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==Geography== ==Geography==
]
] in the ], early XV century]]
The historical core of Belgrade is situated on the ], while ] and ] geographically belong to ]. It lies at the point where the river ] flows into the ]. The city's main traffic artery stretches from ], along ], and through ] to ]. At Knez Mihailova Street, the coordinates of Belgrade are marked: 44°49'14" N 20°27'44" E, at an altitude of 116.75 m.

Belgrade is at the intersection of roads that lead between Eastern and Western Europe, from the ]-] valley and the ]-] valley, to the shores of the ], ] and to the ]. The city lies on the ], the river which connects the Western and Central European countries with the countries of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. After the construction of an ] and the ] power station, Belgrade became a river and ]. Ships from the ] sail to its docks, and with the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube canal, Belgrade came to the center of the most important sailing route in Europe: the North Sea - Atlantic - Black Sea route.

===Climate===
Belgrade has a moderate ], with four seasons. Autumn is longer than spring, with long sunny and warm periods; this is known as an ]. Winter is not so severe, with an average of 21 days of sub-zero temperature. January is the coldest month, with an average temperature of 0.4 °C. The spring is usually short and rainy, while the summer arrives abruptly.

The average annual air temperature, for the period from 1961 to 1990 was 11.9 °C. The hottest months are July (21.7 °C) and August (21.3 °C). The lowest temperature in Belgrade was recorded on January 10, 1893 (-26.2 °C), and the highest on August 12, 1921 and on September 9, 1946 (41.8 °C). The average annual number of days with temperatures higher than 30 °C - the so-called tropical days - is 31 and that of summer days with temperature higher than 25 °C is 95.

The southeast-east wind ], which blows from the ] and brings clear and dry weather, is characteristic of the local climate. It mostly blows in autumn and winter, in 2-3 days intervals. The average speed of Košava is 25-43 km/h but certain strokes can reach up to 130 km/h. Košava is the strongest air cleaner of Belgrade.

The average annual ] on Belgrade and its surroundings is 685 mm. The rainiest months are May and June. The average number of sunny hours over the year is 2.096 hours. There are about 10 hours of sun a day in July and August, while December and January are the cloudiest, with only 2 to 2.3 hours of sun per day. The average number of snowy days is 27; snow cover lasts from 30 to 44 days, and its average thickness is 14 to 25 cm.


==History== ==History==
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Those preferring a more traditional Serbian night life experience accompanied by traditional music, known as '']'' (roughly translated as ''Old Town Music''), typical of northern Serbia's urban environments, can opt for a night out at ], the city's old ] neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the ] and early ]. Skadar Street (the centre of '''''Skadar'''lija'') and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants, which date back to that period.<ref></ref> At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery founded in the first half of the 19th century.<ref></ref> Those preferring a more traditional Serbian night life experience accompanied by traditional music, known as '']'' (roughly translated as ''Old Town Music''), typical of northern Serbia's urban environments, can opt for a night out at ], the city's old ] neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the ] and early ]. Skadar Street (the centre of '''''Skadar'''lija'') and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants, which date back to that period.<ref></ref> At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery founded in the first half of the 19th century.<ref></ref>

Belgrade also has a small ] where ] (], ], ], ]) people enjoy socializing. The city has a few permanent gay clubs, as well as a few gay and gay-friendly cafes, in the centre of the city. Additionaly, LGBT parties are hosted monthly, promoted individually through one of Serbia's on-line LGBT portals, Gay Serbia.<ref></ref> Intolerance towards sexual minorities is still somewhat common in Belgrade and Serbia.<ref></ref>


===Sport=== ===Sport===

Revision as of 01:48, 23 October 2006

For other uses, see Belgrade (disambiguation).

Template:Serbian cities 4 Belgrade (Serbian: Београд or Beograd listen) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe, first emerging as prehistoric Vinča in 4800 BC, it was settled in the 3rd century BC by the Celts, before becoming the Roman settlement of Singidunum. The Slavic name Beligrad (a form of Beograd) was first recorded in 878 AD. It has been the capital of Serbia since 1403, and was the capital of various South Slav states from 1918 until 2003, as well as Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 until 2006.

The city lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers in north central Serbia, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula. The population of Belgrade, according to the Serbian census of 2002, is 1,576,124. It is the largest city on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and by population ranks fourth in the Balkans behind Istanbul, Athens and Bucharest.

Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government. Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each of which has its own local council. Belgrade spreads over 3.6% of the territory of Serbia, and 21% of the Serbian population (excluding that of the Kosovo-Metohia province) lives in the city. It is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.

Geography

History

See also: Timeline of Belgrade

The Vinča culture existed in or near Belgrade and dominated the Balkans about 7,000 years ago. Settled in the 3rd century BC by the Celts before becoming the Roman settlement of Singidunum, the site passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.

Middle Ages

The Siege of Belgrade in 1456

Singidunum experienced occupation by successive invaders of the region—Huns, Sarmatians, Ostrogoths and Avars—before the arrival of the Slavs (Serbs) around 630 AD. The first record of the Slavic name Beograd dates back to 878 A.D., during the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire. For about four centuries the city remained a subject of warfare between Byzantium, Royal Hungary and First Bulgarian Empire. It finally passed to Serbian rule as a part of Kingdom of Syrmia in 1284. The first Serbian king to rule over Belgrade was Dragutin (1276–1282), the ruler of the Kingdom of Syrmia, who received it as a gift from his father-in-law, the Hungarian king Ladislav IV.

"I cometh and found the noblest burgh from ancient times, the grand town of Belgrade, by sorry fate destroyed and nearly void. Having rebuilt it, I consecrated it to the Holy Mother of God".

Despot Stefan Lazarević on Belgrade in 1420 A.D.

Following terrible losses at the Battle of Kosovo of 1389, the Serbian Empire began to crumble, the south being conquered by the Ottoman Empire. However, the north resisted in the form of the Serbian Despotate, which had Belgrade as its capital. The city flourished under Despot Stefan Lazarević, son of the famous Serbian ruler Lazar Hrebljanović. Its ancient walls were refortified, along with its castles, harbours and churches, which helped the Despotate to avoid surrender to the Ottoman Turks for almost 70 years. At that time Belgrade became a haven for many Balkan peoples escaping Ottoman control. It is thought that the city had a population of some 40-50,000 at this time. During the reign of Đurađ Branković, most of the Serbian Despotate fell to the Ottomans, but Belgrade itself invited in Hungarian kings for protection. The Ottomans, however, wanted to conquer Belgrade as it presented an obstacle to their further advance into central Europe. They attacked in 1456, leading to the famous Siege of Belgrade where the Christian army under John Hunyadi successfully defended the city from the Ottomans.

Turkish conquest

Belgrade 1789
The Austrian Clock Tower in the Kalemegdan Fortress

Under Suleyman the Magnificent, on 28 August 1521, the fort was captured by the Ottoman Empire. The city was largely razed to the ground by the conquering Ottomans. For the next 150 years or so it was a peaceful town, and the seat of the district (sanjak). It attracted new traders and inhabitants - Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Ragusan traders, and others. It is thought that the city's population was around the 100,000 mark in the 17th century. It became more of an Oriental town, with Ottoman architecture and many new mosques. It was affected by a major Serb rebellion in 1594 (the Banat Uprising), which was crushed by the Turks, who burned churches and the relics (mortal remains) of Saint Sava on the Vračar plateau, an event the Temple of Saint Sava was built to commemorate in more recent times. Thrice occupied by Austria (1688-1690, 1717-1739, 1789-1791), it was recaptured and substantially razed each time by the Ottomans. During this period, the city was affected by the two Great Serbian Migrations, in which hundreds of thousands of Serbs, led by their patriarchs, retreated together with the Austrians into the Habsburg Empire in 1690 and 1737-39, settling in today's Vojvodina and Slavonia. During the First Serbian Uprising the Serbian rebels held the city from January 8 1806 to 1813, when it was retaken by the Ottomans. In 1817 it became the capital of the autonomous Principality of Serbia (except in the period from 18181841, when Kragujevac was the country's capital).

After independence

File:Terazije 1928.jpg
Terazije square in 1928

The capital was moved from Kragujevac to Belgrade by Prince Mihailo Obrenović, following the departure of the town's Turkish garrison in 1867. With Serbia's full independence in 1878 and its transformation into the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882, Belgrade once again became a key city in the Balkans, developing rapidly. Nevertheless, despite the opening of a railway to Niš, Serbia's second city, conditions in Serbia as a whole remained those of an overwhelmingly agrarian country, and in 1900 the capital had only 69,100 inhabitants. On the other hand, by 1905 the population had grown to more than 80,000, and by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, it had surpassed the 100,000 mark, not counting Zemun which then belonged to Austria-Hungary.

