With very few options for trains or buses from Sarajevo (Bosnia) to Belgrade in Serbia, we arranged a “transfer” through the “Meet Bosnia” Tourist agency. It was a long ride, from 8:00-5:00, but our driver, Amer, was engaging and informative, and he treated us to three tourist stops along the way.
Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge: Our first stop was in Visegrad to see the historical bridge made famous by Nobel Prize winning Bosnian writer Ivo Andric in his novel The Bridge on the Drina. Built during Ottoman times in 1577, it suffered damage during both World Wars, but today it’s fully restored, and in 2007 was listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Andrićgrad, dedicated to the novelist Ivo Andric, is also in Visegrad just down from the bridge. Yugoslavian Film director Emir Kusturica designed the “artificial city” of Andrićgrad to include a mixture of Ottoman, Byzantine, and Classical architectural styles reflecting the history of Visegrad.
Drvengrad, (the “Wooden Town”) near the city of Užice, is another Emir Kusturica project, a traditional village built for his film Life is a Miracle. Today it’s a tourist destination, especially during the regular film and music festivals held here. While the buildings reflect traditional Bosnian/Serbian architecture, the streets are named after film giants like Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Stanley Kubrick. We took a break from our long drive here to visit the town and share a meal.
Dobrun Monestery Before leaving Bosnia & Herzogovnia and entering Serbia, we stopped at the Dobrun Monastery which is located in a picturesque mountainous region, surrounded with rocky hills in the gorge of Rzav River. The monastery was dedicated to the Annunciation and was built in 1343 by Duke Pribil and his sons Stefan and Petar. During its history Dobrun Monastery was several times destroyed and rebuilt. Dobrun Monastery experienced its worst destruction during the Second World War when Germans used it as ammunition storage and blown up in 1945 on their withdrawal. Dobrun Monastery was restored in 1946.
Belgrade, the capital of today’s Serbia, is a huge city set on the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. Much of our stay here was rainy, but we still manage to see quite a bit. On the few dry days, we enjoyed walking Belgrade’s large pedestrian zone. We had a lovely day for our walking tour through Belgrade and a cloudy, rainy day when we walked up to Zemun along the Danube and then visited Block 23 in Novi Beograd. It was a bit of a challenge, but we eventually mastered how to buy bus tickets and get around the city by bus (thanks to Google maps). Most cities had a map of the bus lines and a schedule. Not Belgrade. We depended upon Google maps to help us navigate which bus and which bus stop. Because it’s such a huge city, being able to use the public transportation (buses and trams), gives us access to so much more.
Smoking in Belgrade is pervasive: We had been warned. Seeking a good coffee shop on our first day in town, we visited The Aviator, which came highly recommended, a pretty large place with a nice ambiance, including airplane propellers on the wall. The coffee was great too, but we couldn’t enjoy it since the whole place smelled like an ashtray. Other customers were few, and they weren’t near us, but they did smoke, and the place had no ventilation. As we left, we noticed a sign on the entrance to indicate “No Smoking,” but right next to it another that indicated that smoking was permitted.
As we strolled the city, we saw this everywhere. Apparently public bars and restaurants were required to have a non-smoking area, which The Aviator did, but they weren’t effectively separated or ventilated. Weather permitting, you could have your coffee outside, but the smokers are there as well. Apparently, Serbians simply were not going to be told they cannot smoke where they want. Visitors beware: most folks here smoke and most places allow it. Eating in public means breathing second-hand smoke. We found a favorite restaurant and visited Voulez Vous three times. It’s pleasant, a bit upscale with really great food – but even here, we couldn’t get way from the smoke.
We walked a lot and saw a lot in Belgrade – despite the rainy weather. Here are some of the highlights of what we did during our 8 days in Belgrade.
Temple of Saint Sava: This Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the largest in the Balkans. Its dome dominates the Belgrade skyline almost like St. Paul’s does in London. Built in the early 20th Century, it is dedicated to Saint Sava, the medieval founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church. We photographed the exterior and visited the church, but the sanctuary was being renovated so we could only visit the crypt. But even that crypt was extraordinary and beautiful.
