2025/09/02-2 Serbia/Belgrade: Spectacular Church of Saint Sava - Dogma Brewery & Tap Room

Описание: The Church of Saint Sava (Serbian Cyrillic: Храм Светог Саве, romanized: Hram Svetog Save, lit. ''The Temple of Saint Sava''[a]) is a Serbian Orthodox church in the Vračar plateau in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches and it ranks among the largest churches in the world. It is the most recognisable building in Belgrade and a landmark, as its dominating exterior resembles that of the Hagia Sophia, after which it was modelled.
The church was initially planned to serve as a cathedral, dedicated to Saint Sava, the first Serbian Archbishop and the nation's patron saint. The location at Vračar was symbolically chosen due to the Ottoman burning of Sava's relics on a pyre in 1594/95 after a Serb uprising. Construction began in 1935 after years and decades of planning, wars and political turmoil. The commission chose to base the design on the Hagia Sophia, a universally acclaimed church building. World War II and the coming Communist leadership put a halt to construction. Permission was finally granted by the Socialist Serbian government in 1984, after which construction resumed with revised construction techniques and the architectural achievement of lifting the 4,000 tonnes dome into place in June 1989.
In May 2021, the entire Vračar plateau which surrounds and includes the church was declared a cultural-historical monument and placed under state protection as the Saint Sava's Plateau. The rationale included "symbolical, memorial, cultural-historical, architectural-urban and artistic values of the locality, which represents a memorial spot of two turning points in Serbian history: Burning of Saint Sava's relics and the First Serbian Uprising".

Dogma Brewery was established in 2016, when craft beer boom was still a very young phenomena in Serbia. The founders of Dogma are two childhood friends from eastern Serbia, who had background in food technology, economy, marketing and home-brewing. They shared the passion towards quality artisan beer, and after some beer-related travels in Europe and home-brewing, they wanted to create beers in a bigger scale and to develop the craft beer culture of their home country. And so this duo decided to take a leap and establish their own brewery in Belgrade. From the beginning, the idea was not to just focus in Serbian market, but to operate also internationally.
Dogma Brewery was built in one of the old buildings of a historical sugar factory, located in the southwestern side of the city, close to the banks of Sava river and the Ada Ciganlija island. After a huge renovation project, the former industrial milieu was turned into a stylish brewery with an adjacent, spacious and funky taproom (opened in 2017) with a colorful beer garden. It’s really a wonderful place to gather with friends and to enjoy fresh craft beers accompanied with tasty burgers or other items from their food menu. The Brewery & Taproom is only a 5 minute drive away from the city center, and can be easily reached with public transportation.
During the years Dogma has been growing steadily, as the interest towards their craft beers has increased in Serbia and abroad. Nowadays Dogma produces around 550 000 liters of beer annually, and roughly 40 % of the production is exported abroad. That makes Dogma the biggest craft beer exporter from Serbia, and their beers have been delivered to over 30 different countries. Dogma also does a lot of international collaborations, and has become a known and valued brand within craft beer enthusiasts around Europe and even beyond.
Besides paying attention to the quality of the beers, Dogma also puts weight on their brand as a whole. Dogma is a distinctive brand with a stylish logo combined with colorful, fascinating label art. Their labels are printed on paper with a three-dimensional surface, so there is also a pleasant feel when you hold a can in your hand.