New Belgrade

 Today we crossed the river over to the newer area of Belgrade. It is mostly office buildings and residential tower blocks.

The absolute showstopper building that was built for both uses is the Genex Tower.

It can be seen across the whole city and was built in the brutalist style in 1977. We saw it from miles away on our first day and I was keen to see it close up.

It is 36 stories high and was built to resemble a high rise gate to welcome people arriving in the city from the west.

The right hand side was an office building for workers at the state owned Genex company, the left hand side was apartments for the workers and their families. There was a top storey walkway between the two buildings with a revolving building that unfortunately never actually resolved.

It looks magnificent from a distance, but closer up it is in a very sad state. The whole of the office side is derelict and is covered with a massive Serbian flag.

The apartments are still occupied, but it's not a nice place at all to live. Quite shocking really.