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50 free Serbia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fifty questions on Serbia, the landlocked heart of the Balkans that has been a medieval empire, an Ottoman province, a kingdom, a Yugoslav republic and, since 2006, an independent state again. Geography covers Belgrade at the confluence of the Sava and Danube, Vojvodina and the Pannonian Plain, Midzor, the Iron Gates and Djerdap, Novi Sad and Nis, and the plum orchards that make Serbia the world's second-largest producer. History runs from Vinca and Lepenski Vir, the Nemanjic dynasty and Dusan's empire, the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Ottoman rule and the Great Migration, Karadjordje and Milos Obrenovic's uprisings, the Congress of Berlin, the Balkan Wars, the 1914 telegram, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Tito's partisans, the Non-Aligned summit, Milosevic and the 1999 NATO bombing, the fall of Milosevic in 2000, Djindjic's assassination, Montenegro's exit and Kosovo's declaration. Culture and sport cover Cyrillic and Latin digraphia, slava, slivovitz and rakija, cevapi and pljeskavica, Studenica and the White Angel, Ivo Andric's Nobel, Kusturica's two Palmes d'Or, Exit and Guca, Nikola Tesla, Djokovic's 24 majors, Red Star's 1991 European Cup and Serbia's water polo golds. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its cities, rulers, artists and athletes, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a Balkan history class or a Danube cruise.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Danube and which other river?
The Sava
The Sava flows into the Danube beneath Belgrade's Kalemegdan fortress; the Celtic Scordisci founded Singidunum on that confluence in the 3rd century BC.
Q 02How many countries border Serbia, not counting the disputed frontier with Albania through Kosovo?
Seven
Seven: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia; the frontier with Albania runs only along Kosovo, whose status is disputed.
Q 03Which dynasty ruled Serbia from 1166 to 1371 and raised it to a kingdom in 1217 and an empire in 1346?
The Nemanjic
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.
Q 04The Battle of Kosovo in 1389 pitted Prince Lazar's army against which invading power?
The Ottoman Empire
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.
Q 05Who led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottomans in 1804?
Karadjordje Petrovic
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.
Q 06Serbia's independence was formally recognised at which 1878 gathering?
The Congress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin in July 1878 recognised Serbia, Montenegro and Romania as independent states; the same settlement placed Bosnia under Austro-Hungarian occupation.
Q 07Which two royal houses alternated on the Serbian throne through the 19th century?
Obrenovic and Karadjordjevic
The Obrenovic ruled from 1815 to 1903 apart from a 16-year Karadjordjevic interlude; Prince Milan proclaimed the kingdom in 1882.
Q 08On 1 December 1918 Prince Regent Alexander proclaimed a new state in Belgrade. What was it called?
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The southern neighbour's Podgorica Assembly had deposed its own dynasty five days earlier to join; the name Yugoslavia came later.
Q 09Which 1941 liberated territory in western Serbia is called the first liberated territory in WWII Europe?
The Republic of Uzice
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.
Q 10Belgrade hosted the first summit of which international grouping in September 1961?
The Non-Aligned Movement
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.
Q 11Europe's last major smallpox outbreak since World War II struck Kosovo and Serbia in which year?
1972
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.
Q 12Which Serbian leader rose to power in 1989 and was later tried in The Hague, dying in his cell in 2006?
Slobodan Milosevic
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.
Q 13The 1998-99 Kosovo War ended after which alliance intervened militarily?
NATO
Q 21What is the name of the cold, squally southeasterly wind that is a signature of Serbia's climate?
Kosava
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.
Q 22Which Roman emperor, born at Naissus in today's Serbia, founded a new capital on the Bosporus?
Constantine the Great
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.
Q 23What is Serbia's national drink?
Slivovitz
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.
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.
Q 14Which reformist Serbian prime minister was assassinated in 2003 in a plot by organised crime?
Zoran Djindjic
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.
Q 15Serbia became an independent state again in 2006 after which partner left their union?
Montenegro
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.
Q 16On what date did Kosovo unilaterally declare independence from Serbia?
17 February 2008
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.
Q 17Serbia's parliament formally proclaimed what stance in December 2007?
Military neutrality
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.
Q 18What is Serbia's highest peak outside Kosovo, at 2,169 metres in the Balkan Mountains?
Midzor
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.
Q 19The Danube's largest tributary entirely within Serbia, 493 km long, is which river?
The Great Morava
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.
Q 20Serbia's biggest lake, Djerdap, is a reservoir on the Danube behind a dam at which famous gorge?
The Iron Gates
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.
Q 24Serbian is unique among European languages for regularly using which two alphabets side by side?
Cyrillic and Latin
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'.
Q 25Serbs are described as the world's westernmost predominantly what?
Orthodox ethnic group
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.
Q 26Slava, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage, is the Serbian veneration of what?
A family's patron saint
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.
Q 27Which 12th-century monastery founded by Stefan Nemanja became a Serbian World Heritage Site in 1986?
Studenica
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.
Q 28Which Serbian writer won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature for works such as 'The Bridge on the Drina'?
Ivo Andric
The bridge in question is the Ottoman span at Visegrad; Andric was born in Bosnia and served as a Yugoslav diplomat.
Q 29Besides 'When Father Was Away on Business', which film won Emir Kusturica the Palme d'Or?
Underground
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.
Q 30The Exit festival, one of Europe's biggest, is staged at the Petrovaradin Fortress in which city?
Novi Sad
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.