The Bottom of the Well: Urban Memory, Imperial Echoes, and the Microgeography of Fear in Prewar Belgrade
The Bottom of the Well: Urban Memory, Imperial Echoes, and the Microgeography of Fear in Prewar Belgrade

Summary/Abstract: This article offers a microhistorical reading of Vladislav Maevsky’s 1913 travel sketch of Belgrade, focusing on his descent into the Roman well at Kalemegdan Fortress. By analyzing this episode as an affective and symbolic site, the study reveals how subterranean spaces serve as repositories of imperial memory, historical anxiety, and national identity. Drawing on methodologies from urban history and memory studies, the article situates the well as a metaphor for Serbia’s layered temporalities and contested sovereignties on the eve of the First World War. It further interprets Maevsky’s encounters with museums, monuments, and civic spaces as part of a broader urban effort to stage national identity through selective remembrance. This essay demonstrates how even minor urban forms such as wells, portraits, or stairwells can function as dense sites of historical meaning and advocates for further microhistorical approaches to the urban landscapes of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

• Details
• Contents