as their ateliers. The Škoda Tower managed to survive all the bombings during the war, so as fighting during the Belgrade offensive in October 1944. New Communist authorities decided to demolish it, though the exact reason why was not know. It is suspected that this was due to the highly negative perception among the citizens because of the role the tower had during the war years when it was equipped with searchlights and several machine gun nests to monitor the area and the river, and to stop those trying to escape the lager, earning the moniker "death tower". Located in the southeast corner of the Sajmište complex, it was demolished in November 1945. The next Belgrade structure that would surpass the tower's height was the tall Beograđanka building in 1974, almost 30 years later. Nothing remained of the tower, and a football pitch of FK Brodarac was built on its location. Finally on 9 July 1987, Belgrade City Assembly decided to make Staro Sajmište a cultural site, thereby protecting it from real-estate expansion development. In 1992 city administration adopted a plan for the area covering 20.5 hectares of land and 1.4 hectares of the Sava river's aquatoria. On 21 April 1995, a monument in remembrance of Sajmište victims was unveiled along Sava, one day ahead of the 50-year anniversary of Hitler admitting defeat on 22 April 1945. However, almost nothing was done to conserve the area and today Staro Sajmište is in a very bad shape. Few remaining old artists have no resources to renovate the complex themselves and the area became the gathering site for vagrants and criminals, so the ateliers are often looted. Population of the local community was 3,147 in 1981, 2,240 in 1991, 2,250 in 2002 and 1,862 in 2011. After the new site of the Belgrade Fair was constructed on the right bank of the Sava, Sajmište became known as Staro Sajmište (old fair ground). Old sandy beach on the Sava bank in Staro Sajmište used to be called "Nica" (Nice), after kafana where the modern restaurant Ušće is located. At one point, the locality along the quay in Block 18 was chosen as the location of the new Belgrade Opera House. In November 1968, city council adopted a decision for the new opera house to be built along the river bank between the Gazela Bridge and the newly planned New Sava Bridge. The preparatory