Belgrade

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For other uses, see Belgrade (disambiguation).

Flag	Coat of arms
Град Београд Grad Beograd City of Belgrade
Image:NoviBG Nov30 2005.jpg
Image:Flag of Belgrade.png	Image:Belgrade Coat of Arms.png
Flag	Coat of arms
Location within Serbia
Image:Serbia Belgrade.png
Basic Information
Area	359.96 km² (City) 3222.68 km² (Metropolitan area)
Population	1,281,801<ref name=popis>Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (2002). Национална или етничка припадност - подаци по насељима (PDF), Књиге резултата Пописа 2002. (in Serbian), Belgrade: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.</ref> (City) 1,576,124<ref name=popis/> (Metropolitan area) (2002)
Density	488.42/km²
Coordinates	44°49′N 20°28′ECoordinates: 44°49′N 20°28′E
Postal code	11000
Area code	+381(0)11
Licence plate code	BG
Time Zone	UTC+1 /Summer UTC+2
Website	www.beograd.org.yu
Politics
Mayor	Nenad Bogdanović (DS, since 2004)
Governing Parties	DS/DSS/G17+
State Election	October 2004
Municipalities	17

Belgrade (Serbian: Београд or Beograd listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The first settlements in the area of Belgrade emerged in prehistoric Vinča in 4800 BC. The city was settled in the 3rd century BC by the Celts, before becoming the Roman settlement of Singidunum.<ref name="Vinca">Nikola Tasić, Dragoslav Srejović, Bratislav Stojanović (1990). “Vinča and its Culture”, Vladislav Popović: Vinča: Centre of the Neolithic culture of the Danubian region. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.</ref><ref name="ancient">City of Belgrade - History (Ancient Period)</ref> The Slavic name Beligrad (a form of Beograd, literally meaning White City) was first recorded in 878 AD. It first became the capital of Serbia in 1403 and was the capital of the various incarnations of Yugoslavia from 1918 until 2003, as well as of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 until 2006.<ref name="history">City of Belgrade - History (Important Years Through City History)</ref>

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.<ref name=popis/> It is the largest city on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and by population ranks fourth in South Eastern Europe behind Istanbul, Athens and Bucharest.

Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government.<ref name="assemb">City of Belgrade - Assembly of the City of Belgrade</ref> Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each of which has its own local council.<ref name="municip">City of Belgrade - Urban Municipalities</ref> Belgrade spreads over 3.6% of the territory of Serbia, and 21% of the Serbian population (excluding that of the Kosovo province) lives in the city.<ref name="mdata">Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia - Municipal indicators</ref> It is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.

[edit] Geography

Image:Beograd Sat.png

Belgrade lies 116.75 m above sea level, at coordinates 44°49'14" North 20°27'44" East. The historical core of Belgrade (today's Kalemegdan) is on the right bank of Sava and Danube rivers. However, as the city grew, it expanded over the Sava river, so that now it includes New Belgrade and Zemun, both on Sava's left bank. The city is located at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. The city has an urban area of 359.96 km², while together with its metropolitan area it covers 3222.68 km². Belgrade, like many other cities, is considered a crossroads between the West and the Orient.<ref>City of Belgrade - Geographical Position</ref>

[edit] Climate

Image:KlimaBG.PNG

Belgrade has a moderate continental climate. The year-round average temperature is 11.7 °C, while the hottest month is July, with an average temperature of 22.1 °C. However, there are 31 days a year when the temperature is above 30 °C, and 95 days when the temperature is above 25 °C. Belgrade receives about 700 mm (27.56 inches) of precipitation a year. The average annual number of sunny hours is 2,096. The sunniest months are July and August, with an average of about 10 sunny hours a day, while December and January are the darkest, with an average of 2-2.3 sunny hours a day.<ref>City of Belgrade - Climate</ref>

