Phoenix Rising

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Hello my fellow travellers!

After a really good night's sleep (only interruption was when Alex returned from his late exploration) I was ready to take on the city of Belgrade! Me and Alex woke up about the same time and headed out together, although him by bicycle and me by bus. I kept a pretty good pace across town and covered pretty much all I wanted to see in Belgrade in a single day actually which is pretty nice.

The first site that I visited was of course the massive Church of Saint Sava, it's one of the largest churches in the world and especially amongst Orthodox places of worship. It was built on the spot where Saint Sava was burned by the Ottomans in 1595. It was originally planned to be constructed on the 300 year anniversary of the saint's demise but was delayed due to the first and second Balkan Wars as well as World War I. Construction began in 1935 only to once again be stopped due to World War II, it was finally completed in 1989. Even now the interior of the church is covered with scaffolds so it still seems to be a work in progress, it would be nice to come back here in the future and see the finished result as I imagine it will be grand.

My next stop was at the Nikola Tesla Museum as I had to visit this place and pay some homage to one of the greatest scientist that the world has ever known.

From there I took a stroll up to the University of Belgrade and looked at the quite beautiful old buildings as well as the monument to Nikola Tesla.

I decided to take a walk in the nearby Tasmajdan Park which is a quite beautiful park filled with history. It's located in the centre of Belgrade and the area has been used as a quarry by both the Romans and the Ottomans. During the First Serbian Uprising the park was used as a base for the revolt and it was from here that the Ottoman Sultan decreed the autonomy of Serbia in 1830. In 1999 during the NATO bombings of Belgrade the children's theatre Dusko Radovic was badly damaged and several children died. There is a monument to them here, stating "we were just children." It's a quite powerful monument due to that single statement and it's worth reflecting upon it's meaning, innocent children again died in vain in a war started by those who was supposed to protect them, it's very tragic.

Within the park lies the Church of Saint Mark which was completed in 1940. Just as with the Church of Saint Sava I must admit that the exterior is more impressive than the interior which isn't completed here either. At least this one isn't covered in scaffolds though like the Church of Saint Sava was and while the interior isn't completed it is still nice and worth the visit as it currently stands. If nothing else to be able to gaze upon the Sarcophagus of Emperor Stefan Dusan who was one of the most powerful monarchs of his time and the man who enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire.

Just a short walk from the Church of Saint Mark is the House of the National Assembly. On the way there I passed by the Post of Serbia which looks like it was built during the Communist period with it's grey concrete and massive pillars. The House of the National Assembly however is far more aesthetic and quite pleasing to the eye with it's white façade and light green roof. Standing by the entrance are two interesting statues depicting man and horse, called Play of the Black Horses.

Across from the House of the National Assembly lies the Old Palace and the New Palace. The Old Palace was the Royal Palace during the Obronevic dynasty and was built between 1882 and 1884, today it houses the Assembly of the City of Belgrade. The New Palace was the Royal Palace during the Karadordevic dynasty and was built between 1911 and 1922 and today it's the seat of the President of Serbia.

Further down the road stands a memorial pillar, I couldn't find specific information about it but since I could read the year 1941 on it my guess is that it's a memorial to the 1941 bombing of Belgrade when Germany invaded Yugoslavia without warning or even a declaration of war following the coup d'etat where Prince Paul was deposed and replaced by King Peter II.

From the royal palaces I continued on to the National Museum of Belgrade, unfortunately for me it was undergoing some quite extensive restorations so only a couple of sections was open. In front of the museum stands the Prince Mihailo Monument which is listed as a monument of culture or great importance. It was actually the first equestrian statue in Serbia! Prince Mihailo is considered the most enlightened ruler of Serbia and was a spokesperson for a federated Balkan as a counter to the Ottoman Empire. He served twice as Prince and his first term ended as he was deposed in 1842 and is second ended with his assassination in 1868.

I also took a stroll in the Academic Park and cast an eye on the statues of noteworthy citizens. It would be a nice area but it's unfortunately quite spoiled by the vast quantities of graffiti that litter the walls everywhere. It's a general problem here I've noticed, the graffiti and lack of respect for the cultural heritage.

Next I visited the Museum of Vuk and Dositej which is apparently one of the most important memorial museums in the city, depicting the life of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzik and Dositej Obradovic. Both of them were key figures in the Age of Enlightenment of Serbia and the museum is housed in a Turkish town house from 1739, one of the eight oldest residential buildings in Belgrade. To be honest I only went here because it was included in the ticket from the National Museum and I wasn't all to impressed. Although I confess that I was a bit jaded by all the graffiti I passed on the way there, including graffiti on the walls of this very museum!

