Parks in the Balkan Capitals: Leisure, Urban Impact, Monuments, Stories, and Significance

This landmark edited collection investigates parks as places of pivotal significance in the social, cultural, architectural and economic history of the Balkan capitals. Parks are not simply places of recreation and retreat: they are a palimpsest where memory and identity are contested, where monuments of historical events are treasured or torn down, a constantly evolving microcosm of the urban landscape. They shelter activists, dissidents and conspirators; inspire writers and painters; host cultural, sporting and political events; mitigate pollution and allow nature to intrude into urban life. Focusing on parks in Athens, Belgrade, Chişinău, Skopje, Sofia and Zagreb, the authors of this volume take an interdisciplinary approach to the function of parks in the Balkan capitals. Collectively they engage with a huge range of historical and ethnographic sources, including novels, diaries, statues, maps, plans and interviews. In this context, they also examine concepts such as ‘invisible spaces’, ‘urban fragments’, ‘place and non-place’, creating a complex picture of mainstream and alternative use over the centuries. The first study of its kind, Parks in the Balkan Capitals will be essential reading for all those interested in the social and cultural history of the great cities of southeastern Europe. It is a project initiated by the Balkan History Association.