by Stefano Giantin

(ANSA) - BELGRADE - The rusty wreck stands motionless, solitary, in the middle of a great green river, the Danube which flows there, as straight as a motorway. It's almost beached on the deserted Ada Huja peninsula, in the furthest outskirts of Belgrade, wedged between a dredge and the shore, grey sand and stones, among reeds and weeds, piles of bricks and lime. To get there, you have to be patient, in order not to be discouraged by the gloomy view of landfills and abandoned factories, post-industrial moonscape.

There is a hidden boat to discover, 60 meters in length: hull worn by time and neglect, cabin corroded, original anchor visible in the bow; the two powerful 700 horsepower engines are missing, just like the main mast, machine guns, mortar. Almost everything was lost, since when, who knows? Even the guns that 100 years ago protruded from some cylindrical towers placed above the keel, two 120 cannons. Cannons that fired the first few shots of the WWI, on July 28, 1914.

These very shots were fired by the ''Bodrog'', river surveillance ship of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: the ship that opened the First World War is now a forgotten wreck.

During the winter, it stays a few months at Ada Huja, where it is now; then, the wreck is towed and placed again near the iron bridge between Pancevo and Belgrade. It used to be there some time ago, when the first official visit occurred, to see if that wreck was really the Bodrog, one of the spearheads of the ''KuK Kriegsmarine'' at the beginning of the twentieth century, the pride of the Danube Flotilla, which was launched in 1903 at the 'Danubius-Schoenichen-Hartmann vereinigte Schiff-und Maschinenbau' yards in Budapest.

A ship that, after the bombing of Belgrade, was damaged, the following year, and then was sunk at the end of the war. But not before ''firing the last shots of the war, covering the retreat of the Austrians'', Gulic says. This ship, however, bearing the new name of ''Sava'', had to face another war. In 1941, when it was Hitler who wanted to punish Belgrade, the most bombed city in Europe's history, the ship was set up again and became an anti-aircraft ship, and the it was sunk once more in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazi invaders.

Then it re-emerged, for a second time, before being sunk again after being used by the Ustasha. Finally, it ''resurrected'' for the third time, for some years of service in the river Navy of Tito's Yugoslavia. Then the privatization, and decades of neglect.(ANSA).