The biggest and most interesting park in Belgrade is definitely the Kalemegdan Park. The work on it started in 1869 and it has developed to a very popular place for people in Belgrade. It is so large and interesting that it would take forever to see every aspect of it. When you approach from the city you will probably enter it at the intersection Pariska and Kneza Mihaila, where there is also a tram station called 'Stanica Kalemegdan' (Kalemegdan Station) and the coordinates of this waymark. Inside the park you will find several monuments like for example the Monument of Gratitude to France, the Belgrade Zoo, the mausoleum of Damat Ali Pascha and much more.
Wikipedia says:
"Kalemegdan Park or simply Kalemegdan, is the largest park and the most important historical monument in Belgrade. It is located on a 125-metre-high (410 ft) cliff, at the junction of the River Sava and the Danube. Its name is formed from the two Turkish words: Kale (meaning 'fortress') and archaic word of Turkish origin megdan (meaning 'battlefield').
Kalemegdan Park, split in two as the Great and Little Parks, was developed in the area that once was the town field. It provides places of rest and entertainment. Belgrade Fortress and Kalemegdan Park together represent a cultural monument of exceptional importance (from 1979), the area where various sport, cultural and arts events take place, for all generations of Belgraders and numerous visitors of the city.
History
The first works on arranging the town field Kalemegdan started in 1869 after the Turks completely withdrew from Belgrade and Serbia in 1867. Though not the oldest park in Belgrade, it is the one which is being continually groomed and attended the longest. The area of the town field was sort of a buffer zone between the fortress and the settlement outside of the Laudon trench, which separated the Turkish and the Serbian sections of Belgrade. The idea of turning the area into the park came from Belgrade's first trained urbanist, Emilijan Josimovic, who in 1869 basically constructed modern Knez Mihailova Street. Prior to that, only a short part of what is today Knez Mihailova, called 'Delijska street', actually existed as a street. Josimovic successfully transformed the existing incomplete trail into the proper street which directly connected downtown Belgrade with the fortress, thus establishing a direct communication between the inner and outer neighborhoods. Josimovic then proposed that Kalemegdan, as now Knez Mihailova ended at it, should be transformed into 'gorgeous park', as he considered parks in general 'air reservoirs'. Later, architect Aleksandar Bugarski who was also a landscape architect continued to improve on the work of Josimovic.
King Milan ordered the levelling of the terrain in the eastern sections of the fortress and planting of the greenery and trees, which in time developed into the Kalemegdan Park. He was inspired by the parks he saw in France. First phase of the forestation lasted until 1875 and included planting of the trees beneath the fortress' ramparts and in the Upper Town. The arranging of the main Sava alley, above the river, began in 1886. Most extensive works in the park were done from 1890. During March 1891, the pathways were cut through, and trees were planted; in 1903 the Small Staircase was built, based on the project of Jelisaveta Nacic, the first woman architect in Serbia, while the Big Staircase, designed by architect Aleksandar Krstic, was built in 1928.
Area at the top of the Little Kalemegdan, which is occupied by the Cvijeta Zuzoric Art Pavilion today, was an open fairground for a long time. The very first recorded circus in Belgrade settled here in 1845. Sources from the period claim this was the first time the Belgraders saw an elephant. In 1869, a Tunisian circus with 18 acts, performed at Kalemegdan.[9] Later, the fairground became permanent. Tents were placed, with numerous attractions: panoptikum or collections of curios, okular ("funny" ocular lenses), magicians, fortune tellers, illusionists, etc. Ilija Božic performed here the very first Serbian puppet show, Kuku, Todore. In the mid-1920s the fair was displaced to Voždovac, an eastern suburb at the time, due to the impending construction of the art pavilion. As the new location was too distant for most of the Belgraders, the fair was soon disbanded.
The park was damaged during World War I, especially during the heavy Austro-Hungarian bombardment in 1914–1915, prior to occupation.
Actor Nikola Popovic (1907–1967) formed the Artistic Theatre in 1939, in order to preserve the tradition of the private professional theatres. As the theatre had no building of its own, they performed at the summer stage in Kalemegdan. A one-off motor race was held on the roads surrounding the parks in September 1939, the Belgrade Grand Prix of which the Belgrade City Race was the feature race. It is additionally notable as the last Grand Prix to be held in Europe for many years as fighting in what would become World War II had started just days earlier to the north in Poland.
In the mid-1980s, open-air disco 'Crveni Podijum' (Red Podium) was organized in Kalemegdan. It was called the 'largest open-air disco in the Balkans' and was known to attract up to 10,000 visitors on some nights.
As of 2013, Kalemegdan Park covered an area of 53 ha (130 acres) and had 3,424 individual trees from 80 different tree species. Most of the trees were between 20 and 60 years old.
On 23 September 2020, six Chinese windmill palm trees were planted in front of the Cvijeta Zuzoric Art Pavilion. Those were the first palms planted in Belgrade in the public green area. Authorities said that the palms will survive the weather as the Belgrade's climate is getting warmer due to the climate change."
Source and further information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalemegdan_Park