Why go
Read the country through three different settings. Belgrade’s river confluence explains its strategic importance; Novi Sad reflects the cultural life of Vojvodina; and the medieval foundations around Kraljevo connect the inland valleys with Serbian statehood. Together they make more sense than a chronology of successive rulers.
The full story
Serbian states developed in the Balkans after the Slavic migrations of the early Middle Ages. A kingdom emerged in the thirteenth century, followed by a short-lived empire in the fourteenth. The medieval monasteries preserve a visible connection with that period through their church architecture and wall paintings. Later Ottoman and Habsburg power shaped different parts of the country. Those histories help explain the contrast between the fortress landscapes along the great rivers and the civic architecture of northern towns. The early nineteenth-century Serbian Revolution opened another chapter, with Kragujevac serving as the capital of the emerging modern state. After the First World War, Serbia became part of Yugoslavia. That state changed form repeatedly during the twentieth century, and its breakup brought devastating wars in the 1990s. The later union of Serbia and Montenegro ended in 2006. Belgrade’s Museum of Yugoslavia offers a focused way to explore this more recent shared history.