Bara Venecija (Serbian Cyrillic: Бара Венеција) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Savski Venac, along the right bank of the Sava river.

Bara Venecija is located on the right bank of the Sava river, roughly between the Old Sava bridge and Branko's Bridge some 700–800 meters (0.4–0.5 mi) west of Terazije, downtown Belgrade. It is basically a small sub-neighborhood of the Savamala, which used to cover much larger area.

The area was originally a bog called Ciganska Bara (Serbian Cyrillic: Циганска бара, "Gypsy pond"). The bog was charted for the first time in an Austrian map from 1789. It was a marsh which covered a wide area from modern Karađorđeva Street (at Kovač's Khan, at modern Hercegovačka Street) to the mouth of the Topčiderska reka into the Sava, across the northern tip of Ada Ciganlija. Marshy area covered modern location of the Belgrade Main railway station and parts of the Sarajevska and Hajduk-Veljkov Venac streets. Ciganska Bara drained two other bogs. One was located on Slavija, which drained through the creek of Vračarski Potok which flew down the area of the modern Nemanjina street. Other pond whose water drained into the Ciganska bara was Zeleni Venac.

During the high water levels in the Sava, the bog would also rise, forming a proper lake which reached the Bosanska (modern Gavrila Principa) and Sarajevska streets. Romanies who lived in the area, used the mud from the bog to make roof tiles. They lived in small huts or caravans (called čerge), between the high grass and rush, with their horses and water buffaloes grazing freely in the area. As most of the huts were actually stilt houses, built on piles due to the marshy land, the area was gradually named Bara Venecija ("Venice pond").

The concession for the construction of the first railway in Serbia included the laying of the Belgrade–Niš railway, the train bridge over the Sava river and a railway that would connect Belgrade to Zemun, a border town of Austria-Hungary at the time. The location of the future station building in Bara Venecija was chosen in 1881. The station itself was not part of the concession.

As a marshland, the selected location was completely inappropriate for construction works of any kind, so the swamp first had to be filled. The remains of the demolished Stambol Gate were already dumped into the bog in 1866. Parts of the demolished trench, šanac, which encircled the downtown, were also used to fill the bog.

The foundation stone for the station was laid by ruling prince Milan Obrenović on 15 April [O.S. 3 April] 1883. By 1884 the bog was partially drained and buried under the rubble from all parts of the city and especially from Prokop. The station was ceremonially opened 1 September [O.S. 20 August] 1884, though it wasn't completed. By September 1885 the embankment for the railway bridge on the northern end of the neighborhood, and the bridge itself, were finished, so as the embankment in the direction of the streets, with the drainage system. In 1887, city was still deliberating necessity of completely draining the bog and in 1889 decided to finish the works, announcing that works will last "for years". Filling of the bog from the Prokop was finished in 1898.

However, the drainage system in the upper sections, at Sarajevska Street, was built only in 1904. After World War I, plans were made for further filling of the area next to the railway, in order to expand cargo section of the station. As the filling and construction of the embankments wasn't finished, the area was still regularly flooded. Industrialist Mihailo V. Bajloni built a residential complex along the Sarajevska Street during Interbellum. It was constructed for the workers of the Bajloni's merchant company “Bajloni & Sons”. The complex included both the company administrative buildings and social housing.