[edit] History

See also: Timeline of Belgrade history

The Vinča culture existed in or near Belgrade and dominated the Balkans about 7,000 years ago.<ref name="Vinca">source</ref> 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.<ref name="ancient">source</ref>

[edit] Middle Ages

Image:Siege of Nándorfehérvár.jpg

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 AD, during the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire. For about four centuries the city remained a subject of warfare between Byzantium, Royal Hungary and the First Bulgarian Empire.<ref name="bhistory">City of Belgrade - History (Byzantine Empire)</ref> It finally passed to Serbian rule as a part of the 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.<ref name="MSH">City of Belgrade - History (Medieval Serbian Belgrade)</ref>

"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 in 1389, the Serbian Empire began to crumble, the south being conquered by the Ottoman Empire.<ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica: Battle of Kosovo</ref> 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 Hrebeljanović. 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.<ref name="MSH">source</ref> 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.<ref>Ottoman-Hungarian Wars: Siege of Belgrade in 1456 by Tom R. Kovach (Historynet.com)</ref>

[edit] Turkish conquest

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.<ref name="imperialrule">City of Belgrade - History (Turkish and Austrian Rule)</ref> 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.<ref>Духовни смисао храма Светог Саве на Врачару - Амфилохије Радовић, Епископ банатски</ref>

Thrice occupied by Austria (1688-1690, 1717-1739, 1789-1791), it was quickly recaptured and substantially razed each time by the Ottomans.<ref name="imperialrule">src</ref> 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.<ref>Српски конгрес уједињења - Тајне поруке Светог Саве</ref> During the First Serbian Uprising the Serbian rebels held the city from January 8 1806 to 1813, when it was retaken by the Ottomans.<ref name="bglib">City of Belgrade - History (Liberation of Belgrade)</ref> In 1817 it became the capital of the autonomous Principality of Serbia (except in the period from 1818–1841, when Kragujevac was the country's capital).<ref>Град Крагујевац - Историја (Прва престоница модерне Србије)</ref>

[edit] After independence

Image:Knez stara.jpg

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.<ref name="bglib">src</ref><ref name="20c">City of Belgrade - History (The Capital of Serbia and Yugoslavia)</ref> 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.<ref>Populstat - Yugoslav Federation</ref> 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.<ref>Catholic Encyclopaedia - Belgrade and Smederevo</ref><ref name="stan">Индустрија и урбани развој Београда - Драган Петровић (Индустрија, 2001, vol. 21, No. 1-4, pp. 87-94)</ref> 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.<ref name="stan">src</ref>

On March 25 1941, the government signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers in an effort to stay out of the Second World War. This was immediately followed by mass protests in Belgrade and a military coup d'état. Consequently, the city was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe on April 6-7, 1941, killing thousands of people. Yugoslavia was invaded by German, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces 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 April 16-17 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.<ref name="20c">src</ref> 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.<ref>Bioterrorism: Civil Liberties Under Quarantine</ref>

[edit] Recent history

Image:Belgrade Kalemegdan&Pobednik.JPG

On March 9 1991, massive demonstrations led by Vuk Drašković were held against Slobodan Milošević in the city.<ref>Датум за незаборав и опемену</ref> 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.<ref>Србија на митинзима (1990. - 1999.</ref> According to various media outlets, there were between 100,000 and 150,000 people on the streets that day. Later that day, tanks were deployed onto the streets to restore order.<ref>9. марта Милошевић није могао пасти</ref><ref>Yugoslavia: Mass bedlam in Belgrade: TIME</ref>

After alleged electoral fraud at local elections, protests were held in Belgrade from November 1996 to February 1997 against the government of Slobodan Milošević.<ref name="twelveyears">City of Belgrade - History (Disintegration Years 1988-2000)</ref> These protests brought Zoran Đinđić to power as the first democratically elected mayor of Belgrade in the post-communist period.