After the occupation by Austro-Hungarian and German troops in 1915-1918 during the First World War, Belgrade experienced faster growth and significant modernisation as the capital of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the 1920s and 1930s, growing in population to 239,000 by 1931 with the incorporation of the western suburb of Zemun, formerly on the Austro-Hungarian bank of the river. By 1940, the population had reached about 320,000. The population growth rate between 1921 and 1948 averaged 4.08% a year.

On March 25, 1941, the country joined the Axis, signing the Tripartite Pact. This was immediately followed by a coup d'état and mass protests in Belgrade. On 6-April 7, 1941, the city was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, killing thousands of people. Yugoslavia was invaded by German, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces, aided by domestic Albanians and Croats, and the western suburbs were incorporated into a Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia. The city was bombed by the Allies as well, on 16-April 17 1944. Both bombings happened to fall on Orthodox Christian Easter. Most of the city remained under German occupation until October 20, 1944, when it was liberated by communist Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army. In the post-war period Belgrade grew rapidly as the capital of the renewed Yugoslavia, developing as a major industrial centre. In March 1972, Belgrade was at the centre of the last major outbreak of smallpox in Europe. The epidemic, which was contained with enforced quarantine and mass vaccination, was over by late May.

Recent history

File:Pogled sa Save-big.jpg
The historical urban core of Belgrade, Stari Grad

On March 9, 1991 massive demonstrations, lead by Vuk Drašković, were held against Slobodan Milošević in the city. Two people, 17 year old high school student Branivoje Milinović and policeman Nedeljko Kosović were killed, 203 people were injured, and 108 were arrested in the protests, which involved between 100,000 and 150,000 people (according to various media outlets). Later that day tanks were deployed onto the streets in order to restore order.

After alleged electoral fraud at local elections, protests were held in Belgrade from November 1996 to February 1997 against the government of Slobodan Milošević. These protests brought Zoran Đinđić to power as the first democratically elected mayor of Belgrade in the post-communist period.

NATO bombing caused substantial damage to the city during the Kosovo War in 1999. Among the sites bombed were the buildings of several ministries, the RTS (Radio Television of Serbia) building, which killed 16 technicians, several hospsitals, the Jugoslavija Hotel, the Central Committee building, the Avala TV Tower, and the Chinese embassy.

After elections in 2000, Belgrade was the site of major demonstrations with over half a million people on the streets (800,000 by police estimates, over 1,000,000 according to Misha Glenny) which caused the ousting of president Milošević.

Government & politics

File:Belgrad palac1.gif
Known as the Old Palace, the building of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade

The current mayor of Belgrade is Nenad Bogdanović, a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected in 2004. The first democratically elected mayor of Belgrade in modern times was Dr. Zoran Đinđić, elected in 1996. Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government. Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each of which has its own local council.

Municipalities

See also: Subdivisions of Belgrade and List of Belgrade neighborhoods and suburbs

The city is divided into 17 municipalities, ten with "urban" status, and seven with "suburban" status. The suburban municipalities have slightly expanded municipal powers, mainly with regard to construction, town planning and public utility provision.

Name Area (km) Population (1991 census) Population (2002 census) Urban/Suburban
Barajevo 213 20,846 24,641 Suburban
Čukarica 156 150,257 168,508 Urban
Grocka 289 65,735 75,466 Suburban
Lazarevac 384 57,848 58,511 Suburban
Mladenovac 339 54,517 52,490 Suburban
Novi Beograd 41 218,633 217,773 Urban
Obrenovac 411 67,654 70,975 Suburban
Palilula 451 150,208 155,902 Urban
Rakovica 31 96,300 99,000 Urban
Savski Venac 14 45,961 42,505 Urban
Sopot 271 19,977 20,390 Suburban
Stari Grad 5 68,552 55,543 Urban
Surčin Part of Zemun municipality until 2004. Suburban
Voždovac 148 156,373 151,768 Urban
Vračar 3 67,438 58,386 Urban
Zemun 438 176,158 191,645 Urban
Zvezdara 32 135,694 132,621 Urban
TOTAL 3227 1,552,151 1,576,124 n/a
Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Belgrade See also: Historical population of Belgrade
File:Hram sv sava.jpg
The Temple of Saint Sava, the largest Serb Orthodox place of worship in the world, is located in Belgrade

