Island of Čaplja (Belgrade)

 park, island

Čaplja (cyrillic: Чапља) is a projected river island in Belgrade, on the left bank of the Danube. According to the General Urbanistic Plan, it will be formed in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula. The today's area is floodable, thickly forested, uninhabited and densely crisscrossed by the elongated bogs and slow streams.

The area designated for the future island has two major sections: eastern and smaller one is a small island of "Kožara", and western and much larger floodplain between the Danube and the embankment which protects the inner areas of Pančevački Rit.

City government proposed temporary name of "Čaplja", which is Serbian for heron. It is decided that each project, proposed to the city government for the future island, should also propose a name for it.

The projected area of the island is 5,82 km². The formation should be achieved by digging a canal along the existing embankment, which would turn the wetland into a real island. Though some articles already nicknamed it the twin island of "Great War Island" (Veliko ratno ostrvo, which is 800 meters away), Čaplja is going to be almost three times larger in area, differently shaped, it will not have any land or bridge connection to each other, and unlike "Great War Island" which is protected by the law and any human interference is prohibited, future island is projected as the major tourist and recreational attraction.

When the construction of the leisure facilities is all done, it is expected not to cover more than a 40% of the island, while 60% will remain intact natural environment. The recreational complex is envisioned for the use during entire year. The canal which will separate it from the embankment will be navigable and used for nautical sports.

Across the embankment, a 100 hectares large golf terrains are projected at "Vinogradi" and "Totov Budžak" area, so as a marina which will connect the island to the ports in Belgrade and Zemun. Also, a road connection to the road of Zrenjaninski put will be constructed.