Dimitrije T. Leko
Encyclopedia
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
– September 24, 1914, Kragujevac
Kragujevac
Kragujevac is the fourth largest city in Serbia, the main city of the Šumadija region and the administrative centre of Šumadija District. It is situated on the banks of the Lepenica River...
, Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
) was a renowned Serbian architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and urbanist
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
. He has spent most of his life outside Serbia – he had finished high school in Winterthur
Winterthur
Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...
, before studying architecture at the universities in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. After getting back to Belgrade, at the end of the 19th century, he tried to implement the model of contemporary urbanism of Western Europe in Belgrade. He has projected some of the most important and technically perfected buildings in Belgrade of his time, such as Belgrade Meteorological Station
Belgrade Meteorological Station
Meteorology was first practiced in Serbia when meteorological data was gathered, monitored and recorded on a daily basis, in 1848, in Belgrade. Daily, meteorological forecasts started in 1892...
in 1891, The Vučo Family House on Slavija Square
Slavija (Belgrade)
Slavija Square , officially Dimitrije Tucović Square , is one of the central town squares and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...
in 1893 (the first McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
was opened in this house March 24, 1988), The New Military Academy in Nemanjina Street
Nemanjina Street
Nemanjina Street is a very important thoroughfare in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, in the Savski Venac municipality. After the completion of the construction of the Railway station in 1884, it became one of the city's main communicational links...
in 1899 (today's Belgrade City Museum), The Athens Palace on the Terazije Square
Terazije
Terazije is the central square and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad.- Location :...
in 1902, Đorđe Vučo's House Upon Sava River in the Karađorđeva Street in 1908, the school buildings in Makenzijeva Street and Gavrila Principa Street and many other structures and villas. He has also designed a graceful chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
that was built to enclose what was left of the infamous Skull Tower
Skull Tower
The Skull Tower is a monument to 19th century Serbian rebels. It is situated in Niš, on the old Constantinople Road leading to Sofia. The monument was built using the skulls of the Serbs killed by order of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II during the 1809 Battle of Čegar.-History:On May 31, 1809 on Čegar...
in Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
. Several of his works were financed by one of the wealthiest merchants in Belgrade at the end of the 19th century, Đorđe Vučo. Leko also got the first prizes on the open competitions for the regulation of Terazije Square
Terazije
Terazije is the central square and an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad.- Location :...
, Little Kalemegdan
Kalemegdan
Belgrade Fortress , represent old citadel and Kalemegdan Park on the confluence of the River Sava and Danube, in an urban area of modern Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad...
and the city of Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
. Yet, these projects were never fully realized.
Leko was also a very harsh critic of the urban development of Belgrade. He was often labeled as "too provocative" and "revolutionary" in his criticism of the urbanism in Belgrade, and some of the problems he was pointing at, such as the problem of the regulation of the Terazije Terrace and the Sava
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
banks, still remain unsolved.
Leko was a member of Belgrade's prestigious Leko family. His brother, Marko Leko
Marko Leko
Marko T. Leko was a notable Serbian scientist, chemist, professor and president of the Serbian Red Cross.Marko T. Leko was born in Belgrade, Serbia, on September the 17th, 1853 to a merchant family. He attended and graduated from Polytechnic school in Zurich and obtained his doctoral degree in 1875...
, was a renowned chemist
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
.
A street in the Belgrade suburb of Borča
Borca
Borča is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.-Location:...
bears Dimitrije T. Leko's name.