Saints, sinners, and slivovica (Serbia 2024)

[kileskus]

Saints, sinners, and slivovica*
Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Banja Luka (BiH), and some places along the way


A couple of months ago I visited Kosovo. After seeing the Serbian churches there (the Kosovar city of Peć being once the seat of Serbian Orthodoxy) and passing through Belgrade, I decided to dedicate my next trip to Serbia. There'll be a lot of churches and history in this report as that's what I'm interested in, and not any spas or food as I'm not interested in those (but Serbia is known for its spas/springs and has an interesting cuisine that's a mix of Slavic, Turkish, Austrian, and social realities).

I went MEL - HKG - ZRH - BEG. There was a 1 hr layover in Hong Kong but a Cathay representative was waiting to take us Zurich passengers through priority screening. Then a 45 minute layover at Zurich but the airport was almost empty and the transfer was smooth. All in all it was about 27 hours to reach Belgrade, which I was pleased with given it's a less common destination and I was trying to make the most of my 2 weeks of leave.


View of the mountains leaving Zurich


Arriving in Belgrade you see this old Convair 440. It was operated by JAT Airways (the Yugoslav carrier that became Air Serbia) until a belly landing at Titograd (Podgorica) and then donated to the aviation museum in Belgrade. The museum is currently undergoing renovation and some of the pieces are stored outside. This is the most obvious one. If you happen to take any tarmac buses you might see some others.

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Before I get into the cities, some info and advice for anyone else wanting to visit:
Telecomms - local SIM cards are pretty cheap for Europe, I used A1 and they have prepaid cards for visitors. I found myself needing to text some people here. If you don't plan to get a local sim and know you'll be interacting with locals/services e.g. drivers, then maybe get Viber before you leave Aus as they use that more than WhatsApp for calling/messaging.

Intercity transport - I highly recommend renting a car if you intend to explore regional Serbia or go to other cities. National parks, remote monasteries, small historical towns, winery routes, a lot of these are hard to reach without hiring a driver or going with an organised tour. However, there are parts of Serbia where the roads are so poorly maintained/nonexistent that you have to go through Croatia to reach them, so plan your route if you're driving.
Buses of course are always an option. The national rail service is called Srbija Voz and they recently made it possible to book tickets online, but although the trains are new they are very slow, needing almost twice the time as driving.
Air Serbia has domestic flights to Niš and services several other cities in the Balkans.

Belgrade transport - taxis are fairly cheap and there is a service called Yandex Go, the Russian version of Uber. There is a comprehensive network of buses and trolleybuses, you can pay via the app BeogradPlus or not pay like most of the locals.

*Technically it's šlivovica with a sh sound but I can't come up with anything else alliterative that is equally apt

 

[Seat0B]

I love the language and history knowledge you impart in your trip reports @kileskus, so I’m looking forward to this one.

 

[kileskus]

Topola/Oplenac

There is probably not a mile of Serbian land that hasn't had some sort of bloodshed occur on it.



In 1389, then-ruler Prince Lazar fought Ottoman invaders in the Battle of Kosovo. He and the sultan both died and both sides suffered significant losses, but the loss of such a large portion of the Serbian army paved the way for centuries-long Ottoman occupation.

In 1805 some discontented janissaries assassinated Belgrade's pasha and ran riot over Belgrade, killing the locals and about 100 Serbian nobles. This sparked the First Serbian Uprising, led by a man named Djordje Petrović, who was called Karadjordje (Black George) because of his ruthlessness and violent temper.

Karadjordje set up shop southeast of Belgrade, and it was here that he declared an independent Serbia:

Karadjordje Town today, with only one bastion of his fort remaining

His rebels would take large swathes of land from the Ottomans. But infighting and the drying up of Russian aid (due to Napoleon's invasion) led to the Ottomans retaking that land in 1813 and murdering the male inhabitants and raping and enslaving the women and children. Karadjordje went into exile.

In 1815 the Second Serbian Uprising started, led by Miloš Obrenović. Karadjordje returned but Obrenović, knowing how uncompromising he was, feared he would disrupt peace talks with the Ottomans. He was murdered in his sleep, decapitated with an axe by a close friend on Obrenović's payroll.

The Obrenović family ruled Serbia for the next decades until one of their princes was assassinated before he had heirs. Peter Karadjordjević was chosen as the next ruler. He built the Church of St George near Karadjordje's Town and had the family mausoleum built beneath it.


The church is dedicated to St George because he shared a name with Karadjordje. On the tympanum is a depiction of St George slaying the dragon, but he has Karadjordje's likeness:



Inside, the church is decorated with mosaics depicting saints and biblical stories. The chandelier is made of metal from melted down cannons from the first uprising. The centre of the chandelier is in the shape of an inverted crown, to represent the loss of Serbian sovereignty to the Ottomans.


The lowest row of mosaics depicts saints. The three on the left were former Serbian rulers who were canonised, and they are each holding the church that they built/patronised or where their relics are kept. Below the mosaics is a portrait of Karadjordje.


A mosaic of archangel Uriel. In his left hand is a cross with two letters in each of the quadrants - this is something you will see everywhere if you visit Serbian Orthodox churches. IC XC is old Church Slavonic for Jesus Christ, and NI KA at the bottom means 'victorious' (like the goddess Nike).



The mausoleum of the house of Karadjordjević