50 Fun Facts About Serbia

Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Danube and which other river?

The Sava flows into the Danube beneath Belgrade's Kalemegdan fortress; the Celtic Scordisci founded Singidunum on that confluence in the 3rd century BC.

How many countries border Serbia, not counting the disputed frontier with Albania through Kosovo?

Seven: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia; the frontier with Albania runs only along Kosovo, whose status is disputed.

Which dynasty ruled Serbia from 1166 to 1371 and raised it to a kingdom in 1217 and an empire in 1346?

The Nemanjic dynasty, founded by Stefan Nemanja, produced Stefan the First-Crowned (king from 1217) and Stefan Dusan (emperor from 1346); its last ruler, Uros the Weak, died in 1371.

The Battle of Kosovo in 1389 pitted Prince Lazar's army against which invading power?

The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad I met Lazar's army at Kosovo Polje on 28 June 1389; both leaders died, and the battle became the central myth of Serbian identity.

Who led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottomans in 1804?

Karadjordje Petrovic led the 1804 revolt; the rebels took Belgrade in 1806 and held out until the Ottomans crushed the rising in 1813, before Milos Obrenovic's 1815 uprising won autonomy.

Serbia's independence was formally recognised at which 1878 gathering?

The Congress of Berlin in July 1878 recognised Serbia, Montenegro and Romania as independent states; the same settlement placed Bosnia under Austro-Hungarian occupation.

Which two royal houses alternated on the Serbian throne through the 19th century?

The Obrenovic ruled from 1815 to 1903 apart from a 16-year Karadjordjevic interlude; Prince Milan proclaimed the kingdom in 1882.

On 1 December 1918 Prince Regent Alexander proclaimed a new state in Belgrade. What was it called?

The southern neighbour's Podgorica Assembly had deposed its own dynasty five days earlier to join; the name Yugoslavia came later.

Which 1941 liberated territory in western Serbia is called the first liberated territory in WWII Europe?

The Republic of Uzice, centred on the town of Uzice, was held by Tito's Partisans from September to late November 1941, when a German offensive retook it.

Belgrade hosted the first summit of which international grouping in September 1961?

The Non-Aligned Movement held its first summit in Belgrade on 1-6 September 1961, with Tito, Nehru, Nasser, Sukarno and Nkrumah among the founding leaders.

Europe's last major smallpox outbreak since World War II struck Kosovo and Serbia in which year?

The 1972 outbreak began with a pilgrim returning from Iraq; 175 people fell ill and 35 died before mass vaccination of some 18 million Yugoslavs and strict quarantine ended it by April.

Which Serbian leader rose to power in 1989 and was later tried in The Hague, dying in his cell in 2006?

Slobodan Milosevic became Serbia's president in 1989, conceded after half a million protesters filled Belgrade on 5 October 2000, and died of a heart attack in his Hague cell in March 2006 before a verdict.

The 1998-99 Kosovo War ended after which alliance intervened militarily?

NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days from 24 March to 10 June 1999; the campaign ended when Belgrade agreed to withdraw its forces from Kosovo.

Which reformist Serbian prime minister was assassinated in 2003 in a plot by organised crime?

Zoran Djindjic was shot outside the government building in Belgrade on 12 March 2003 by members of the Zemun clan and the Red Berets unit; he had sent the former president to The Hague in 2001.

Serbia became an independent state again in 2006 after which partner left their union?

Montenegro voted for independence on 21 May 2006 with 55.5 percent, just clearing the 55 percent threshold set by the EU; Serbia declared itself the union's legal successor on 5 June.

On what date did Kosovo unilaterally declare independence from Serbia?

Kosovo's assembly declared independence on 17 February 2008; Serbia recalled ambassadors from recognising states, and in 2010 the ICJ advised that the declaration broke no international law.

Serbia's parliament formally proclaimed what stance in December 2007?

The December 2007 resolution declared Serbia's military neutrality toward existing military alliances; Serbia had joined NATO's Partnership for Peace in 2006 without seeking membership.