The 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 hospitals, the Jugoslavija Hotel, the Central Committee building, the Avala TV Tower, and the Chinese embassy.<ref>City of Belgrade - NATO bombing</ref>

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.<ref>Антонић, Слободан. "Србија после Милошевића". Нова спрска политичка мисао. 15 March. 2001</ref><ref>Glenny, Misha. Can Serbia's new leaders overcome the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic?. The New Yorker, 30 October 2000</ref>

[edit] Government and politics

Image:Belgrade Old Court 1.jpg

Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government.<ref name="assemb">src</ref> 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. Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each of which has its own local council.<ref name="municip">src</ref>

Image:Belgrade municipalities03.png

[edit] 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.<ref name="municip">src</ref>

Most of the municipalities are situated on the southern side of the rivers Danube and Sava, in the Šumadija region. Three municipalities (Zemun, Novi Beograd, and Surčin) are situated on the northern side of the river Sava, in the Syrmia region, while the municipality of Palilula is situated on the both banks of the river Danube, in the Šumadija and Banat regions.

Name	Area (km²)	Population (1991)	Population (2002)	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<ref name="mdata">src</ref>

[edit] Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Belgrade

See also: Historical population of 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).<ref>City of Belgrade - Facts (Population)</ref>

Image:Saint Sava Temple.jpg

Although there are several historic religious communities in Belgrade, the religious makeup of the city is relatively homogenous. The Serbian Orthodox community 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.<ref>"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.</ref>

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 life, or fled as refugees from war and ethnic cleansing.<ref>Refugee Serbs Assail Belgrade Government: The Washington Post, Tuesday, June 22 1999.</ref> Unofficially - taking into account the large number of Serb refugees from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and displaced persons from the province of Kosovo, students, and people counted in censuses in their hometowns - 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.<ref name=popis/> 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.<ref>Кинези Марко, Милош и Ана!, Курир (Kurir), 19 February-20 February 2005</ref><ref>Кинеска четврт у Блоку 70, Време (Vreme) No. 471, 15 January 2000</ref> Also, many Arabs live in Belgrade. Most of these Arabs arrived in Belgrade to pursue their studies during the 1970s and 1980s, and have remained and founded families in the city.<ref>A unique friendship club in Belgrade, Dawn - International, December 7</ref><ref>Government, public diverge in assessment of Kosovo crisis Jordan Times, April 11 1999</ref> Most come from Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

[edit] Economy

Main article: Economy of Belgrade

Image:IM000487 resize.JPG 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.<ref>Привредна Комора Београда - Привреда Беоргада</ref> The city's economy has been growing strongly since 2000. During the 1990s 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 October 2006, the average gross salary in Belgrade amounted to 41,006 Serbian dinars (about 530 euros, 675 US dollars, or 355 British pounds) the highest of any district in Serbia. The average net salary was 28,090 Serbian dinars (about 365 euros, 465 US dollars, or 245 British pounds).<ref>Republic of Serbia - Statistical Office of the Republic: Salaries and wages per employee, October 2006</ref>

[edit] Culture

Main article: Culture of Belgrade

Image:Serbia Beograd SANU - Feb 2006.jpg

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.<ref>City of Belgrade - Culture and Art (Cultural Events)</ref> The Nobel prize winning author Ivo Andrić wrote his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina, in Belgrade.<ref>Задужбина Иве Андрића - Биографија Иве Андрића</ref> Other prominent Belgrade authors include Branislav Nušić, Miloš Crnjanski, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić and Meša Selimović.<ref>Borislav Pekić - Biografija</ref><ref>Miloš Crnjanski - Biografija</ref><ref>Meša Selimović - Biografija</ref> 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 1980s: VIS Idoli, Ekatarina Velika and Šarlo Akrobata were all from Belgrade. Other notable Belgrade rock acts include Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori and others.<ref>Balkanmedia: Bora Čorba Biografija</ref> During the 1990s the city was the main centre (in the former Yugoslavia) of a musical style known as turbofolk, one of whose most famous stars was Ceca Ražnatović. 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.<ref>Popoboks - Beogradski Sindikat: Svi Zajedno</ref><ref>Balkanmedia: Liričar među reperima</ref> There are many theatres, the most prominent of which are the National Theatre, the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, the Zvezdara Theatre, and Atelier 212. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is also based in Belgrade, as is the National Library of Serbia.