From here I made my way up to the Bajrakli Mosque from 1575, it's the only original Ottoman mosque still remaining in Belgrade which makes it an interesting landmark as such, but I must admit that it didn't really impress me all that much after the beautiful mosques I visited in Turkey.

Just around the corner from the mosque is the Gallery of Frescoes, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A museum filled with medieval frescoes gathered for safekeeping. While the museum in itself might be a bit lifeless (and certainly quite empty) it does house a lot of beautiful and interesting artefacts and is worth a visit in my opinion.

From the gallery of frescoes I made my way up to the highpoint of the exploration, the mighty Belgrade Fortress! It commands a strong position on the hill overlooking the city and it has been the site for pretty much continuous battles for almost two millenniums. On the premise are the large and little Kalemegdan parks as well as two gorgeous churches. The first one I came to was the Church of Saint Petka which was built in 1937 to replace an older church. It's covered from top to bottom with amazing mosaics and it still has the hand of Saint Petka here.

The second one was the Little Rose Church which is one of the most picturesque churches I've ever come across with it's walls and tower all covered in greenery. There is also the Monument to the Victor which was erected in 1928 and is now considered to be the protector of Belgrade, the Tomb of the Ottoman general and Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha as well as the completely misnamed Roman Well that was built by the Austrians in the 18th century.

The whole premise is very nice to walk around on and explore and the view from up there down over the River Danube is quite spectacular. There is even a legend that the great Attila the Hun is buried underneath this fortress at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. By the banks where the two mighty rivers meet stands the Nebojsa Tower. It was originally built as a water tower in 1460 but that later was converted into a military stronghold and then a Turkish prisoner where, amongst others, the Greek poet and rebel leader Rigas Feraios was executed in 1798.

Beneath the massive walls, in the Large Kalemegdan Park stands the Monument of Gratitude to France. A beautiful token of friendship and appreciation to the tireless efforts of the French to try and break through the Macedonian Front to aid Serbia as it was under attack from the combined forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Bulgaria during World War I. They ultimately failed to break through but it was a valiant effort nonetheless and is well worth to be remembered.

After another short walk I found myself by the Saint Michael's Cathedral which boasts an impressive altarpiece and a remarkably beautifully painted ceiling that is well worth to take a look at, especially considering the scarce decoration of the other major places of worship here.

Not far from there is the Residence of Princess Ljubica from 1830. It was unfortunately not open so I had to be content with some photos from the outside before I made my way over to the bus station to catch a bus out to the remote Gardos Tower. On my way up to the tower I visited the Church of Saint Nicholas from 1745, it's in quite a need to restorations to say the least but it was interesting to see it. The Gardos Tower was built in 1896 as a celebration of a 1000 years of Hungarian settlement in the Pannonian plain. It's a very beautiful tower and from it's vantage point you get a spectacular view of Belgrade.

Just next to the tower lies the Church of Saint Demetrius but I couldn't get inside to take a closer look at it so instead I went over to a nice little restaurant nearby, with a beautiful view overlooking the city, and sat down with a delicious meal and a couple of beers and just enjoyed a well earned rest.

With my belly full I took the bus back to the centre of Belgrade for a final enjoyable walk before I returned to Nikola's place. I did get a bit lost on the way back to Nikola though and stepped off at the wrong location so I had to call him to make sure I got to the right place in the end. Because of that I got to bed quite late but I still managed to talk to my girlfriend for a while before I went to bed.

Reflecting upon today I find that this city might still be recovering from it's wounds, after all it's not even fifteen years since the Kosovo War ended and NATO bombed this city. Especially the memorial to the children that died is quite powerful. Talking to people there seems to still be some tensions here and looking at the monuments much is covered in graffiti or not even completed yet due to constantly being put on hold or damaged in continuous wars. Yet, slowly but steady it seems to be rising as the famous Phoenix from the ashes, a city slowly being reborn.

Unfortunately tomorrow will be a quite early day since Nikola have to go to work, while he's away I think I'll take the chance to find something nice for Lisa since I managed to see pretty much everything I wanted to see today. There's really only two things left here that I want to see, the House of Flowers, which is the Mausoleum of Tito located at the Museum of Yugoslav History and the White Palace at the Royal Compound. Unfortunately the Royal Compound is only open on weekends, because the Crown Prince and his family still live, there so I won't be able to go there this time.

Tomorrow I will begin by visiting the Museum of Yugoslav History and the House of flowers and then I'll go do some shopping before I take a train to Kosovo!

Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!

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