City of Beograd

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INTRODUCTION

Belgrade (BEOGRAD) came into being and expanded at the point of furthest penetration of the Balkan hills into the spacious Pannonic plain, at the place where the waters of the Sava and Danube almost surround the Kalemegdan - Terazije crag. In the old slavic "Belgrade" or "Beograd" meant "White (Beo-) Fortress (-grad)". Nowadays, the word "grad" means city, therefore many believe (incorrectly) that Belgrade means "White City".

Bust of Roman Statue

The boundary between two worlds embodied by big plains in the north and hills in the south and the big rivers Danube, Sava, Tisa and Morava caused people to settle down in the locality very early and stay there to date. Near Belgrade, there are two world-renowned prehistoric localities: Starcevo in the district of Banat and Vinca on the right bank of the Danube downstream from Belgrade. Many items associated with the Vinca and Starcevo cultures have been found throughout the Belgrade region.

Belgrade was referred to in history much later for the first time, probably by Apolonius of Rhodes (about 295-216 B.C.) in his EPIC ABOUT THE ARGONAUTS. Apolonius describes a rock the argonauts sailed by, at a point of the Danube's bifurcation. This rock is undoubtedly the Kalemegdan crag, the surroundings of which were inhabited by members of the Thracian-Cimmerian tribes.

The Belgrade region was invaded subsequently by the Celts on their way to the deep south of the Balkans. Having been defeated at Delphi (279 B.C.), the Celts returned to the Danube Basin, where some of them settled down for good. These Celts, the Scordiscs, introduced the iron plough and the potter's wheel here, thus upgrading the local industry considerably. They built a fortified settlement on the site of the present Belgrade, then known as Singidunum, and assimilated the local population. Their economic and cultural attainments are also illustrated by the fact that they were even minting coins then.

Two centuries after the settlement of the Celts, the Scordiscan territory was invaded by the Dacians and soon after that, it was put under the Roman rule with the arrival of Roman legions. The Scordiscan land was annexed to the Roman Empire by Emperor Tiberius and from then onwards, the Celtic Singidunum was always a garrison town for Roman troops. Towards the end of the 1^st century A.D., the Roman 4^th Flavian Legion was stationed in Singidunum and a fort (castrum) was built for it on the site of the present Belgrade fortress. Its remains can still be seen. Besides the fort, a civilian settlement was also built, the centre of which was around the present Ulica 7.jula (a Belgrade street).

Kalemegdan

Initially, Singidunum was in the Province of Moesia, and when this province was divided during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 A.D.), it became a part of Upper Moesia as an important component of the system of defence of the Empire's north-eastern frontiers. The Roman culture left a lot of traces in the town and its surroundings. The local population was joined by Greek, Thracian and oriental settlers. The presence of the latter is confirmed by the emergence of the cult of the Persian god Mithras. The progress made by the town is also corroborated by the fact that it was granted the municipal rights, i.e., administrative and judicial autonomy. Towards the end of the 3^rd century, Singidunum was granted the status of a colony, which was the highest status a provincial town could achieve at that time. The town was visited by several Roman emperors, including: Septimius Severus, Constans II and Diocletian, not to mention the fact that Emperor Jovian (363-364 A.D.) was born in Singidunum.

THE EPOCH OF MIGRATIONS AND THE MIDDLE AGES

The big migrations of peoples touched also the region of the present Belgrade. The Hun state was based in the plains north of Singidunum and the Huns took the town in 441 A.D., when they pilfered it thoroughly and then razed it to the ground. Following the collapse of the Hun state, a Germanic tribe, the Gepidaes, moved into the locality. After them, the town and its surroundings fell under the Byzantine rule. However, since they were not strong enough, the Byzantines didn't manage to restore and fortify the town, so that it changed masters several times in the clashes between the Byzantines and the Goths. The absence of rule or a state of poor rule lasted until the middle of the 6th century, when Emperor Justinian restored the old and built new fortifications on the northern border. Following the restoration of the border, the Slavs appeared in the region for the first time, in small numbers at first and then on a larger scale together with the Avars. Singidunum probably already had its Slav name then, since its surroundings were inhabited by the Slavs by Emperor Iracleus' permission. The first written record of the town's Slav name dates back only to 878 A.D. Clemence and Naum passed through Belgrade towards the end of the 9th century, when it was under the Avar rule.

