The Academic Park is located on the Students’ Square.
The location of the square was part of the civilian settlement of Singidunum during Roman times. There are few data on the appearance and function of the area during the middle ages. It was used for military exercises during the Austrian rule of Belgrade during the 18th century, while it served as a place for prayers during Turkish rule, as well as a graveyard that remained until the eighteen-sixties. During the third decade of the 19th century the Serbian authorities opened a market or “pazarište” on part of the dilapidated graveyard. This place later became known as the Grand Market, operating until 1927. The remaining smaller part of their graveyard was fenced off by the Turks to prevent its further destruction. Upon the departure of the Turks the area became a meadow. The suggestion to turn it into a green environment originated with Emilijan Josimović, the first Serbian urbanist. The area was arranged as a park of the pedestrian square type between 1886 and 1889.
A monument was erected there in 1897, following the death of Josif Pančić, the renowned botanist and first president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. It was the work of the sculptor Đorđe Jovanović. Three decades later, in 1927, the Grand Market was closed and the contemporary Academic Park was built in its place. The designer of the park was the architect Đorđe Kovalevski. A fence was built around the park in 1929 as per the plans of architect Milutin Borisavljević. The park also contains monuments to Dositej Obradović, the Serbian luminary and founder of the Grand Lyceum, set up in 1930, the work of the sculptor Rudolf Valdec, as well as a monument to Jovan Cvijić, geographer and one of the presidents of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, erected in 1994, the work of the sculptor Oto Log.
The Academic Park