Mali Mokri Lug
Encyclopedia
Mali Mokri Lug is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade
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...

, the capital of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

. It is located in the south-eastern section of Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara
Zvezdara
Zvezdara is a hill, forest, urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...

. It marks the border with the municipality of Grocka
Grocka
Grocka is a suburban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...

. It mostly stretches between Bulevar kralja Aleksandra
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra
Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra , with length of 7,5 kilometers, is the longest street entirely within the urban limits of Belgrade, capital of Serbia...

 and the Highway Belgrade–Niš, but also north of the boulevard (Zeleno Brdo
Zeleno Brdo
Zeleno Brdo is the northern extension of Mali Mokri Lug, north of the Bulevar kralja Aleksandra. It extends into Mirijevo on the north and Cvetkova Pijaca and further into Zvezdara on the east. Located on top of the hill of the same name , it forms a local community of its own, with a population...

). It extends into the neighborhoods of Mirijevo
Mirijevo
Mirijevo is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara...

 on the nort, Konjarnik
Konjarnik
Konjarnik is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is divided between Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac and Zvezdara...

 on the west, Medaković III on the south-west, Veliki Mokri Lug
Veliki Mokri Lug
Veliki Mokri Lug is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zvezdara.- Location :...

 on the south and Kaluđerica (in Grocka municipality) on the east.

Geography

Mali Mokri Lug occupies the northern section of the Mokroluški potok
Mokroluški potok
The Mokroluški potok is a stream in north-central Serbia, which forms a 15 km-long former right tributary to the Sava river. During its entire concourse, it runs through the urban section of Belgrade...

 valley, which is today used as a route for the Belgrade-Niš highway and divides Mali Mokri Lug and Veliki Mokri Lug. The neighborhood occupies southern slopes of several hills (Bajdina, Zeleno Brdo, Stojčino Brdo with an altitude of 270 m (886 ft)), descending into the Mokroluški potok's valley, so the entire neighborhood is built downhill.

History and administration

Mali Mokri Lug used to be a separate village, outside Belgrade's urban zone. As Belgade developed, with construction of a large neighborhood od Konjarnik
Konjarnik
Konjarnik is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is divided between Belgrade's municipalities of Voždovac and Zvezdara...

 in 1960s and 1970s and Mali Mokri Lug's rapid development as a suburb, it became part of the city's urban tissue and lost separate status after 1971, becoming local community (mesna zajednica, sub-municipal administrative unit) within Belgrade city proper (uža teritorija grada). Mali Mokri Lug continued to grow and now makes the easternmost section of Belgrade's urban proper, developing further east along Bulevar kralja Aleksandra and Smederevski put, its continuation. With this growth, it now also makes continuous built-up area with formerly separate Veliki Mokri Lug (on highway, at "Lasta" garage, at a tripoint with Kaluđerica's sub-neighborhood of Klenak at the bridge over highway and with Kaluđerica directly along Smederevski put ).

Mali Mokri Lug had its own municipality in the 1950s. It was abolished on 1 January 1957 and merged into Zvezdara. It also comprised Kaluđerica, Leštane
Leštane
Leštane is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Grocka.- Location :Leštane is located 15 km east of Belgrade, originally further away from the major roads...

 and Vinča
Vinca
Vinca is a genus of six species in the family Apocynaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. The English name periwinkle is shared with the related genus Catharanthus .-Description:Vinca plants are subshrubs or herbaceous, and have slender trailing stems 1–2 m long...

 which were later detached and annexed to the municipality of Grocka.

From 1929 to 1944, Mali Mokri Lug hosted a Buddhist temple built by the Kalmyk
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...

 refugees who had fought the Red Army and have settled in Serbia, like many other White (Russian) refugees.

This was the oldest permanent Buddhist temple in Europe outside of the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 and British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 empires. Since most Kalmyks fled in fear of the advancing Red Army, Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...

's partisans requisitioned the building, damaged in the fighting for Liberation of Belgrade, turned it into a community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...

, but a few years later sold it to a machinery plant which pulled it down and built a concrete workshop in its stead.

Population

According to the 2002 census of population, Mali Mokri Lug had 22,024 inhabitants. It had a population of 1,600 in 1921 and 10,378 in 1971, before it was attached to Belgrade. Name can be translated into English as "little wet grove". Accordingly, neighboring Veliki Mokri Lug means "large wet grove". Name originates from numerous water sources, now mostly in the eastern section of Veliki Mokri Lug. Near highway, a graveyard for both neighborhoods is located (Mokroluško groblje). Area is residential, but a major commercial zone along Bulevar kralja Aleksandra developed, with many repair shops, stores, etc.
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