The political circumstances in the Danube Basin lands and thereby also the fate of Belgrade, were determined for a long time by the mutual relationships of the Bulgars, Byzantines and Hungarians. In their clashes, the Bulgars were dealt with first and the Hungarians took Belgrade for the first time in 1127 and demolished it in the process. The Byzantines managed to retake Belgrade in a last-ditch effort and expand their rule to the north of it. However, the Hungarians took it over already towards the end of the 12^th century and their rule was to last until 1521, with short, though significant intervals.

SERBIAN BELGRADE

Belgrade became a Serbian possession in 1284 for the first time. King Stephen V of Hungary gave Belgrade and the Province of Macva to his son-in-law King Dragutin, who had renounced the throne of Raska (Old Serbia) in favor of his brother Milutin two years earlier. Belgrade remained in Serbian hands three years after Dragutin's death (1316), until it was taken by King Charles Robert of Hungary. It is beyond any doubt that the influx of Serbians into the Danube Basin rose during Dragutin's rule. Although the subsequent aspirations of Serbian rulers were clear, they were not quite up to the task of taking Belgrade and keeping it.

The ethnic picture of the Belgrade region changed again after the Battle of Kosovo, when Serbian people migrated northwards in large numbers. That was also the time when the centre of Serbian state began to shift towards the banks of the Sava and Danube.

Following the Battle of Ankara (1402), in which he participated on Sultan Bayezid's side as his vassal, Despot Stefan Lazarevic straightened up the circumstances in Serbia and acquired Belgrade under an agreement with King Sigismund of Hungary. He restored Belgrade thoroughly and built it up further. Double walls and a castle were built in Gornji grad (Upper Fortress), an infirmary was set up and the economy and culture were making a fine progress when Serbian freedom was drawing to a close. Constantine the Philosopher, one of the greatest medieval Serbian writers, lived and wrote his works in Belgrade. Just before his death, Stefan Lazarevic secured Hungarian support for his successor Djuradj Brankovic, but even so, Belgrade was handed back to Hungary in 1427.

DEFENSE OF EUROPE AND TURKISH DOMINATION

Assassination

After occasional looting raids, the Turks launched the first true attack on Belgrade in 1440, when Sultan Murad II with his 20,000 soldiers kept the town under a siege for three months without any success. In the next eighty years, Belgrade stood on the rampart of Europe and its civilization. In that period, there were not many years in which there were no clashes, and the Turks restored and reinforced the Arnov Fortress on Mt. Avala in the vicinity of the then Hungarian-held Belgrade.

The next big siege of Belgrade was conducted by the troops of Mohammed the Conqueror. Although heavily outnumbered, the town's small garrison put up a heroic resistance to the Turkish troops. When the situation became really bad for the defenders, J�nos Hunyadi and his troops managed to reach the town by the Danube, so that also the last charge by the Turks was repelled with heavy casualties on their side. The Turks withdrew and the plague ravaged the town. Hunyadi and the leader of the volunteers, Jovan Kapistran, died of the plague. The clashes went on and the new leader of the struggle against the Turks, Jovan Zapolja, was defeated in 1515 in an attack on the Arnov Fortress on Mt. Avala. An armistice was agreed on three years after the siege of Belgrade.