What is Serbia's highest peak outside Kosovo, at 2,169 metres in the Balkan Mountains?

Midzor, 2,169 metres, tops Stara Planina on the Bulgarian border; Djeravica in Kosovo's Prokletije is higher at 2,656 metres, and the lowest point is 17 metres by the Danube at Prahovo.

The Danube's largest tributary entirely within Serbia, 493 km long, is which river?

The Great Morava, formed where the West and South Morava meet near Stalac, is the largest Danube tributary lying wholly in Serbia; measured with the West Morava it runs 493 km.

Serbia's biggest lake, Djerdap, is a reservoir on the Danube behind a dam at which famous gorge?

Iron Gate I dam, completed in 1972 by Yugoslavia and Romania near Kladovo, backs the Danube up through the Iron Gates gorge to form Djerdap Lake, the largest lake in Serbia.

What is the name of the cold, squally southeasterly wind that is a signature of Serbia's climate?

The Kosava, a cold, gusty south-easterly, blows hardest down the Danube valley around Belgrade and can last for days; Serbia's record low of minus 39.5 C was set on the Pester plateau in 1985.

Which Roman emperor, born at Naissus in today's Serbia, founded a new capital on the Bosporus?

Constantine the Great was born at Naissus in Moesia around 272 AD; in 330 he dedicated Constantinople on the site of Byzantium as the empire's new capital.

What is Serbia's national drink?

Slivovitz, the plum rakija, is served as an aperitif and at every slava; in 2022 UNESCO inscribed the Serbian social practices around making and drinking slivovitz as intangible heritage.

Serbian is unique among European languages for regularly using which two alphabets side by side?

Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin, the one European standard language with two scripts in everyday use; Vuk Karadzic reformed the Cyrillic alphabet in the 19th century on the rule 'write as you speak'.

Serbs are described as the world's westernmost predominantly what?

Serbs are the westernmost predominantly Orthodox ethnic group in Europe; the 2022 census put Eastern Orthodoxy at 81 percent of Serbia's population, while Catholics are mostly Hungarians and Croats.

Slava, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage, is the Serbian veneration of what?

Slava honours a family's patron saint on that saint's feast day with a candle, a slava cake and koljivo; UNESCO inscribed it in 2014 as Serbia's first intangible heritage listing.

Which 12th-century monastery founded by Stefan Nemanja became a Serbian World Heritage Site in 1986?

Studenica, founded around 1190 by Stefan Nemanja, holds his tomb and a 1209 Crucifixion fresco counted among the finest Byzantine art; UNESCO listed it in 1986.

Which Serbian writer won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature for works such as 'The Bridge on the Drina'?

The bridge in question is the Ottoman span at Visegrad; Andric was born in Bosnia and served as a Yugoslav diplomat.

Besides 'When Father Was Away on Business', which film won Emir Kusturica the Palme d'Or?

Underground won Kusturica his second Palme d'Or in 1995, a decade after When Father Was Away on Business; Time of the Gypsies brought him Best Director at Cannes in 1989.

The Exit festival, one of Europe's biggest, is staged at the Petrovaradin Fortress in which city?

Petrovaradin Fortress faces Novi Sad, Serbia's second city, across the Danube; Exit began there in 2000 as a student protest festival and grew to draw around 200,000 visitors a year.

The world's largest celebration of brass band music is held annually in which small Serbian town?

Guca, a town of about 2,000 in the Dragacevo district, has hosted the Dragacevo Trumpet Assembly since 1961; attendance has reached around 300,000, and Boban Markovic carried its truba sound worldwide.

Belgrade's international airport is named after which Serbian-American inventor?

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 to a Serb family in Smiljan, then in the Austrian Military Frontier and now in Croatia; Belgrade's airport took his name in 2006.

At which tournament did Novak Djokovic win his first Grand Slam singles title?

Djokovic won his first major at the 2008 Australian Open, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final; his 2024 Paris Olympic gold later completed a career Golden Slam.

Which Belgrade club won football's European Cup in 1991?

Red Star Belgrade beat Marseille on penalties in Bari on 29 May 1991 to win the European Cup, then took the Intercontinental Cup against Colo-Colo that December.

