Significant personalities, i.e. meritorious citizens, are buried in the Alley, according to a special procedure and with the approval of the Belgrade City Assembly, i.e. the Mayor of Belgrade.
So far, over 750 personalities from various social, political, cultural, sports and artistic fields have been buried here – politicians, actors, generals, athletes, writers, scientists, painters, university professors, directors, sculptors, journalists, doctors and others.
A special body for the Alley of Meritorious Citizens is being formed
Recently, the president of the Provisional Authority of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, announced that he will propose the formation of a special body that will decide who can be buried in the Alley of Deserving Citizens at the New Cemetery.
He said that that body would include representatives of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, ministries and all other relevant institutions, which would ultimately make a decision on who deserves to be buried in the Alley. He rejected the accusations of the opposition that he personally forbade the burial of certain citizens in the Alley, characterizing them as manipulations.
Šapić mentioned that, in an earlier decision, the mayor has the discretion to decide whether a deceased person can be buried in the Alley, but that this time it is done by the entire Provisional Authority by majority decision, considering that there is currently no position of mayor.
“While I was mayor, I used that discretion several times under really terrible pressure, even though I knew how many seats were left. I always asked myself: Why should I decide on this? I neither have the necessary qualifications, nor do I think there is a single person who can decide on such an important matter, I guess there should already be a body, and the criteria should be more serious,” said Šapić and reminded that there are only 19 burial places left in the Alley.
He says that it is clear that Belgrade needs a new Alley of Meritorious Citizens, and that one of the possible locations could be at the Bežani Cemetery.
Let us remind you that the Alley of Meritorious Citizens is reserved for prominent figures from various socio-political and cultural and sports fields, and the decision on who will be buried there is made by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade, i.e. the Mayor of Belgrade.
In addition to the family of the deceased, proposals for burial in the Alley can be made by institutions, such as the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU), ministries (mainly ministries of culture, defense, internal and external affairs) or socio-political organizations and associations.
In the earlier period, some of the criteria for burial in the Alley were that the deceased was a holder of the Order of the National Hero or a winner of the AVNOJ award, the Seventh of July Award, the October Award of the City of Belgrade, etc. Later, the criteria were expanded, but they were often deviated from, so in addition to indisputably deserving citizens, personalities who were prominent at the time of their death or whose death attracted public attention were also buried in the Alley.
