement was called Taurunum and in the 21th century it was known as Zemlen. In the 15th century it was part of the Serbian Despotate of Djuradj Brankovic. In the period 1512 – 1717 it was under the Turkish Empire and after that under the Habsburg Empire until 1918, when it  became part of the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.
It had a status of a separate town until 1934, when it became one of Belgrade’ s municipalities.

The city park is part of a protected area of cultural and historic monuments called ” the Old City Core of Zemun ” and it is the oldest green oasis of Zemun citizens. It is bordered by the building of the Faculty of Agriculture and by the streets Vrtlarska, Savska and Nemanjina.
It was built in 1866, in the place of the 18th century quarantine station for travelers and goods that were crossing the border between Turkey and Austria.

At present the park contains a number of buildings: Sports Center Pinki ( built in 1974 ) , Zemun High School ( partly built in 1880 and partly between 1913 -1916 ) , Elementary School Majka Jugovic ( built in 1899 ) , Orthodox Chapel of St. Archangel Gabriel ( built in 1786, as part of the quarantine station ) and Roman – Catholic Chapel of St. Roch built in 1836.
The two chapels represent the only remains of the former quarantine station in Zemun.
Between the two chapels there is a monument dedicated to Alphonse de Lamartine, the French poet, erected in 1933 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his stay in the Zemun Quarantine. In front of the Orthodox Chapel there is a monument erected in 1933 to honor the friendship of Armenian and Serbian peoples. The monument was the work of Ruben Nalbadan, an Armenian sculptor.

The park also contains a number of sculptures and approximately 1, 300 deciduous and evergreen trees, of which 15 enjoy the status of a protected cultural treasure.

In the vicinity of the High School there is a small burial mound that contains the remains of a Roman sarcophagus, discovered in 1895 during the digging of the foundations of the Gardos Tower.

The park occupies 7.72 hectares.