If you go through my articles you will notice that I have a thing for religious buildings even though I don’t really have a thing for religions themselves. Well, Bitef Teatar is like a cherry on top when I talk about this. And that’s because it’s basically a theater inside an old church.

Built in the beginning of the 1940s, it was supposed to be a German evangelistic church. Then WWII happened and after the war the building was nationalized and was given to the City of Belgrade to use. A part of the building at that time was used by the Yugoslav Archive. Then, finally, in the late ’80s, the building was adapted and turned into this amazing avant-garde theater that it is today. 

Besides the amazing facts that it’s a theater in what was supposed to be a church (aka churches used wisely) and that it is a truly beautiful edifice, the plays you can see here are usually very, very good. They are often experimental and do not have to abide by the restrictions that other old, established theaters impose.

If you can, I suggest visiting it in September, as that is when Bitef Festival usually takes place (an international theater festival), but check it out whenever, if not for the plays, then for the building itself.