Ušće Tower 2: the twin on the confluence

About Ušće Tower 2: the twin on the confluence

By the ULTIMATE Belgrade Editorial Team

Fifty-six years after the first Ušće Tower rose over the meeting of the Sava and the Danube, its twin finally joined it in 2020, completing a pair of glass towers that frame one of the most famous views in Belgrade.

The back story

Ušće means confluence, and the first Ušće Tower stands where the Sava meets the Danube, looking straight across to the walls of Kalemegdan. Designed by Mihailo Janković and finished in 1964, it was built as the headquarters of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and Belgraders still call it simply ‘CK’. For decades it was one of the most recognisable buildings on the skyline of New Belgrade.

In 1999 the tower was hit during the bombing and its upper floors burned, but the structure survived. In 2002 it was bought by MPC Holding, and between 2003 and 2005 it was rebuilt from the inside out, wrapped in glass, given two extra floors with conference halls and a restaurant, and reopened in 2005 as Ušće Tower, a modern business address.

It took 56 years, a war and a fire, but the Ušće Tower finally has its twin.

A twin on paper

As the first tower was being rebuilt, the city held a competition in 2003 for the whole block. The winning design, by the architect Branislav Redžić, imagined two matching towers and a shopping centre beside Ušće Park. The shopping centre opened in 2009 and quickly became one of the busiest in Belgrade, but the second tower stayed on paper for years, its site used as a car park.

The second tower

Work finally began on 27 February 2018. Designed by the British practice Chapman Taylor as a twin of the first, the new tower rises about 104 metres over 22 floors, with about 23,200 square metres of offices. It was built for about €65 million and opened on 11 June 2020.

Behind its glass it is one of the greenest office buildings in the country, with natural ventilation built into the facade so that tenants can open their offices to the fresh air, cooling by cool night air, high ceilings to let in daylight and BREEAM Excellent certification. An underground garage holds about 740 cars, and with the shopping centre’s car park more than 2,000.

For visitors

The twin towers are best seen from across the river, from the walls of Kalemegdan at sunset, when the glass glows gold above the trees of Ušće Park. Up close, walk through Ušće Park along the Danube and Sava, visit the Museum of Contemporary Art next door, or shop at the Ušće centre at their feet.

The Ušće Towers at a glance

From MPC Properties and contemporary reports.

Listings, fees and opening hours change, so please contact Ušće Tower 2: the twin on the confluence directly before you visit.