“Crash Course through Serbian History” walking tour with Marja. We met in Nikola Pasica Square and began our walk along the city’s large pedestrian areas, through Republic Square and beyond. Along the way, Marja filled us in on the Serbian perspective of both ancient and more recent history. The architecture is diverse and interesting. Most of the Ottoman stuff is gone with only one mosque left in the city where there used to be 30+. After the Ottomans came the Habsburgs, and many buildings reflect the Viennese style, with lovely ornamentals decorating their facades. During the reign of Tito, when Belgrade served as capital of Yugoslavia, the communists repudiated such ornamentation, and some buildings were “shaved,” the end result of which was to make them look like plain concrete slabs, like typical communist structures. There’s a colorful Moscow Hotel and plenty of Classical structures, like the National Theater and the National Museum on Republic square. Happily, today’s Belgradians are restoring and enjoying the more interesting architecture of their history.
We then visited the Kalemegdan Park and the Belgrade Fortress built on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. This is the oldest section of a very old city, a settlement that predates the Roman occupation by centuries. Standing on a tall monument looking over the rivers is “The Victor,” a statue of a large and proud naked man holding a wreath of peace in one hand and a sword, just in case one is needed, in the other. It seems that some in town were offended by “The Victor’s” nakedness, so they made his monument really tall so it would be less offensive.
Ruzica Church, a small Orthodox church within the Fortress, probably goes back to medieval times. Through the wars, it had served as a military arsenal, a storehouse for weapons and ammunition. 20th Century restorations have made this absolutely unique, with statues of soldiers crafted from melted ammunition, and chandeliers made out of rifle bullets and pistol shots from the Great War, Serbian sabers, and cannon ammunition from WW1.
Looking out across the Sava River, from Old Belgrade, we also learned about New Belgrade, “Novi Beograd,” the communist sections built during Communist Yugoslavia. Further up the river, we could even see the medieval town of Zemun, now officially considered part of Belgrade, but were advised not to say so with the people of Zemun. We decided to check out Novi Beograd and Zemun for ourselves on another day. After the tour, we walked down to Skadarlija, the bohemian artist’s area of town where we enjoyed tasting brandies along the street and another coffee break on a pleasant day.
Serbian National Theater performance of the ballet, “Sleeping Beauty.” We had tickets for a third level balcony view of the ballet for a sold-out performance. This was very traditional ballet with a huge cast of dancers in gorgeous and ornate costumes. Going to the Theater is amazingly affordable. Tickets range from $4 to $12 per seat.
Walking up to Zemun: On a clear day we crossed the Sava River and took a long walk through the park and along the Danube River where floating homes, restaurants, casinos, and hostels line the shore. Eventually we reached Zemun, a lovely medieval town that for most of its history was aligned to Austria rather than to Serbia. We enjoyed photographing swans on the river, visiting the farmer’s market, the town square, and especially the Gardos Tower from which we looked over Zemun, all the way back to the Fortress and Old Belgrade. We dined in Zemun at Walter’s of Sarajevo where Sara fell in love with her first “Shopska Salad.”
Visit to Block 23: in Novi Beograd: After leaving Zemun, we made our way by bus into Novi Beograd to see the communist architecture and the planned communities of Tito’s Yugoslavia. From the highway running through Novi Beograd, these buildings are huge and ugly, 15+ stories high in dull, grey concrete packing a few hundred small apartments into each building. Arranged in “Blocks” with three or four such buildings, they created a sizable rectangle with which are a large courtyard, grass and trees, playgrounds and even schools. The idea was to create a very functional and safe home to accommodate hundreds of families. With schools and nature within the block, children would not have to cross roads or highways. We saw that within Block 23, the view was much more human and livable than you would guess from outside. Also, within easy walking distance from the blocks, were protected parks and nature areas for recreation. We wouldn’t want to live in these blocks, but they do represent a thoughtful and functional plan for effectively housing the dense population of Belgrade’s rapidly growing capital city.
Museum of Yugoslavia: The museum sits on a lovely hillside with a panoramic view over the center of Belgrade. Visiting this site was fascinating, for the viewpoint is one of nostalgia for the communist past and celebration of Josep Broz aka Tito. Occupying a lovely park, the museum includes three buildings, a fountain, and a number of statues, including quite a few of Tito himself. The “House of Flowers” is a lovely monument to Tito, including Marshall Tito’s Mausoleum. A second building includes artifacts demonstrating Yugoslav History, from Tito’s work as a leader of the Partisans who fought Nazi Germany during WWII, and his leadership of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. The third building houses temporary exhibitions and cultural research. Just next to these grounds sits Tito’s home.
In America we learned that Tito was a brutal dictator of a repressive authoritarian regime. Many in Serbia admit that he and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia were quick to punish anyone who criticized either Tito or the regime. Beyond that, however, they feel that the communists did much to improve the lives of the people, and many today still look back fondly on that time.