The Hungarian royal armed forces were largely depleted in the clashes with Turkey. Turkey's greatest ruler, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, ascended to the throne in 1520 and already in 1521, he launched a campaign against Belgrade. He took Sabac, destroyed the fortification systems on the both banks of the Sava and took Zemun, and then the Battle of Belgrade began. His janissaries stormed and took Donji grad (Lower Fortress) and went for Gornji grad (Upper Fortress) to which the few remaining defenders had withdrawn. The Serbs and Hungarians defending the town agreed to enter into negotiations and Suleyman took Belgrade on August 29. The Hungarian members of the garrison were released and the Serbs, the defenders and ordinary inhabitants alike, were taken to Istanbul. They took with them their relics: an icon of the Holy Mother, the remains of St. Petka and Empress Theophane. Suleyman the Magnificent held an imperial council session in Belgrade and the office of the Smederevo sanjak-bey (district governor) was moved to it. The fortifications were repaired and reinforced and the garrison was provided with enough troopers, among whom there were also quite a lot of Serbs for a long time, including even those who had not converted to Islam. These measures as a whole created the conditions for Belgrade to become the pivot for future clashes with Hungary. The Hungarian army was routed at Mohacs already in 1526, again on August 29, and in 1541, a new pashadom (a territorial unit governed by a pasha) was established, with seat in Buda. After a hundred years of wars and sieges, Belgrade found itself deep in the rear for the first time.

The economic recovery of Belgrade and its surroundings went at a fast pace. Already in 1533, there was a big Dubrovnik community in Belgrade, whose members were engaged in commerce and financial dealings. Moreover, Belgrade was subjected to a thorough orientalisation and Islamization. Christian churches were turned into mosques and the wealthy Turkish endowers had new mosques built to bring glory to Allah. Instead of being detrimental to Belgrade's economy like in the past, wars became useful to it then. Troops gathered around Belgrade in preparation for frequent campaigns and sold their booty in it on their return, and some troops spent winters in and around it. A foundry was built in it, where cannons, cannon balls and other guns were cast. Further additions were a shipyard for the construction of shaikas and nasads (Turkish river fleet ships) and a gunpowder grinding mill by the Sava, on the fortress grounds. Besides a fish and livestock market (where also slaves were traded), also shopping and commercial areas were developed, mostly along the present Ulica Cara Dusana (a Belgrade street). Hans (inns) and caravanserais (stopping places for caravans) were set up for travelling merchants, so that Belgrade acquired the image of a prosperous oriental town.

Of course, the Turks who had settled down there and the local Greek, Jewish and Armenian merchants benefited the most from such prosperity. Even so, some of the prosperity was undoubtedly reflected also on the native population. In the middle of the 16^th century, Trajan Gundulic ran a Cyrillic printing shop in which the Belgrade Book of the Four Gospels was printed. A Jesuit school was run for some time in Belgrade and the town also had an infirmary. The Turks and the Islamised local population had a number of low level schools for the religious instruction of children, as well as a religious school in which well-known Turkish writers and scholars taught. The descriptions of the then Belgrade were left to us by the European writers who were passing through it for various reasons, and by Evli Chelebi, a well-known Turkish writer of travel accounts.

Superficially looking, the idyllic picture of urban life was spoiled by strained social and religious relations, because the previous religious tolerance began to dwindle gradually with the decline of the Turkish Empire's power and the absence of further conquests.