Belgrade has a population of 1,576,124 as recorded in the 2002 Serbian census. The main ethnic groups were Serbs (1,417,187), Yugoslavs (22,161), Montenegrins (21,190), Roma (19,191), Croats (10,381), Macedonians (8,372), and Muslims by nationality (4,617). There are also several historic religious communities in Belgrade, of which the Serb Orthodox is by far the largest, with 1,429,170 adherents. There are also 20,366 Muslims and 16,305 Roman Catholics. There used to be a significant Jewish community, but following the Nazi occupation, and many Jews' subsequent emigration to Israel, their numbers have fallen to a mere 415. There are also 3,796 Protestants in the city.

In addition to its native born population, Belgrade is home to many Serbs from all over the former Yugoslavia, who either came seeking a better, or fled as refugees from war and ethnic cleansing. Unofficially - taking into account the large number of Serb refugees from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and displaced persons from the province of Kosovo-Metohia - the population may surpass 2 million. Many non-Serbs also live in Belgrade, largely as a result of Belgrade having been the capital of the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia. There are an estimated several thousand Chinese in Belgrade, who began immigrating in the mid-1990s. Blok 70 in New Belgrade is known to Belgraders as the Chinese quarter.

Economy

File:IM000487 resize.JPG
The building of the National Bank of Serbia, near Slavija Square

Belgrade is the most economically developed part of Serbia. More than 30% of Serbia's GDP is generated by the city, which also has more than 30% of Serbia's employed population. The city's economy has been growing strongly since 2000. During the 90s, the city was severely affected, like the rest of Serbia, by an internationally imposed trade embargo. The hyperinflation of the Yugoslav dinar, the highest ever recorded in the world, also decimated the city's economy. The National Bank of Serbia is located in the city. Major companies based in Belgrade include Jat Airways, Telekom Srbija, Telenor Serbia, Delta Holding, and many others.

As of August 2006, the average gross salary in Belgrade amounted to 40,384 Serbian dinars (about 505 euro, 640 USD, or 340 Pound sterling) the highest of any district in Serbia. The average net salary was 27,596 Serbian dinars (about 345 euro, 440 USD, or 230 Pound sterling).

Culture

Main article: Culture of Belgrade
The building of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Belgrade hosts many annual cultural events, including FEST (Belgrade Film Festival), BITEF (Belgrade Theatre Festival), BELEF (Belgrade Summer Festival), BEMUS (Belgrade Music Festival), Belgrade Book Fair, and the Belgrade Beer Festival. The Nobel prize winning author Ivo Andrić wrote his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina, in Belgrade. Other prominent Belgrade authors include Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić and Meša Selimović. Most of Serbia's film industry is based in Belgrade, and one of the most notable films to be made there was 1995's Palme d'Or winning Underground, directed by Emir Kusturica. The city was one of the main centres of the Yugoslav New Wave in the 1970s: VIS Idoli, Ekatarina Velika and Šarlo Akrobata were all from Belgrade. Other notable Belgrade rock acts include Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori and others. During the 1990s the city was the main centre (in the former Yugoslavia) of a musical style known as turbofolk. Today, it is the centre of the Serbian hip hop scene, with acts such as Beogradski Sindikat, Škabo, Marčelo, and most of the Bassivity Music stable hailing from or living in the city. There are many theatres, the most prominent of which are the National Theatre, the Yugoslav Theatre of Drama, the Zvezdara Theatre, and Atelje 212. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is also based in Belgrade.

