We spent a couple of weeks exploring Serbia, country number two on our Balkan road trip. One of the first things we learned was a new alphabet, or at least bits and pieces of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.  Some signs in popular tourist areas or along major roads also included the Roman alphabet translation of the information. A few letters are the same in both alphabets: A, E, J, K, M, O, and T. And we quickly learned the letters P and C in Cyrillic, which are R and S in the Roman alphabet.

Zlatibor, the first of two Serbian towns we visited, occupies a mountainous region in the western part of the county. The town attracts many tourists who love to hike and ski. Even though we didn’t visit in winter, we still enjoyed the fantastic views during our nine kilometer Gold Gondola cable car ride from Zlatibor to the top of Tornik Mountain.  Established in 2021, it is the longest panoramic cable car in the world, has an elevation gain of almost 1,000 meters, and can transport about 1,000 passengers per hour. Fortunately, there was not a big crowd when we went, so we didn’t have to wait in line at the lower or upper cable car stations. Tara National Park, which includes Tornik Ski Resort, covers almost 25,000 hectares, most of which is forested in beech, fir, pine, and spruce trees. The national park, nicknamed the “lungs of Serbia,” is considered to be one of the most valuable, productive, and preserved forests in Europe. The Serbian word Zlatibor means golden pine tree, a reference to the golden-like shade provided by the tree.

We drove about 20 kilometers from Zlatibor to Stopića Cave to see the large, illuminated pools and waterfall of the underground Trnavski Stream. The limestone cave extends almost 1,700 meters. 

The town of Sremski Karlovci, home to about 8,000 residents, sits on the banks of the Danube River in the southern part of the country. At the far end of the town’s main square (Trg Branka Radičevića) we easily found the red and yellow Karlovci Grammar School, the first Serbian grammar school. Gyula Partos, a 19th century Hungarian architect, designed the building’s colorful exterior to reflect Serbian medieval architecture. The structure currently houses a language school where students learn classical and contemporary languages. 

The red marble, baroque-style Four Lions Fountain was built at the very end of the 18th century to commemorate the town’s first water supply system. We saw quite a few school children drinking from the fountain in the afternoons.

The Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas is considered to be one of the finest examples of Serbian Baroque architecture and interior artwork in the country. Originally built at the end of the 18th century and restored in 1911, it is the only Serbian Orthodox Church to be in the main square of a town or city. The top photo of this post is of St. Nicholas on the cathedral’s exterior. 

We admired the outside of the Seminary of St Arsenije, an Orthodox Clerical High School and Serbia’s oldest theological school. The school was founded in 1794 and the current building was constructed in 1902. We were not expecting to see Sphinx statues at the main entrance. 

Two signs of spring during our time in Sremski Karlovci: nesting storks and blooming linden trees. The yellow flowers caused one of us to sneeze a lot during our visit.

Even though we had a car, we rode 8 kilometers on the local bus to the next town of Novi Sad to see Petrovaradin Fortress. The stronghold’s current rendition was built on the shores of the Danube River from 1692 to 1780 using slave labor. The word Petrovaradin is a combination of words from three languages: petra is the Greek word for rock, var in Hungarian means city, and the Turkish word for faith is din. Petrovaradin is “A city on a rock as sturdy as faith.” And records show a type of defensive structure on the same spot for thousands of years, even as early as 3,000 BC. 

“Called the “Gibraltar of the Danube” and never been conquered, the fort covers 112 hectares, including many underground tunnels and 16 km of underground countermine system. Fortunately for tourists like us, the underground passageways are not collapsed and we saw a small portion of them with our tour guide. 

Petrovaradin‘s unique clock tower, standing about 20 meters tall, displays the time with the minute and hour hands reversed. It was designed this way so that fishermen out on the river could still tell the time, or at least the approximate time. The little hand shows the minutes and the big hand points to hours. 

Our last stop in Serbia was Belgrade, the capital and one of the oldest cities in Europe. A dominant building in the main square (Trg Republike) is the National Museum of Serbia, with the large and impressive statue of Prince Mihailo Obrenović III on his horse in front. The prince is one of Serbia’s most beloved historical figures and his statue, built in 1882, has become a symbol of the city. 

A group of gypsies settled in the early 1800s in a portion the city that is now called the Bohemian Quarter. As the years passed, residents opened inns and cafes in the neighborhood to attract prominent writers, actors, and artists. The Skadarlija Fountain, built in 1966, forms the beginning of a street with the same name. 

The Bajrakli Mosque, from the era of the Ottoman Empire, is the only mosque remaining in Belgrade. At one time there were almost 300 mosques in the city, but all were destroyed except this one.  The building survived because it was temporarily turned into a Catholic church during the Austrian occupation. 

First built in 279 BC on a cliff-like ridge of 125.5 meters in height, the Belgrade Fortress increased in size and strength over the centuries for military purposes. During the 19th century it was gradually turned into a park and cultural center. Its prime location at the confluence of the Sava and Danube River offers great views for visitors. 

The oldest church in Belgrade, Ružica Church, sits nestled inside the northeastern wall of the Belgrade Fortress, under the Zindan Gate.  Originally an arsenal and then a military chapel, the building underwent restoration in 1925 to become a church. We took a good look at the sanctuary chandeliers, made by World War I Serbian soldiers from used bullet casings, swords, rifles, and cannon parts. 

The Victor Monument, standing on the highest spot in the Belgrade Fortress, celebrates Serbia’s victories in the Balkan Wars.  Built in 1928 by sculptor Ivan Meštrović, the bronze and granite statue stands 14 meters high, including the pedestal. The nude male holds a sword in his right hand (representing war) and a falcon in his left hand (representing peace.) During World War I the sculpture was kept safe in a house in Belgrade. 

Construction of the Neo-Byzantine-style St. Mark’s Church began in the 1930s on a site previously occupied by a wooden church destroyed during World War I. King Alexander I of Yugoslavia wanted a grand church to commemorate the 1918 liberation of Belgrade from Austro-Hungarian rule. The well known Serbian architect Petar Popovic based his design on Kosovo’s Gračanica Monastery. 

The Belgrade Zoo Mosaic Wall features over 400 animals covering the exterior walls of the park. The project, which began in 1996, is a collaborative effort between Serbian artist Vladimir Veličković and students from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.

We were quite impressed with the Temple of Saint Sava, the largest Orthodox Church in the Balkan region and the second largest in the world. It is dedicated to Saint Sava (1174-1235), the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and is a pilgrimage destination for Serbian and international Orthodox Christians. Construction began in 1935 and ended in 54 years later after intermittent stoppages, including a postponement during World War II. The raising of the 4,000 ton, already-assembled central dome into place in 1989 culminated the exterior construction. The large dome measures 79 meters in height, including the 10+ meter gold cross on the top. 

Wow(!) is the best word to describe the 15,000 square meters of the interior, which is one giant, mostly-gold mosaic that was completed in 2021. Seven hundred singers can fit into each of the three choir balconies and the temple can accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers.