From Topola and Gornja Crnuća

Modern Serbian state in the first half of the 19th century, it changed its capital several times.

At the time of the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813), it can be said that Poplar, the village in Šumadija where the leader Karađorđe lived and most often stayed, was the unofficial capital even though the Government (Praviteljstvujušći soviet) sat in Belgrade from 1807. In Topola, Karađorđe built a rectangular city with towers and four gates, which housed his court, church, barracks and garrison, which represented the military center of the uprising.

...

The leader of the Second Serbian Uprising (1815), Miloš Obrenović, built, together with his brothers, in the fall of 1814, a new house in the village of Gornja Crnuća under Mount Rudnik, and he lived there as ruler until 1818. Although Obrenović had to stay in Belgrade from time to time, it can still be said that Crnuća was the capital of the state in the period from 1815 to 1818. Of course, both Crnuća and Topola were only conditionally since, apart from the ruler, other high authorities of the state were not housed in them.

From 1818 to 1839, the capital of Serbia was Kragujevac, a town in Šumadija, where Miloš Obrenović first built an inn for himself and then, in the same courtyard, several more residential buildings in Šumadija-oriental style, which were part of the common palace complex. During that time, all supreme state institutions (judicial, military, political) were located in Kragujevac and, until the promulgation of the Constitution of 1838, all national assemblies were held there. In the meantime, it also became the church center of the country because the head of the church, Metropolitan Petar, settled in it, not far from the duke's residence. Apart from Kragujevac, the prince often stayed in Požarevac and Belgrade, where he built beautiful residences in the 20s. In Kragujevac, the prince preferred to receive all foreign representatives as well, but they stayed exclusively in Belgrade and requested that their letters of credit be handed over to him there in the future (at the Topčider Konak or the Konak of Princess Ljubica).

In the mid-30s, after the proclamation of the state (1830) at a ceremony in Belgrade (on Tašmajdan), Prince Miloš realized that he had to move the capital to Belgrade. At that time, inns were built in Topčider, near Belgrade, in the Belgrade town itself (Princess Ljubica's Inn) and several beautiful state buildings in Savamala, outside the town walls. Konak of Princess Ljubica and Konak in Topcider, built of brick and stone, in the classic Balkan style, are the two most solid buildings that the Serbs had in Belgrade until then. Both have been preserved to this day.

photo: private archive

Thus, in the last three years of the first reign of Prince Miloš (1836–1839), Kragujevac suddenly began to lose its political importance in relation to Belgrade. Although the prince's interest in changing the capital was decreasing, the first foreign consuls (Austrian, English, Russian, French) were already staying in Belgrade in that period, who insisted on it. The strengthened duke's opposition, led by the Council, after the promulgation of the Constitution of 1838, also advocated for Belgrade to become the new capital of the state. While Obrenović suddenly and increasingly began to attach himself to Kragujevac, far away from the diplomatic representatives of the great powers, the constitutional defense opposition saw protection in Belgrade, precisely in the Belgrade vizier and foreign consuls, in the event of a conflict with the prince.

The day before the prince's fall, on June 12, 1839, the State Council managed to move the capital to Belgrade. The following year, however, Prince Mihailo Obrenović returned the capital to Kragujevac, but for a short time: already on May 7, 1841, defenders of the constitution, supported by the Turks and Russians, moved the government ("Central Power") to Belgrade. Since then, it has officially been the capital of Serbia, because, along with the prince, it housed the State Council and the Government - as central state bodies. The issue of the capital of Serbia was thus finally resolved.

In 1839, Belgrade had 12.703 inhabitants and 1.389 houses. It was divided into Serbian and Turkish boroughs - together surrounded by a high wall - in the area from Stambol Gate to Kalemegdan - a Turkish military fortress with a garrison and seat of the Belgrade Vizier. In addition to Serbs and Turks, a large number of Jews, people from Dubrovnik, Cincar and Greeks lived in Belgrade, especially on the Danube side (Dorćol and Zerek). There were mosques in the town (as many as 11 in the town itself), churches, and synagogues. Just at that time, beyond the ramparts and town gates, a new Serbian town began to spread towards Savamala, Terazije and Tašmajdan. With the construction of the town outside the city walls, the number of inhabitants of the capital began to increase rapidly. Nevertheless, according to the British travel writer EA Peyton, Belgrade in 1843 remained "oriental as if it were on the Tigris or Barada - in terms of lighting and pavements" in two important respects. Those "details" were worked on very quickly. At the beginning of 1844, at the request of the Administration of the Municipality of Belgrade, the custodian of the internal works (Ilija Garašanin) approved the numbering of houses ("that the boards should be the same and one color, dull blue, and the numbers on them should be white") and the administrative division of Belgrade into "the borough inside the moat" and "the borough outside the moat". In February 1848, the capital was given the official names of the 30 most important streets ("alleys") for the first time. Already in 1846, Belgrade had 14.170 inhabitants, and at the end of the constitutional defense regime, in 1859, 18.900 people.

In other words, from the beginning to the end of the constitutional defense regime, from 1839 to 1859, Belgrade gained 6.197 new inhabitants, which for the time and the total number of inhabitants was a considerable increase. The change in his physiognomy, the emergence of a new, civil class, spiritual and civil aristocracy that changed from oriental to European clothing, spread European ideas in political and everyday life and brought new occupations, ideas and customs to the Serbian capital was even more pronounced. It is interesting that already in the summer of 1844, the residents of Belgrade were given the strictest warning because of a new phenomenon, namely that individuals started bathing "naked" on the Sava, especially "in front of Đumruk" (customs). The administration of the city of Belgrade was forced to drive them away where they were not "in sight of the world", and they were not to bathe there "naked and naked in their underpants".

For Matija Ban, who arrived in Belgrade in 1844, the new Serbian capital still seemed like a Turkish town, which even reminded of Constantinople itself, especially because of the houses "lost in the sea of ​​greenery". He then listed in it only "eighteen houses solidly built according to European standards", but, he noted, "it is a city that is being built. The furniture in the houses is oriental, which is beginning to mix with European (...) The women's national costume is rich and elegant, the customs are simple but unique. In spite of certain similarities with the rest of the Orient, everything here has a unique expression that can be liked very much (...) German and Greek are spoken as foreign languages, French is very rare, and Italian is not heard. Among scientific institutions, there are primary schools, gymnasium, lyceum and theological seminary. In addition to this, there is also a literary society. Official newspapers and a literary magazine are also published...".

A decade later, it was already Belgrade, where the wealthy middle class dresses exclusively European, at whose tables imported tomatoes ("eggplant"), sea salt and other imported food are eaten, they sleep in real beds (raised from the floor) and not on straw mats and the floor, guests are welcomed in salons with sooty stoves, in which, thanks to Anastas Jovanović, the first photographs (daguerreotypes and talbotypes) were created in which "the empty and quiet streets of the city from the 1950s have an atmosphere of some quiet melancholy", and in which permanent photography shops are opened for portraits of the highest officials.

Prince Karađorđević (1842–1858) was the first Serbian ruler who stayed all the time in Belgrade as the new capital. All the others followed after him.