Serbia's men won Olympic gold at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 in which sport?

Water polo: Serbia's men beat Croatia in the Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 finals and Greece at Tokyo 2020 for three consecutive Olympic golds.

Which Serbian centre, a 1989 Lakers draft pick, entered the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2019?

Vlade Divac, drafted by the Lakers in 1989, played 16 NBA seasons with the Lakers, Hornets and Kings and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2019.

Which region forms Serbia's fertile northern third on the Pannonian Plain?

Vojvodina, north of the Danube and Sava, is one of Serbia's two autonomous provinces; the Habsburgs held it from the 18th century while the Ottomans ruled the south, and Novi Sad is its capital.

What is Serbia's largest ethnic minority, at about 2.8 percent, concentrated in the far north?

Hungarians numbered about 184,000, or 2.8 percent, in the 2022 census, living mainly in the northern districts around Subotica; Serbs made up 80.6 percent.

Which Neolithic culture, named for a site near Belgrade, flourished around 5700-4500 BC?

The Vinca culture, named for the Vinca-Belo Brdo site 14 km from Belgrade, flourished from about 5700 to 4500 BC; its incised symbols are sometimes claimed as proto-writing.

The 3rd-century Roman palace of Felix Romuliana is near which Serbian town?

Zajecar, in eastern Serbia, lies a few kilometres from Gamzigrad, where Emperor Galerius built Felix Romuliana and named it after his mother Romula; UNESCO listed the site in 2007.

Serbia's currency is the dinar, formerly divided into 100 of what?

The para, one hundredth of a dinar, took its name from the Ottoman coin of the same name; Serbia's first modern coins, copper paras struck in 1868, were denominated as hundredths of the dinar.

Serbia's flag is a horizontal tricolour of which colours, top to bottom?

The pan-Slavic red, blue and white run top to bottom on Serbia's flag; the state version adds the coat of arms with the double-headed eagle and four firesteels, set toward the hoist.

Which Serbian grilled dish is a spiced patty of mixed pork, beef and lamb?

Pljeskavica is a hand-pressed patty of mixed pork, beef and lamb, grilled and served in lepinja bread; cevapcici are the caseless minced sausages and gibanica the cheese pie.

Which Serbian performance artist, famed for endurance pieces, is among the world's most influential?

Marina Abramovic, born in Belgrade in 1946, made endurance her medium: in The Artist Is Present at MoMA in 2010 she sat silently opposite visitors for more than 700 hours.

Which 1690 event saw tens of thousands of Serbs under Patriarch Arsenije III flee into Hungary?

The Great Migration of 1690 followed the Habsburg retreat from Kosovo and Ottoman reprisals; Patriarch Arsenije III led the Serbs north into Habsburg Hungary, where Leopold I granted them privileges.

Serbia expanded its territory by 80 percent in which two conflicts of 1912-13?

The Balkan League beat the Ottomans, then Bulgaria turned on its allies and lost; the Treaty of Bucharest followed.

Which conservative Serbian prime minister dominated the interwar Kingdom's fragile politics?

Nikola Pasic, leader of the People's Radical Party, was prime minister for most of 1921-26 and pushed through the centralist 1921 Vidovdan Constitution that Croat autonomists fought; he died in 1926.

Which Serbian mountain has a 2,017-metre summit named for a botanist and the largest ski resort?

Kopaonik's summit, Pancic's Peak at 2,017 metres, is named for botanist Josif Pancic, whose mausoleum stands there; its ski centre is the largest in Serbia.

Which Sumadija city, later home to the Zastava works, was Serbia's capital from 1818 to 1841?

Kragujevac became the capital of Prince Milos Obrenovic's autonomous Serbia in 1818 and kept the role until 1841; its cannon foundry of 1853 was the seed of the Zastava works.

Which Serbian sportsman won the NBA MVP award in 2021, 2022 and 2024?

Nikola Jokic, picked 41st overall by Denver in 2014, won the MVP in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and led the Nuggets to their first NBA title in 2023.