History
According to Philosophynearby, Belgrade is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a history of more than 7000 years.
Chipped stone tools found in Zemun (a district of Belgrade) show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these tools belong to the Mousterian industry, belonging to Neanderthals more than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravetian tools have also been discovered near the area, indicating a settlement between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago.
The first farmers to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, which flourished between 6200 and 5200 BC. n. and. There are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous Starčevo site. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture (5500-4500 BC), a more sophisticated agricultural culture that emerged from the early Starčevo settlements and was also named after a site in the Belgrade region (Vinča-Belo Brdo). The Vinča culture is known for its very large settlements, one of the first continuous habitation settlements and some of the largest in prehistoric Europe. Also associated with the Vinča culture are anthropomorphic figurines such as the Lady of Vinča, the oldest known copper metallurgy in Europe, and a form of proto-writing developed before the Sumerians and Minoans., known as the old European script, dating from around 5300 BC. n. and. Inside the city of Belgrade, on Cetinjska Street, a Paleolithic human skull was discovered in 1890. The skull dates from before 5000 BC. n. and.
Belgrade was the capital of the former Yugoslavia. In its troubled past Belgrade has been conquered by 40 armies, and rebuilt 38 times from its ruins. It is located at the confluence between the Sava and the Danube and today it is the capital of Serbia, with 1,600,000 residents.
Capital
Belgrade is the capital and the cultural and scientific center in Serbia. The institutions of greatest national importance are concentrated in it, both in the field of science and in the arts. The Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) was created in 1886 as a royal Serbian academy, the National Library was created in 1832, the National Museum in 1841 and the National Theater in 1869. The city is also home to the University of Belgrade, created in 1808 as a Higher School, and the University of Fine Arts (in addition to a large number of private colleges and universities).
Geographical distribution
Located at the confluence of the Sava River with the Danube and on the border of the Pannonian Plain with the Balkan Peninsula, Belgrade extends over an area of 3,222.68 km², which occupies 3.6% of the territory of the Republic. The metropolitan area is home to a population of 1,710,000 residents1 2 representing 21% of the Serbian population, 3 4 making it the fourth most populous city in southeastern Europe, after Istanbul, Athens, Sofia and Bucharest.
It is of prime importance as a communication and link point for the rail and road networks, as well as an important international role with the airport, and also as a telecommunications center. In Belgrade there are important agricultural and industrial centers, especially in the metal, mechanical and electronic industries, as well as commercial and banking centers.
Culture
In Belgrade you will find part of the most significant Serbian architecture, such as the Kalemegdan in the Belgrade Fortress, monuments of a cultural nature and many other cultural manifestations, as well as numerous archaeological remains, from prehistory to the present day, which testify to the existence of a developed civilization and culture.
Belgrade Museums
- The most prestigious museum in Belgrade is the National Museum, founded in 1844. It houses a collection of more than 400,000 exhibits, including foreign masterpieces. The famous Gospel of Miroslav is one of the pieces in his collection.
- The Gospel of Miroslav, a medieval manuscript from the National Museum.
- The Military Museum is quite popular with foreign tourists, partly because of the remains of the F-117 shot down by Yugoslav anti-aircraft forces during the 1999 NATO bombing, but also because of its more than 25,000 exhibits of which some date back to period of the Roman Empire.
- Yugoslav Aviation Museum, which houses more than 200 aircraft, of which about 50 are on display.
- The Ethnographic Museum, founded in 1901, contains more than 150,000 exhibits that demonstrate the urban and rural culture of the Balkans, especially the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It has about 160,000 original documents and 5,700 other objects.
Belgrade hosts many annual cultural events, including the FEST (Film Festival), the BITEF (Theater Festival), the BELEF (Summer Festival), the BEMUS (Music Festival), the Book Fair, and the Fair of the Beer.
The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Ivo Andrić wrote his most famous work, A Bridge over the Drina in Belgrade, where he lived and worked. Other prominent Belgrade authors include Branislav Nušić, Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić, and Meša Selimović.
Theater culture has developed quite a bit in Belgrade. There are numerous theaters, of which the most important is the National Theater, along with the Yugoslav Drama Theater, the Zvezdara Theater, and the Atelje 212. The Academy of Arts and Sciences is also in Belgrade, as well as the Library National.
Leisure
City with a vibrant nightlife, with its many bars, restaurants, discos and music bars that stay open until dawn, located throughout the city.
Many weekend visitors, especially from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, consider Belgrade a city more metropolis than their own capitals, since in Belgrade they find, as they say, the friendly atmosphere, great bars and clubs, cheap drinks and absence of language difficulties, as well as legislative restrictions on nightlife.
Another type of leisure, a little more traditional, accompanied by the traditional music typical of the urban centers of northern Serbia, the so-called “starogradska muzika” (which more or less would mean urban old music) can be found in “Skadarlija”, the old part of the city, where the poets and artists of the 19th century met and which at that time was a bohemian neighborhood.
The entire central street, Skadar, retains the same appearance as it did in the 19th century, along with the stone sidewalks and houses of the time. There you can also find the oldest and most traditional restaurants in the city, called “kafana”, where you can taste the different typical dishes of Serbian gastronomy.
Sports
Belgrade has around a thousand sports facilities, many of them sports centers.90 Recently, Belgrade has hosted several important events, such as the 2005 Eurobasket, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship for Men, and the European Championship for Men’s Water Polo in 2006. The city has also hosted the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2007, as well as the Universiade in 2009, where it beat out the Mexican city of Monterrey and the Polish city of Poznań.
