Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to give an overview of how the first health care buildings were erected in Belgrade, highlighting their significance in the modernization of the country, while reaching the European standards in that specific area of public life. Apart from the most important state buildings in Savamala – the Council, the Court and the Great Barracks, in 1837, Prince Miloš Obrenović starts with the construction of the Palilula Barracks near the Palilula Square. At the same time, he brings up an issue of the soldiers’ hospital within the complex, with a capacity of one hundred patients. Thus begins a history of constructing the first hospital buildings. They are located in the peripheral areas of the Town, suitable for the health care buildings because of their position on the slopes towards the Danube and the vicinity of good quality water. The Palilula Military Hospital design was probably the work of Valentine Moor, a master builder from Pančevo. Not long after that, in the late 1840s, at the time of Prince Aleksandar I Karađorđević, preparations for building a new Military Hospital in Belgrade are underway. The design was probably the work of the main engineer, an architect, Jan Nevole. The hospital was built in the 1846-49 period, consisting of a ground and the first floor. The period of Prince Mihailo, like those of his predecessors, is marked by the construction of a hospital, the first civilian healthcare institution in the capital. On his land plot in Vidin Street, near Palilula Square and the erstwhile Barracks, in 1868, the Town Hospital was built according to the design of the state engineer Joseph Francl. The new Military hospital, designed by architect Danilo Vladisavljević, educated in Aachen, was constructed in 1905-09. At the West Vračar area, according the modern spatial organization with pavilions surrounded by greenery. The construction of first hospital buildings tells us about the endeavors of the Serbian Principality to reach standards of the developed European countries in the field of healthcare culture. The paper analyses building conditions, urban and architectural characteristics of the said buildings, as well as their impact on defining the character of the surrounding space, providing the foundations of a modern European image of the capital.
