Missiles rained down as US warplanes made controversial airstrikes on key targets in a country that Washington had deemed a “rogue state”. For many residents of Belgrade, this week’s news headlines have a queasily familiar feel to them. Tehran might have been the target this time but Belgrade still bears the scars of the 1999 Nato airstrikes that hit what was still the capital of the then-Yugoslavia. It’s bizarre, then, that the current US president’s extended family is behind a controversial project to redevelop the Serbian capital’s most prominent bombsite: the Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building. Indeed, the crowning glory of the plan proposed by the well-connected Affinity Global Development would be a Trump Tower. There might well be some people who are champing at the bit to check in at Jared Kushner’s latest venture – but I have yet to meet them. On the other hand, outraged architects, baffled real-estate brokers and disgruntled heritage experts seem extremely keen to voice their objections because the Defence Ministry complex occupies a very particular place at the nexus of a smorgasbord of Serbian concerns. It is simultaneously a memorial and a shining beacon of the best of Yugoslav architecture. Meanwhile the proposed development raises familiar concerns about transparency, corruption and the authorities’ approach to urban development.

The shattered-but-still-standing complex of buildings provide a visual crash course in Serbia’s tumultuous recent history. Architect Nikola Dobrović designed the structure to resemble a canyon in Bosnia’s Sutjeska river, where Partisan forces had held out under a fierce Nazi assault – and shifted the course of the Second World War in Yugoslavia. To reflect that, Dobrović created two structures on either side of Nemanjina Street. The tiered buildings were constructed in an eye-catching contrast of reddish-brown stone and white marble slabs. Viewed together, they took the form of a gate, greeting visitors to the city coming up the hill from Belgrade’s main railway station.

Nato commanders saw them as a prime target in 1999, when they successfully pressured Yugoslav forces to end their persecution of Kosovo-Albanians. But many Serbians still view the airstrikes as illegal, with the damaged Defence Ministry complex serving as a memorial to the victims, including civilians, of the 78-day bombing campaign. From its prominent position on the main route into the city, the buildings have, for the past 26 years, been delivering a jarring welcome to unwary new arrivals. During this time, numerous ideas for the structures’ future have been mooted, from a full restoration to a new development that reflects on the past while allowing Serbia to look forward. The Affinity Global project would include a “memorial room” alongside the Trump Tower. But critics see that as a mere sop – and point to the lack of an open tender process before the government granted Jared Kushner and his associates a 99-year lease on the site.

Whether Kushner’s project goes ahead is open to question – the heritage official who had approved the lifting of the Defence Ministry complex’s protected status was arrested last month. Affinity Global Development said it would “review this matter” but has otherwise kept its counsel. So, for now, the former Defence Ministry’s shattered visage is an enduring reminder of what it means to be on the receiving end of airstrikes. Perhaps there is still a chance for wiser heads to come to a consensus and ensure that the complex is reshaped to serve the city – instead of the extended family of a US president.

Guy De Launey is Monocle’s Balkans correspondent. For more news and analysis, subscribe to Monocle today.

This story originally appeared in The Monocle Minute

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