Museums

File:Narodni Muzej.jpg
The National Museum on Republic Square.
See also: List of museums in Belgrade

The most prominent museum in Belgrade is the National Museum, founded in 1844, which houses a collection of more than 400,000 exhibits - including many foreign masterpieces. The famous Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje (Miroslav's Gospel) is in the museum's collection. The Military Museum is popular with foreign tourists, in part as it houses parts of a F-117 stealth aircraft shot down by Yugoslav forces, in addition to a wide range of more than 25,000 military exhibits dating as far back as to the Roman period. A similar museum is the Museum of Yugoslav Aviation which has more than 200 aircraft, of which about 50 are on display. A few of the aircraft the museum possesses are the only surviving examples of their type, such as the Fiat G.50. This musuem also displays parts of shot down US and NATO aircraft. The Ethnographic Museum, established in 1901, contains more than 150,000 items showcasing the rural and urban culture of the Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The Museum of Modern Art has a collection of around 8,540 works of art produced in Yugoslavia since 1900. The Nikola Tesla Museum, founded in 1952, preserves the personal items of Nikola Tesla, the inventor after whom the Tesla unit was named. It holds around 160,000 original documents and around 5,700 other items. The last of the major Belgrade museums is the Museum of Vuk and Dositej, which showcases the lives, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Dositej Obradović, the 19th century reformer of the Serbian literary language and the first Serbian Minister of Education respectively. One of the more unusual museums in Belgrade is the Museum of African Art, founded in the days of socialist solidarity with the undeveloped nations of the Third World.

Education

See also: List of educational institutions in Belgrade

Belgrade has two state universities, and several private institutions for higher education.Belgrade University was founded in 1808 as a Great Academy. It is one of the oldest educational institutions in the country (the oldest higher-education facility - the Teacher's College in Subotica - dates back to 1689). More than 70,000 students are studying at Belgrade University. There are 195 primary (elementary) schools and 85 secondary schools. Of the primary schools, there are 162 regular, 14 special, 15 art and 4 adult schools. The secondary school system consists of 51 vocational, 21 gymnasiums, 8 art schools and 5 special schools. There are 230,000 enrolled pupils, managed by 22,000 employees in over 500 buildings, covering around 1,100,000 sqm.

Nightlife

File:Dhbs.jpg
Statue to France
The Victor overlooking New Belgrade from the Kalemegdan Fortress

Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife, and many clubs can be found throughout the city that are open until dawn. The most recognizable nightlife feature of Belgrade are the barges (called "splavs") that are spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers.

Weekend visitors - particularly from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia - consider Belgrade more of a metropolis than the capitals of their own countries, due to what they see as the friendly atmosphere, great clubs and bars, cheap drinks, the lack of language difficulties, and the lack of restrictive night life regulation.

Famous spots for the followers of what is often termed alternative or non-mainstream music and cultural trends can enjoy famous and very well established clubs named Akademija and the famed KST (Klub Studenata Tehnike) located in the basement of the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Electrical Engineering. One of the most famous sites of alternative cultural happenings in the city is the SKC (Student Cultural Centre), located right across from Belgrade's highrise landmark, the Beograđanka. Concerts featuring famous local and foreign bands are often held at the centre. SKC is also the site of various art exhibitions, as well as public debates and discussions.

Those preferring a more traditional Serbian night life experience accompanied by traditional music, known as Starogradska (roughly translated as Old Town Music), typical of northern Serbia's urban environments, can opt for a night out at Skadarlija, the city's old bohemian neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the 19th century and early 20th century. Skadar Street (the centre of Skadarlija) and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants, which date back to that period. At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery founded in the first half of the 19th century.

Belgrade also has a small gay scene where LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people enjoy socializing. The city has a few permanent gay clubs, as well as a few gay and gay-friendly cafes, in the centre of the city. Additionaly, LGBT parties are hosted monthly, promoted individually through one of Serbia's on-line LGBT portals, Gay Serbia. Intolerance towards sexual minorities is still somewhat common in Belgrade and Serbia.

Sport

See also: List of sporting events in Belgrade
File:BGArena1.jpg
Belgrade Arena
File:Stadion CrvenaZvezda.jpg
The Red Star Belgrade stadium

There are around a thousand sports facilities in Belgrade, many of which are capable of serving all levels of sporting events. Belgrade has hosted several relatively major sporting events recently, including Eurobasket 2005, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship, and the 2006 European Waterpolo Championship. Belgrade will be the host city of the 2009 Summer Universiade, defeating the cities of Monterrey and Poznań.

The city launched two unsuccessful candidate bids to organize the Summer Olympic Games: for the 1992 Summer Olympics Belgrade was eliminated in the third round of International Olympic Committee voting, with the games going to Barcelona. The 1996 Summer Olympics ultimately went to Atlanta.

