Rajsko sokače | Origin of Street Names

Belgrade Alleyways are remnants of a time when our capital city was an oriental town crisscrossed by hundreds of narrow and short streets and passages, connecting the larger and more significant ones.

After being liberated from the Ottomans, when the city began to develop in a European spirit, the alleyways were replaced by cobbled and later asphalted streets, planned according to European urban standards, with prescribed dimensions, well-kept sidewalks, and other modern solutions. The traditional Ottoman houses gradually gave way to harmonious buildings, significantly altering the city's appearance.

Nevertheless, even many years and decades later, one can still find narrow streets and well-maintained passages between houses and buildings in Belgrade that literally represent alleyways. Many of them bear this designation in their official names. Some, admittedly, only symbolically, while others quite literally live up to the name.

One such alleyway is Rajsko Sokače in Zvezdara. In this narrow street, approximately 40 meters long, there is space for only one house, and the alleyway is so narrow that even a "Fića" car couldn't pass through it back in the day. The alley connects the streets of Raljska and Dragutin Milutinovića. During the fifty steps or half a minute it takes to walk through this alley, you don't get the impression that you are in Belgrade at all. Its name is romantic and somewhat exotic, and it is associated with a charming anecdote.

Namely, until 2005, Rajsko Sokače was called Raljsko Sokače because it "leans" on Raljska Street. After the year 2000, a large number of streets in Belgrade received completely new names, and for some reason, the process of changing street signs also affected Raljsko Sokače. Whether the authorities in that process unintentionally omitted the letter "L" or they truly considered this alley as a heavenly part of Zvezdara, remains a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, Rajsko Sokače became the official name of this short street and has remained so to this day.