BELGRADE, SERBIA

BELGRADE, SERBIA

There are a few Belgrades in die world - Belgrade-Main, Belgrade-Montana, Bel- grade-Minnesota and Belgrade-Nebrasca but only one Belgrade in Serbia.

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonia Plain meets the Balkans. With a popula­tion of 1,630,000 (official estimate 2007), Belgrade is the third largest city in Southeas­tern Europe, after Istanbul and Athens.

Belgrade's wider city area was the birthplace of the largest prehistoric culture of Eu­rope, the Vinca culture, as early as the 6th millennium BC. It was awarded city rights by the Romans before it was permanently settled by Serbs from the 7th century onwards. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times since the ancient period by countless armies of the East and West. In medieval times, it was in the possession of Byzantine, Frankish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Serbian rulers. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of the Pashaluk of Belgrade, as the principal city of Ottoman Europe and among the largest European cities. Frequently passing from Ottoman to Austrian rule which saw destruc­tion of most of the city, the status of Serbian capital would be regained only in 1841, after the Serbian revolution. Northern Belgrade though remained a Habsburg outpost until the breakup of Austria-Hungary in 1918. The united city then became the capital of several incarnations of Yugoslavia, up to 2006, when Serbia became an independent state again.

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 having its own local council. It covers 3.6% of the territory of Serbia, and 24% of the country's popula­tion lives in the city. Belgrade is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian education and science.

Belgrade has had many different names throughout history, and in nearly all lan­guages the name translates as "the white city". Serbian name Beograd is a compound of beo (“white, light”) and grad (“town, city”), and etymologically corresponds to several other city names spread throughout the Slavdom: Belgorod, Bialogard, Biograd, etc.

Culture

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 Andric wrote his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina, in Belgrade. Other prominent Belgrade authors include Branislav Nusic, Milos Cmjanski, Borislav Pekic, Milorad Pavic and Mesa Selimovic. Most of Serbia's film in­dustry is based in Belgrade; the 1995 Palme d'Or winning Underground, directed by Emir Kusturica, was produced in the city.

There are numerous theatres, the most prominent of which are the National Thea­tre, Theatre on Terazije, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Zvezdara Theatre, and Atelier 212. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is also based in Belgrade, as well as the Na­tional Library of Serbia. Belgrade's two opera houses are: the National Theatre and Mad- lenianum Opera House.