The city is home to Serbia's two best football teams, Red Star Belgrade and FC Partizan, as well as a few other first league clubs. The two big stadiums in Belgrade are the Marakana (Red Star Stadium) and the Partizan Stadium. Belgrade Arena is used for basketball matches, along with Pionir Hall.

Ada Ciganlija is a former island on the Sava river, and Belgrade's biggest sports and recreational complex. Today it is connected with the shore, creating an artificial lake on the river. It is the most popular destination for Belgraders during the city's hot summers. There are 7 kilometres of long beaches and sports facilities for various sports including golf, rugby, football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and tennis. Extreme sports are available, like bungee jumping, water skiing and paintballing. There are numerous tracks on the island, where it is possible to ride a bike, go for a walk or go jogging.

Tourism

File:Ruski car.jpg
Prince Michael Street

Since 2000, in line with country's revival of diplomatic relations with Western Europe and the USA, Belgrade has been seeing a return of foreign holidaymakers absent since the wars of the nineties.

Full of restaurants, bars, clubs, museums and situated at the confluence of two major rivers, the city has much to offer. It is also well served by air, rail and road links, with reasonable driving distances to many European cities.

The historic areas and buildings of Belgrade are among the city's premier attractions. They include Skadarlija, the National Museum and adjacent National Theatre, Zemun, Nikola Pašić Square, Terazije, Students' Square, the Kalemegdan Fortress, Prince Michael Street, the Federal Parliament, the Temple of Saint Sava, and the Old Palace. On top of this, there are many parks, monuments, cafes, restaurants and shops; both sides of the river Sava, not to mention views of the city from the Avala Monument, on a hilltop overlooking the city. Josip Broz Tito's mausoleum, called Kuća Cveća (The House of Flowers), and the nearby Topčider and Košutnjak parks are also popular, especially among visitors from the fromer Yugoslavia.

In recent years growing numbers of young people, especially from Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, have visited Belgrade to enjoy the city's nightlife.

Media

See also: List of media organisations in Belgrade

Belgrade is the most important media hub in Serbia. The city is home to the main headquarters of the national broadcaster Radio Television Serbia - RTS, which is currently in the process of being transformed into a public service broadcaster. The RTS music publishing operation is also based in Belgrade. The most popular commericial broadcaster is RTV Pink, a Serbian media multinational, known for its popular entertainment programs, which are considered by some to be sensationalist and of low quality. The most popular mainstream "alternative" broadcaster is B92, another media company, which has its own TV station, radio station, and music and book publishing arms, as well as the most popular website on the Serbian internet. Other TV stations broadcasting from Belgrade include Košava, Avala, and others which only only cover the greater Belgrade municipal area, such as Studio B and TV Politika. Numerous specialised channels are also available: SOS (sport), Metropolis (music), Art TV (art), Cinemania (film), while Happy TV (children's porgrams).

High-circulation daily newspapers published in Belgrade include Politika, Večernje novosti, Blic, Glas javnosti, and Sportski žurnal. Other dailies published in the city are Press, Borba, and Kurir. A new free distribution daily, 24 sata, was founded in the autumn of 2006. The two most popular Serbian weekly newsmagazines, NIN & Vreme, are published in Belgrade.

Architecture

See also: Religious architecture in Belgrade, Architectural projects under construction in Belgrade, List of notable buildings in Belgrade, and List of notable streets and squares in Belgrade
File:Belgrade04 661.jpg
Neo-baroque architecture in post-Ottoman Belgrade

Various parts of Belgrade have wildly varying architecture, from the center of Zemun, which is a typical one for a Central European town (Vojvodina), via still remaining Turkish-styled buildings and street layout of the centre of Belgrade, to modern architecture and layout of Novi Beograd.

