Belgrade Good Hope Garden (Serbian: Београдски врт добре наде) is the zoo in Belgrade situated at the very center of the city, in the Kalemegdan park. It was founded in 1936 and it is one of the oldest zoological gardens in Europe.
It covers an area of 6 ha, and has 2,000 animals of 200 species, and beside wild animals it abounds in domestic animals too.
Its present look is contributed by many built facilities, new drinking-fountains, Wooden Sculpture Gallery, the work of the sculptor Vuk Bojović and the nursery for young animals - Baby Zoo. For its 60th anniversary it was enriched with a monument dedicated to its once most interesting and most famous resident - Sammy the chimpanzee, the first of its kind ever in this Zoo.
The Belgrade Zoological Garden was officially opened on on St Peter's Day, July 12 1936, by the mayor at the time, and an industrialist, Mr Vlada Ilic. The zoo was quickly expanded to 14 hectares.
During the Second World War the zoo infrastructure was completely destroyed and the animals almost completely lost largely because of the Bombing of Belgrade in 1941.
After the war the zoo lost seven hectares of land.
Vuk Bojović became the director and he still holds that position.
Today, even though the zoo covers only seven hectares, it has over 2000 animals, including over 270 animals species.