THE CENTURY OF AUSTRO-TURKISH CLASHES

Field of battle

In the summer of 1683, a large army set off from Belgrade in an attempt to take Vienna. That was Turkey's last major effort to change the fortune of war in its own favour and penetrate deep into the West with new energies. The campaign was a failure and the kerasker (commander-in-chief) of this army, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, was strangled in his Belgrade palace towards the end of that year by the Sultan's order. Belgrade was pilfered by the defeated army on its return to it. The so gloriously started war was getting close to Belgrade. Following the fall of Buda, Mohacs, Osijek and Petrovaradin, the imperial troops reached Belgrade in the summer of 1688. The variegated Christian army was headed by Kurf�rst (Elector Prince) Maximilian. The besieging forces crossed the Sava using Ada Ciganlija (a river island) as a natural stepping stone, repelled a Turkish attack and besieged the town. They waited some time for the big siege guns to arrive and after a prolonged siege, they took Belgrade by storm on 6 September 1688. The Christian forces kept pushing the Turks further south and they were joined by the Serbian population in the process. While the central Balkans were aflame, the Austrians were restoring the fortress in accordance with the designs prepared by Andrea Cornara, an engineer born in Venice. The defeat of the Christian forces near Kacanik on the one hand, and the French attack on Habsburg possessions in Rhineland on the other, caused the Christian forces to withdraw. After two years of Austrian rule, Belgrade fell into Turkish hands again. Thousands of Serbs crossed the Sava and Danube together with the Christian forces, and they settled in what is now Vojvodina, reaching Szentendre (Hungary) in the north. After a number of battles, the war was ended in 1699 on the basis of a peace treaty signed in Sremski Karlovci. Turkey lost big possessions, though retaining a part of Srem south-east of the Mitrovica-Slankamen line and a part of Banat between the Tisa and Moria. Belgrade was near the frontier once again.

Kalemegdan

The peace did not last long. The Austrian army led by Prince Eug�ne de Savoie-Carignan beat the Turks in several battles and in the summer of 1717, it besieged Belgrade. A big Turkish army arrived to help the besieged garrison, so that Prince Eug�ne's troops got stuck between the besieged garrison and the newly arrived Turkish troops.

Emperor Charles VI took steps towards having Belgrade fortified further. It was decided that the fortress should be remodelled in accordance with the then most modern Voban system. The designs for the new fortifications, with a bastion belt surrounding the town, were made by Nicholas Doxat de Morez, who also managed the project. The upper and lower fortresses became integral parts of the new, modern Belgrade Fortress and the bastion stretched along the following present Belgrade streets: Toplicin venac, Obilicev venac, Trg republike and Dositejeva ulica towards the Danube.

Battle for Belgrade

During the Austrian rule, 1717-1739, also Germans settled down in Belgrade and institutions of importance for the Serbian people were established. Belgrade became the seat of the Serbian Metropolitan (archbishop), national education which had died out under Turkish rule was being revived and members of the Serbian community were getting involved in the province's economic life.

After 22 years of keeping Belgrade in its hands, Austria penetrated the Balkans for the third time. The ambitiously conceived war in an alliance with Russia was arrested because of the developments in France. The Austrian forces were withdrawn from Belgrade and northern Serbia, and by the Svishtov Peace Treaty, it was tried to protect from Turkish reprisal the Serbians who took part in the war as members of special volunteer units.

THE CAPITAL OF SERBIA AND YUGOSLAVIA

Serb Uprising

It was realised in Turkey at last that the turbulent Balkans could be retained only if radical reforms are made. Unfortunately, all attempts at carrying out reforms failed because of the Turkish inert, corrupt and outdated administration and the self-will of local masters. Once the reform-oriented Vizier of Belgrade, Haji Mustafa-Pasha, was killed in his residence in the Belgrade Fortress, it was clear that the torrent of people's until then suppressed dissatisfaction would burst out in a matter of days.

Karadjordje kept Belgrade loosely surrounded already in the initial stages of the 1804 Insurrection. Once the insurgent forces got consolidated enough, Belgrade was besieged and then taken, after which all government institutions of the restored Serbia were established.

The heroic epic poem about the insurrection was ended by a collapse and new violence. Another insurrection took place two years later. The leader of the Second Insurrection, Miloa Obrenovic, decided on a slow stripping Turkey of power. By introducing popular courts, making his title of prince a hereditary one and taking the advantage of the Turkish officials' poor financial standing, Miloa persistently decreased the scope of competencies of the Turkish authorities. In addition, once Belgrade was made the capital instead of Kragujevac, action was taken towards ridding Belgrade of oriental architecture, customs and clothing. Hardly visible initially, the budding European style began to prevail gradually.