File:Beograd2.jpg
Terazije, seen from Palace Albania

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Belgrade

Belgrade's public transport system is based on buses (112 lines), trams (12 lines), and trolleybuses (8 lines). The system is mostly run by the City Traffic Company (Serbian: Градско Саобраћајно Предузеће or Gradsko Saobraćajno Preduzeće, ГСП or GSP), in cooperation with some private companies on various bus routes. Belgrade also has a commuter railway network, Beovoz, run by the Serbian Railways. The city's Main Railway Station connects Belgrade with other European capitals, as well as with many of towns in Serbia. However, more popular in Serbia is travel by coach, and the capital is well served with daily connections to all major and minor towns in the country, as well as in the region. The motorway system provides for easy access by car to Novi Sad to the north, Niš to the south, and Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, to the west. As a city situated at the confluence of two major rivers, the Danube and the Sava, Belgrade has many bridges - the two main ones are Branko's Bridge and the Gazela, both of which connect the core of the city to New Belgrade. The Port of Belgrade Serbian: Лука "Београд" or Luka "Beograd") is on the Danube, and allows the city to receive goods by river. The city is served by Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (IATA: BEG), a few kilometres west of the city centre. At its peak in 1986, almost 3 million pasengers travelled through the airport, though that number dwindled to a trickle in the 1990s. Following growth since 2000, the number of passengers reached about 2 million in 2004.

Miscellaneous

Names through history

Name Notes
Singidūn(on) Named by the Celtic tribe of the Scordisci; dūn(on) means 'lodgment, enclosure', Singi is still unexplained but there are some theories; 279 BC
Singidūnum Romans conquered the city and romanized the Celtic name
Beograd, Београд Slavic name first mentioned in 878 as Beligrad in the letter of Pope John VIII to Boris of Bulgaria which means "White city / white fortress".
Biograd na Dunavu Old Croatian name, means White City on Danube
Alba Graeca Latin translation
Alba Bulgarica Latin name druing the Bulgarian rule of the city
Fehérvár Hungarian translation
Weißenburg German translation
Castelbianco Italian translation
Nandoralba In medieval Hungary up to the 14th century
Nándorfehérvár In medieval Hungary
Landorfehérvár In medieval Hungary
Veligradon Byzantine name
Veligradi, Βελιγράδι Greek name
Dar Ul Jihad (The House of War) Ottoman name
Belgrat Turkish name
Belogrados poleos
بلغراد Arabic name


International cooperation

Belgrade is twinned with the following cities:

Other forms of cooperation and city friendship similar to the twin/sister city programmes:

Honours

The City of Belgrade has received various domestic and international honours, including the Legion of Honour, the War Cross, Karađorđe's Star with Swords, and the Order of National Hero. In 2006 the Financial Times of London awarded Belgrade the title of City of the Future of Southern Europe.

Trivia

There are eight other towns or cities named after Belgrade, and all of them are in the U.S., in the states of Minnesota (two, one in St. Louis County and the other in Stearns County), Montana, Nebraska, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas. Belgrade has one of the longest dead end streets in the world, Južni Bulevar (8.2 km).

See also: Belgrade (disambiguation)

Gallery

Panorama of Old Belgrade (right) and Zemun (left) from Branko's bridge.