[edit] Museums

See also: List of museums in Belgrade

Image:Miroslavs Gospel.jpg

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.<ref>Народни Музеј у Београду - О Музеју</ref> 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.<ref>City of Belgrade - Museums 4</ref><ref>TimeOut - Introduction to Belgrade</ref> 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.<ref>Ваздухопловни водич - Музеј југословенског ваздухопловства</ref> 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.<ref>City of Belgrade - Museums 3</ref> The Museum of Contemporary Art has a collection of around 8,540 works of art produced in Yugoslavia since 1900.<ref>City of Belgrade - Museums 2</ref> 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.<ref>Nikola Tesla Museum - About the museum</ref> 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.<ref>City of Belgrade - Museums 1</ref> 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.

[edit] 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.<ref>Универзитет у Београду - Правни факултет (Историјат)</ref> 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 study at Belgrade University.<ref>Универзитет у Београду - Број Студената</ref> 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 schools, 21 gymnasiums, 8 art schools and 5 special schools. There are 230,000 enrolled pupils managed by 22,000 employees in over 500 buildings that cover around 1,100,000 m².<ref>City of Belgrade - Education and Science</ref>

[edit] Nightlife

Image:Beogradjanka01.JPG

Belgrade has a reputation for offering a vibrant nightlife, and many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. The most recognizable nightlife feature of Belgrade are the barges (splavovi) spread along the banks of the Sava and Danube Rivers.<ref>"The Observer: "Why I love battered Belgrade"</ref><ref>Belgrade Rocks: The New York Times</ref><ref>Belgrade's Nightlife Floats on the Danube: Deutsche Welle</ref>

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.<ref name="slovenci">B92: Slovenci dolaze u “grad koji ne spava”</ref><ref name="hrvati">Večernji list: U Beograd na vikend-zabavu</ref>

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.<ref>Klub Akademija - O Akademiji</ref><ref>Klub Studenata Tehnike - O nama</ref> One of the most famous sites for 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.<ref>SKC - Info</ref>

Those preferring a more traditional Serbian nightlife 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 nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Skadar Street (the centre of Skadarlija) and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants (called kafanas in Serbian), which date back to that period.<ref>Tourist Organisation of Belgrade - Skadarlija</ref> At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery founded in the first half of the nineteenth century.<ref>BiP - Istorijat</ref> One of the city's oldest kafanas is the Znak pitanja.

Belgrade also has a small gay scene. The city has a few permanent gay clubs, as well as a few gay and gay-friendly cafés, in the centre of the city. Additionally, LGBT parties are hosted monthly, promoted individually through one of Serbia's on-line LGBT portals, Gay Serbia.<ref>Gay Serbia - Scena</ref> Intolerance towards sexual minorities is still somewhat common in Belgrade and Serbia as a whole.<ref>Roeda.at - Interview with Dušan Maljković</ref>

[edit] Sport

See also: List of sporting events in Belgrade

Image:Belgrade Arena north.jpg

There are around a thousand sports facilities in Belgrade, many of which are capable of serving all levels of sporting events.<ref>City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation</ref> 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, chosen over the cities of Monterrey and Poznań.<ref>FISU - Universiade 2009 (Belgrade)</ref>

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.<ref>Olympic Committee of Serbia - History of the Olympic Committee of Serbia</ref><ref>Official Website of the Olympic Movement (Atlanta 1996)</ref>

The city is home to Serbia's two biggest and most successful football clubs, Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan, as well as a few other first league clubs. The two major stadiums in Belgrade are the Marakana (Red Star Stadium) and the Partizan Stadium.<ref>City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation (Stadiums)</ref> Belgrade Arena is used for basketball matches, along with Pionir Hall.<ref>City of Belgrade - Sport and Recreation (Sport Centers and Halls)</ref><ref>Tašmajdan - Hala Pionir</ref>, while the Tašmajdan Sports Centre is used for water polo matches.

