One of the first things people can see arriving from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport into Belgrade is the Western City Gate. Designed by Mihajlo Mitrovic in 1977, it was completed in 1980 and is the only designated example of true Brutalist architecture in Belgrade. The name comes from the french “beton brut“ (raw concrete) as concrete is openly shown in its raw state in the facade.
The 115 meter skyscraper consists of two tower-buildings connected on top by a bridge and a what is often reported incorrectly as a revolving restaurant. Whist a revolving restaurant had been envisaged - the cost was prohibitive and the rotation mechanism was not installed. Whilst the two tower-buildings are functionally different parts, from an architectural and structural point of view, they are one building. The residential tower consists of a groundfloor, mezzanine, 30 floors and an attic and the business tower consists of groundfloor, mezzanine, 26 floors and an attic. Each building has two circular staircases with a set of lifts. All staircases of the apartment and office towers are directly connected with the garage. In the mezzanine of the residential part there are four one-room flats, while the other Levels (1-30) have six flats each: 2 three-room, 2 two-room and 2 one-room.
Both towers are of reinforced concrete skeleton structure with supporting walls. Floor structure is a flat slab 12 cm thick. The structure of the exterior bridge consists of reinforced concrete elements, columns and beams over which the load is transferred to the staircase walls.
Officially, the Western City Gate, the tower is also known as Genex - It was built for the Genex conglomerate, ex-Yugoslavia’s biggest company, dealing in petrochemicals, raw materials and construction. When Yugoslavia broke up in 1990, Genex accounted for a tenth of the entire country’s trade. By 2007 it was a ghost of its former self, and five directors were arrested on corruption charges in a confusing case steeped in the mixture of power, privatisation and politics of the time.
Today the office side sits idle, its facade used predominantly as a giant billboard.
I chose to place the cache at this spot because of the good view of the tower, the Beograd floral garden and the Geneks sign. Take the time to go up and explore around the building through and also check out the cache on the other side of the tower.
First to Find: Ekabiljo
Second to Find: Mrkvinda