Serbian Soldier

The duality of the Serbian and Turkish government, involving almost daily conflicts, exploded after the incident at the Cukur fountain in 1862. The Principality mobilised its forces which surrounded the Turks in the fortress. The conflict was settled with the involvement of European powers in such a way that the Turkish population was moved out of Serbia first, while the Turkish garrisons were moved out several years later, in 1867. At one time, Belgrade competed with Novi Sad ("Serbian Athens") for the title of the Serbian people's cultural and political centre. Towards the end of the 19th century, Belgrade became the cultural centre not only of the Serbians, but also of a portion of the Yugoslavs. Although funds were scarce, various institutions, schools, libraries, archives and theatres were established then. The small number of those who had received education elsewhere in Europe was joined by those graduating from domestic university departments. The hans (inns) and caravanserais were being replaced with newly built hotels and the European-style coffee-houses and restaurants were being opened. Belgrade got its electrical street lighting system before Paris and London got theirs. The means of public transport were horse-towed trams, which were soon replaced with electric-drive ones. All this was paralleled by the development of a modern legislative system, as well as by a turmoil of political and dynastic struggles. Belgrade was a witness to the assassination of two rulers and three dynastic changes on the Serbian throne.

Flag

The citizens of Belgrade welcomed with great excitement the removal of the Turkish flag from the fortress (1876) and bid farewell to and welcomed back the veterans of the both Balkan wars just as enthusiastically. Trains had been running along the railway passing through it for full thirty years, when the cannon shells fired at Belgrade marked the beginning of the First World War. The defence of Belgrade lasted fifteen long months in 1914 and 1915, and then, after being thoroughly demolished, the town was taken by the far superior troops commanded by Field Marshal Von Mackensen.

The occupation lasted three long years, followed by a slow and painstaking recovery. As the capital of a new state, Belgrade adjusted to the new needs. The National Assembly (parliament) building, the construction of which began before the First World War, was completed, new government and ministry buildings were erected in Ulica Kneza Milos (a Belgrade street), the National Theatre building was restored, new university buildings were built, the first-ever department store in the Balkans was opened, a new zoo was set up...The first mostly students' sports societies established in the 19^th century turned into sports clubs; instead of fields with a score or two spectators on each, sports grounds and stadiums for thousands of spectators were built. The 16^th and 17^th century oriental life on the streets of Belgrade was replaced by a modern one, involving modern means of transport, as well as frequent demonstrations and the explosion of discontent on March 27, 1941...And then, the bombing in the sunny morning of April 6 and war again.

Serbian Crest

The German occupation, pre-trial confinement facilities and concentration camps at Banjica and Staro sajmiate lasted forty six months. The new wounds inflicted by the heavy bombing in the spring of 1944 were added to the still unhealed ones inflicted by the April 1941 bombing. After a big battle fought in the autumn of 1944, Belgrade was liberated on 20 October. The true end of the war was still months away, after which long years of restoration and development were to come.

What about Belgrade nowadays? A city with more than a million inhabitants, ten or so theatres, almost thirty museums, three big libraries and twenty or so smaller ones....has grown around the crag referred to by Apolonius of Rhodes in his ancient epic. Not far from the small port from the time of Stefan Lazarevic, there now stands a port where several million tonnes of goods are handled each year. His 15^th century infirmary has been replaced with several modern clinical centres and the early 18th century elementary school with hundreds of elementary and secondary schools, scores of university departments and institutes, and an academy of sciences and arts. Caught in the gap between wanting and being able to do something at the turn of the millennium and being equidistant from the wealthy West and the poor East, Belgrade is striving for a new tomorrow and willing to make up for everything the unsympathetic and unjust history has denied it and deprived it of on more than one occasion.