BELGRADE
Arrived in almost 30 degrees C Belgrade from 8 degrees C Stockholm. After all the extremely long lines to get through security at Arlanda Airport, getting into Serbia was a breeze. The cab ride into town didn’t take too long and passed by the old massive Yugoslavian parliament building and the park near where NATO bombs had destroyed structures during the Balkan War. The cab driver was quick to point them out and said he cried when Tito died. He was only one year old at the time, so it likely didn’t have anything to do with the change in political structure. Nonetheless, that experience has, understandably, colored the country’s perception of the Western alliance and their reaction to the Ukraine War.
After checking in at the hotel in the pedestrian zone, on Knez Mihailov, I set out to explore the major churches in the area. As it was Monday and the museums were closed, it was a good day to do everything that didn’t include a museum.
I started off walking past Hotel Moscow, a massive Russian Secessionist styled edifice. The hotel’s updated website is quick to mention that it is 100% Serbian owned and has nothing more to do with the regime in Moscow. Continuing on down Terazije Street passing the very tall Belgrade Center tower, after about 20 minutes I reached the side entrance to St. Sava’s Cathedral, the largest Orthodox Church in the world. While it looks impressive from the outside, it is what is inside that took my breath away. The golden Orthodox Byzantine styled mosaics are simply stunning. The church is named for St. Sava, an important figure in Serbian medieval nationalist history, who was supposedly burned on the site in 1595 by the Ottoman Turks. The Cathedral is still a work in progress, much like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but while there were workers on scaffolds, it looks finished. Not like St. Mark’s, which was my next stop. This is another church where the golden mosaics behind and above the iconostasis are almost overwhelming. What was especially fun in St. Mark’s was to see the artisans working on creating a new mosaic for the right side of the church. A large tarp was laid out on the church floor and on it were three not quite complete mosaics. The largest in the middle was of Jesus and the two smaller side ones of angels. The mosaic tiles and glue that were still to be used to complete the work lay between the large Jesus and one of the angels. It was impressive enough on the floor, but on the walls it will be magnificent.
On the way back to Republic Square and the pedestrian zone, I passed the National Assembly, with a major construction project going on in front and the New and Old Palace buildings.
Republic Square is a central gathering place. The equestrian statue of Prince Mihailo in front of the National Museum is the meeting point for free city tours among others. The National Museum is on one side of the square and the National Theater on another. Both are very impressive structures. The pedestrian zone, which has every imaginable shop, coffee shop and restaurant, starts at Republic Square and continues on to Kalemegdan Park and Belgrade Fortress. In the Park are two churches that are not to be missed, St. Kuzica’s and St. Petka’s. These are often used for local weddings, and there were preparations for one in St. Petka’s while I was there. These are the oldest churches in the city with dark beautifully painted frescos covering the Romanesque interiors. The larger of the two, St. Kuzica, is lighter than it’s neighboring sister, but both are amazing. The view from their gardens over the Danube is also spectacular.
Heading back into the Fortress area means going through Despot’s Gate to get to the Victory Memorial and overviews of the spot where the Sava and Danube rivers meet. The convergence of rivers is traditionally a sacred site and this is no different.
After leaving the park, I headed to the last church of the day, the Serbian Orthodox Church right near the museum for Princess Ljubica’s residence. There was church service going on while I was visiting, but there were only a few people there. On the other hand, it was Monday night and not a weekend evening. The paintings and iconostasis were, as seemingly always in Belgrade, quite impressive.
The National Museum opened at 10am and cost, with the special exhibit on Women in the Classical Period, 600 SRD, ca. E5. The ground floor is devoted to the Neolithic through the Roman Period, the second to the medieval to the end of the 19th, and the third floor to the special exhibit, 20th C Yugoslavian art and European art. The Neolithic collection includes the obligatory bones and stone, obsidian tools, but also a few carved stone figures from ca. 8,000 BCE that reminded me of those from Göbekli Tepe. I asked the curator about them and while these are younger by about 2,000 years than their Turkish cousins, there is evidence from the digs that the human bones found where the stones were have DNA that would indicate a connection with the earlier site. The showcases also have a number of Neolithic goddess figurines with detailed design work. The special exhibit showcased about a 30 cm high marble statue of Pallas Athena from the 4th C BCE that is supposedly an exact smaller replica of her in the Acropolis in Athens. The plaque said that these ancient marble replicas are extremely rare. The medieval exhibit showcases a number of icons in Russian, Serbian and Byzantine styles.
The curator of the Neolithic section was the only person I could find who could give me public transportation directions to the Vinča archeological site, where many of the objects in the collection were from. Even he had to call a colleague who worked at the site to confirm that the directions were correct. It involved taking the Nr. 31 bus to the Belgrade Center stop, transferring to the Nr. 7 tram and at the end of that line, transferring to the Nr. 307 bus. The transfers weren’t the only confusing thing, buying a ticket was equally complicated. The public transport website says that tickets can be bought at kiosks or from the driver/conductor. Hah! I tried on four rides and at three kiosks before I finally found a kiosk that would sell me a day ticket. An inspector came through on the tram before I was able to purchase the ticket and when I explained to him that I needed to buy a ticket but couldn’t he just moved on. The trip to Vinča on public transportation takes well over an hour, even though it is only 15km from the city. After getting off the bus, there is a short walk down a path and then along the Danube to the site, which is up a series of stairs. The actual dig is covered, but there is a museum and a replica of the houses the Vinča civilization used in its earliest times. The Vinča’s were the proto-Europeans along the Danube, so their culture and their art were important for later European developments. The site was used from ca. 5,700 BCE to 1,600 CE. The Neolithic lasted until ca. 3,200, followed by the Bronze Age with the Vatin culture, which used metal tools; from the last period ca. 800-1,600 the archeological dig has uncovered the largest Serbian necropolis. The Vinča Culture is somewhat earlier than the Varna’s that I had mentioned in the Bulgarian blogs.
From Vinča, I headed back to Belgrade and on to Zemun with the Nr. 84 bus. In Zemun, there are nice cafes lining the Danube Quay on the walk up to the Gardo Tower. This was built by the Habsburg’s as the lookout from their southernmost point for holding off the Ottoman Empire’s incursions. This clearly didn’t always work, but the view from the tower is impressive.
There is a lot to see and do in Belgrade and if nightlife is important to you, then this seems to be a great city for partying. It is a loud city, the contrast with Sweden and Finland was remarkable in this aspect. People, traffic and general noise make the city come alive with movement – and with smoke; it seems everyone has a cigarette in their mouth when sitting in the cafes or restaurants. For those who seek a bit more solace, the city luckily has a number of parks, including the Kalemegdan, where bird songs can still be heard.
The next stop on my journey was Pristina and as the bus was leaving Belgrade there was a large sign saying Kosovo is Serbia. It foretold some of what I found in the capital of that country.
