Palić Awaits New Protection Rules as Historic Buildings Disappear

Palić is waiting for stronger protection rules, but parts of its protected historic landscape are already changing. Old buildings have disappeared in recent years as tourism and mixed residential and commercial projects take their place.

In Splitska Alley, one of Palić’s characteristic streets, Villa Regina was demolished in September 2025. A mixed-use building with more than 20 apartments is now under construction on the site. The investor is ALK Sever of Pančevo, while ALK Gradnja of Belgrade is carrying out the work. Construction records set the completion date for April 1, 2027.

The planned building differs substantially from the former villa and occupies almost the entire plot. Villa Regina and Villa Dominus do not have individual monument protection, but both stand within Palić’s protected cultural and historical area. The decision that granted Palić this status in 1994, however, did not set out detailed rules defining which interventions are allowed.

That gap has left protection dependent on planning documents that may not align with one another. Serbia’s Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments asked its counterpart in Subotica in March 2023 to begin reviewing the protection decisions for central Subotica and Palić.

Balaž Sič, director of the Subotica institute, told Magločistač that his institution prepared new protection measures and sent them to the responsible public company at the end of 2025 for inclusion in the new detailed regulation plan. The measures reportedly reduce the permitted building coverage on some Palić plots from 40% to 20% and establish separate rules for each block.

For now, officials issue intervention conditions under the existing 2007 plan, amended in 2011, 2012 and 2017. Sič said demolition of unlisted buildings within the protected area can be allowed if it does not threaten protected structures. New construction, he said, must respect its surroundings in materials and design, while remaining contemporary rather than imitating the past.

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It must not be in conflict with the protected surroundings, either in terms of materials or design, but it should certainly be contemporary, not an imitation of the past.