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 union, football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and tennis.<ref>Ада Циганлија - Спортски терени</ref> Extreme sports are available, like bungee jumping, water skiing and paintballing.<ref>Tourism Ogranisation of Belgrade - Ada Ciganlija</ref> There are numerous tracks on the island, where it is possible to ride a bike, go for a walk or go jogging.<ref>Ада Циганлија - О Ади</ref><ref>Ада Циганлија - Купалиште</ref> Image:Ruski car.jpg

[edit] Tourism

Since 2000, in line with country's revival of diplomatic relations with Western Europe and the US, Belgrade has been seeing a return of foreign holidaymakers absent since the wars of the 1990s. The Tourist Organisation of Belgrade (TOB) is the official organisation which promotes the city as a tourist destination .

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 Parliament, the Temple of Saint Sava, and the Old Palace. On top of this, there are many parks, monuments, museums, cafés, 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 former 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.<ref name="slovenci">source</ref><ref name="hrvati">source</ref>

[edit] 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.<ref>РТС: Само РТС може да буде јавни сервис</ref> The RTS music publishing operation is also based in Belgrade.<ref>ПГП - РТС (Прича о нама)</ref> The most popular commercial broadcaster is RTV Pink, a Serbian media multinational, known for its popular entertainment programs, which are considered by many 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.<ref>The Paradox of Pink</ref><ref>B92 na 8.598. mestu na svetu</ref> Other TV stations broadcasting from Belgrade include Košava, Avala, and others which 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 programs).

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 and Vreme, are published in Belgrade.

[edit] Architecture

See also: List of notable buildings in Belgrade, List of notable streets and squares in Belgrade, Architectural projects under construction in Belgrade, and Religious architecture in Belgrade

Image:ParlamentBelgrad.jpg

Various parts of Belgrade have wildly varying architecture, from the centre of Zemun, which is that typical of a Central European town, from the few still remaining Turkish-styled buildings located throughout the city, to the more modern architecture and spacious layout of New Belgrade. The 19th century architecture of much of the city was heavily influenced by architectural trends in the then neighbouring empire of Austria-Hungary. During the period of Communist rule, much housing was built quickly and cheaply to house the huge influx of people from the countryside following the Second World War, resulting in the brutalist architecture of the blokovi (blocks) of New Belgrade.

[edit] Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Belgrade

Image:New Railway Bridge 1.jpg

Belgrade's public transport system is based on buses (112 lines), trams (12 lines), and trolleybuses (8 lines).<ref>ГСП "Београд" - Статистика</ref> 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.<ref>Железнице Србије - Беовоз</ref> 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.<ref>Лука "Београд" - Историјат и положај</ref> 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 passengers travelled through the airport, though that number dwindled to a trickle in the 1990s.<ref>Ваздухопловни водич - Аеродром "Београд"</ref> Following growth since 2000, the number of passengers reached about 2 million in 2004 and 2005.<ref>Данас - Регионални центар путничког и карго саобраћаја, 20 May 2005</ref> In 2006, 2 million passengers passed through the airport by mid-November.<ref>"Nikola Tesla" Airport received its two millionth passenger </ref>

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Names through history

Name	Notes
Singidūn(on)	Named by the Celtic tribe of the Scordisci; dūn(on) means 'lodgment, enclosure, fort'; 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".
Alba Graeca, "Alba" may be derived from the Latin word for "white"	Latin
Alba Bulgarica	Latin name during the period of Bulgarian rule over the city
Fehérvár	Hungarian translation
Weißenburg and Griechisch 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	Ottoman name, meaning House of War
Belgrat	Turkish name
بلغراد	Arabic name