Sugar Refinery in Čukarica or Old Sugar Factory () is a defunct industrial complex in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Built in 1901, it was the first sugar factory in Serbia. In 1984 it was placed under protection as a cultural monument.
Location
The factory complex is located at 3 and 3-a Radnička street, in the municipality of Čukarica. On the west, south and east it is encircled by the Paštrovićeva street, which on the east separates it from the Belgrade Hippodrome and the neighborhood of Careva Ćuprija. To the north, across the Radnička, is the Sava river's Bay of Čukarica and Belgrade's popular recreational zone, Ada Ciganlija. To the northwest it borders another industrial complex, the reservoirs of Jugopetrol.
History
At the present location of the sugar factory, there was a kafana in the second half of the 19th century. It was very popular as it was located at the point where two roads, one from Obrenovac and other from Šumadija, meet at the entrance to Belgrade. It was owned by Stojko Čukar and after him the kafana was named “Čukareva kafana” which later gave name to the village of Čukarica, which developed into the urban neighborhood and a municipality of Belgrade.
King Alexander Obrenović instigated the Law on promotion of the domestic industry in 1898. Based on the law, the international tendering for the sugar factory was announced and companies from Belgium, United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, Germany and even Japan applied. The grant was given to the German consortium "Royal Serbian privileged sugar factory in Belgrade, Hacke, Goldschmidt and Weinschenk". The consortium was formed by Alfred Hacke, an engineer from Magdeburg, Julius Goldschmidt, a banker and a consul from Lugshaven and Max Weinschenk, industrialist and the main shareholder of the large sugar refinery in Regensburg. The complex was built from 1899 to 1901, as the first sugar refinery in Serbia. The refinery had a machine room, drying room, quarters for the employees, administrative building and a house for the workers. The complex was later renovated and expanded several times with new objects.
Already in 1902 it was temporarily closed due to being unprofitable. It was heavily damaged during the World War I and remained privately owned until 1918 when the Serbian Ministry of Justice began administering it. In 1925 it was reorganized as a separate company again, under the name of "State sugar factory in Čukarica". It was damaged again, during the German bombing of Belgrade in April 1941, while German troops looted the remains during the 1944 retreat. After 1945, new Communist authorities nationalized the factory and renamed it the "First Serbian sugar factory Dimitrije Tucović 1898" in 1948, after the socialist Dimitrije Tucović. During its heyday, the factory employed 500 people in three shifts. In 1969, the factory became a part of PKB, Belgrade Agricultural Combinat.
As a part of the wider industrial complex of Čukarica, the refinery became one of the centres of trade union activities. It was the focal point of the workers who were members and agitators of the Serbian Social Democratic Party, founded by Tucović. The factory was especially known for the 1907 strike. The State Council ordered for both the army and the police to suppress the strike. The intervention was brutal and violent, 4 workers were killed and many were wounded. In 1952 a bust of Tucović was placed in the factory yard. The bust has vanished since then while the damaged pedestal still stands.
Closing
In 1982 the production was transferred to the new sugar factory in Padinska Skela, surrounded by under sugar beet. The factory in Čukarica fully stopped refining sugar in 1983. The new complex worked until 1998, processing 6,000 tons of sugar beets daily. It has its own power plant on gas and furnace oil, electrical substation, lime kiln, reservoirs for the furnace oil and molasses, concrete pools, silos, warehouses, administrative building with a restaurant and has its own road and railway access.
The premises are vacant since 1983, except for the fermentation section which became operational. It is split into the separate company, "Vrenje". "Vrenje" covers an area of , while "Dimitrije Tucović" occupies the remaining with of business area. The machines were partially moved to Padinska Skela and partially sold.