When looking at the Ta\u0161majdan Stadium today, you probably see just another sports field in central Belgrade. However, few places in the world have such an unusual past. Beneath its stands lies a story starting about 15 million years ago when a sea existed here, and ending with one of the most unusual sports events in Yugoslav history \u2014 a football match where cars chased the ball instead of players.<\/p>\n
Between 15 and 20 million years ago, the area of present-day Belgrade was on the shore of the vast Pannonian Sea. Where Ta\u0161majdan stands today, a coral reef stretched across a warm, shallow sea inhabited by corals, shells, sea urchins, snails, and numerous other marine organisms. Their skeletons settled on the seabed over millions of years, creating thick layers of limestone. That is why geologists found numerous fossils on Ta\u0161majdan confirming this was once a seabed. Today, the Ta\u0161majdan Miocene Reef is protected as a natural monument and represents one of the most significant geological sites in Serbia.<\/p>\n
When the sea receded, a solid limestone massif remained. The Romans began extracting stone from this area for Singidunum, followed by medieval builders and the Ottomans. It was from this quarry that Ta\u0161majdan received its name \u2014 from Turkish words “ta\u015f” (stone) and “majdan” (mine\/quarry). For centuries, massive blocks of limestone were taken from here to build walls, houses, churches, and public structures. Each extracted block left a new underground space, creating a whole labyrinth of caves and galleries under Ta\u0161majdan that later served as shelters, ice storage, and military facilities.<\/p>\n
After WWII, Belgrade developed rapidly, and the former quarry area received a completely new purpose. Between 1952 and 1954, Ta\u0161majdan Stadium was built, unique because its stands were largely carved into the rock of the former quarry. Around 900 workers participated in construction, and the stadium became a symbol of Belgrade’s sports life. Football matches, athletics meets, concerts, boxing fights, and cultural events were held on it for decades. However, what happened in the late 1970s resembled no sports spectacle Belgrade had seen before.<\/p>\n
In May 1978, Ta\u0161majdan Stadium hosted one of the most unusual events in Yugoslav motoring history. Eight Zastava 750 cars, universally known as “Fi\u0107a”, took to the pitch. The vehicles were split into red and white teams, tasked with driving a giant football into the opponent’s goal. Before thousands of spectators, the tiny cars collided, spun, pushed the ball, and tried to score while the crowd cheered like at a real football match. The event drew massive media attention, and preserved TV recordings still testify to one of the most unusual sports shows ever held in Belgrade. Watching “Fi\u0107a” cars play football sounds like a movie scene, but it really happened \u2014 right on the stadium built out of a former quarry.<\/p>\n
Few places in the world changed purpose so many times during their existence. First the bottom of a tropical sea, then a quarry building Belgrade, later wartime underground shelters and military sites, and then a stadium hosting major sports and music events. And then, one spring day in 1978, “Fi\u0107a” cars played football on that same spot. Perhaps that is why Ta\u0161majdan is not just a park or stadium. It is a place where millions of years of geological history, centuries of Belgrade’s growth, and events so unusual they sound like legends meet across a few hectares \u2014 yet they truly happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When looking at the Ta\u0161majdan Stadium today, you probably see just another sports field in central Belgrade. However, few places in the world have such an unusual past. Beneath its stands lies a story starting about 15 million years ago when a sea existed here, and ending with one of the most unusual sports events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miocenskisprudtasmajdan.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}