Belgrade on the Danube

tiny Serbian Orthodox church next to farmhouse

The drive to Belgrade from Sarajevo, which we did today, is first through beautiful mountains and deep valleys and finally across a huge plain full of farms large and small.  This is cabbage harvest season right now, so great mounds of them are in markets and roadside stands everywhere. 

We passed a charming little Orthodox church next to a farmhouse.  Beyond the border villages, we didn’t see any mosques.  There are few Muslims now in Serbia, though some Muslim villages remain nearer the Bosnian border.  Serbia is home to the Serbian Orthodox Church and most citizens practice the orthodox religion.

millennial tower

In Belgrade, right under the massive fortress, is an unusual Orthodox church that used to be a storage barn for gunpowder.  Now it has chandeliers made of bronze bullets and swords and beautiful frescoes covering the ceiling and sides of the church.  It has no typical dome, just a long, narrow nave with no place to sit.  It is a popular church for weddings since it overlooks the meeting point of the Sava and Danube Rivers.

where the Sava and Danube meet

Across the Danube from the main city of Belgrade is Zemun, once a town unto itself and now a part of the city.  But, citizens of Zemun say they are unique and from Zemun, not Belgrade.  The old part of this area runs along the Danube, with a long promenade filled, when it’s pleasant weather, with sidewalk cafes, cyclists and people walking along the water.  Today it was pouring, so the promenade had only a few sturdy souls hunched under their umbrellas, including us.

gate to Belgrade fortress

fresco in Orthodox church at fortress

The Austro-Hungarian empire marked the corners of its empire with millennial towers about 100 years ago, to mark the supposed 1000 years of its power.  That didn’t last long after that, since World War I came along and ended any pretense of its rule.

baroque building in Zemun

Belgrade proper has been occupied since before Roman times.  Its huge fortress was a frontier post of the Roman Empire and has been used continuously since then.  Each succeeding power changed and added to the fortress until it was mostly destroyed during World War I.  For centuries, the populace of Belgrade lived inside the walls, down near the Danube, while the ruling class lived atop the hill where the administrative and religious parts of the fortress stood.  Below, the Sava and Danube Rivers come together, forming the mighty Danube flows for nearly 1800 miles to the Black Sea.