Footnotes

  1. ^ Vinča and its culture Cite error: The named reference "Vinca" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ City of Belgrade - History (Ancient Period) Cite error: The named reference "ancient" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. City of Belgrade - History (Important Years Through City History)
  4. ^ "Књиге резултата Пописа 2002.": "Књига 1: Национална или етничка припадност - подаци по насељима", page 14. Републички завод за статистику Србије, 2003. Cite error: The named reference "popis" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ City of Belgrade - Assembly of the City of Belgrade Cite error: The named reference "assemb" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ City of Belgrade - Urban Municipalities Cite error: The named reference "municip" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia - Municipal indicators Cite error: The named reference "mdata" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. City of Belgrade - History (Byzantine Empire)
  9. ^ City of Belgrade - History (Medieval Serbian Belgrade) Cite error: The named reference "MSH" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Battle of Kosovo
  11. Ottoman-Hungarian Wars: Siege of Belgrade in 1456 by Tom R. Kovach (Historynet.com)
  12. ^ City of Belgrade - History (Turkish and Austrian Rule) Cite error: The named reference "imperialrule" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. Духовни смисао храма Светог Саве на Врачару - Амфилохије Радовић, Епископ банатски
  14. Српски конгрес уједињења - Тајне поруке Светог Саве
  15. ^ City of Belgrade - History (Liberation of Belgrade) Cite error: The named reference "bglib" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. Град Крагујевац - Историја (Прва престоница модерне Србије)
  17. ^ City of Belgrade - History (The Capital of Serbia and Yugoslavia) Cite error: The named reference "20c" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  18. Populstat - Yugoslav Federation
  19. Catholic Encyclopaedia - Belgrade and Smederevo
  20. ^ Индустрија и урбани развој Београда - Драган Петровић (Индустрија, 2001, vol. 21, No. 1-4, pp. 87-94) Cite error: The named reference "stan" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  21. Bioterrorism: Civil Liberties Under Quarantine
  22. Датум за незаборав и опемену
  23. 9. марта Милошевић није могао пасти
  24. Србија на митинзима (1990. - 1999.
  25. TIME (Yugoslavia: Mass bedlam in Belgrade)
  26. City of Belgrade - History (Disintegration Years 1988-2000)
  27. City of Belgrade - NATO bombing
  28. Антонић, Слободан. "Србија после Милошевића". Нова спрска политичка мисао. 15 Mar. 2001
  29. Glenny, Misha. Can Serbia's new leaders overcome the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic?. The New Yorker, 30 Oct, 2000
  30. City of Belgrade - Facts (Population)
  31. "Књиге резултата Пописа 2002.": "Књига 3: Вероисповест, матерњи језик и национална или етничка припадност према старости и полу - подаци по општинама", page 12. Републички завод за статистику Србије, 2003.
  32. The Washington Post, Tuesday, June 22, 1999.
  33. Кинези Марко, Милош и Ана!, Курир (Kurir), 19-20 February 2005
  34. Кинеска четврт у Блоку 70, Време (Vreme) No. 471, 15 January 2000
  35. Привредна Комора Београда - Привреда Беоргада
  36. Републички завод за статистику: Зараде по запосленом у Републици Србији, август 2006.
  37. City of Belgrade - Culture and Art (Cultural Events)
  38. Задужбина Иве Андрића - Биографија Иве Андрића
  39. Borislav Pekić - Biografija
  40. Miloš Crnjanski - Biografija
  41. Meša Selimović - Biografija
  42. Народни Музеј у Београду - О Музеју
  43. City of Belgrade - Museums 4
  44. TimeOut - Introduction to Belgrade
  45. Ваздухопловни водич - Музеј југословенског ваздухопловства
  46. City of Belgrade - Museums 3
  47. City of Belgrade - Museums 2
  48. Nikola Tesla Museum - About the museum
  49. City of Belgrade - Museums 1
  50. Универзитет у Београду - Правни факултет (Историјат)
  51. Универзитет у Београду - Број Студената
  52. City of Belgrade - Education and Science
  53. The Observer: Why I love battered Belgrade
  54. The New York Times: Belgrade Rocks
  55. Deutsche Welle: Belgrade's Nightlife Floats on the Danube
  56. ^ B92: Slovenci dolaze u “grad koji ne spava” Cite error: The named reference "slovenci" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  57. ^ Večernji list: U Beograd na vikend-zabavu Cite error: The named reference "hrvati" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  58. Klub Akademija - O Akademiji
  59. Klub Studenata Tehnike - O nama
  60. SKC - Info
  61. Tourist Organisation of Belgrade - Skadarlija
  62. BiP - Istorijat
  63. Gay Serbia - Scena
  64. Roeda.at - Interview with Dušan Maljković
  65. City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation
  66. FISU - Universiade 2009 (Belgrade)
  67. Olympic Committee of Serbia - History of the Olympic Committee of Serbia
  68. Official Website of the Olympic Movement (Atlanta 1996)
  69. City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation (Stadiums)
  70. City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation (Sport Centers and Halls)
  71. Tašmajdan - Hala Pionir
  72. Ада Циганлија - Спортски терени
  73. Tourism Ogranisation of Belgrade - Ada Ciganlija
  74. Ада Циганлија - О Ади
  75. Ада Циганлија - Купалиште
  76. РТС: Само РТС може да буде јавни сервис
  77. ПГП - РТС (Прича о нама)
  78. The Paradox of Pink
  79. B92 na 8.598. mestu na svetu
  80. ГСП "Београд" - Статистика
  81. Железнице Србије - Беовоз
  82. Лука "Београд" - Историјат и положај
  83. Ваздухопловни водич - Аеродром "Београд"
  84. Данас - Регионални центар путничког и карго саобраћаја, 20 May 2005
  85. City of Belgrade - International Cooperation
  86. City of Belgrade - Facts about Belgrade (Received Decorations)
  87. Belgrade - City of the Future in Southern Europe

External links

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  • Kosovo declared independence in 2008 but is still claimed as part of its territory by Serbia.
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