Belgrade Београд
—  City  —
Pobednik monument in Kalemegdan, overlooking the skyline of New Belgrade
Flag Coat of arms
Location within Europe and Serbia
Coordinates: 44°49′14″N 20°27′44″E / 44.82056°N 20.46222°E / 44.82056; 20.46222Coordinates: 44°49′14″N 20°27′44″E / 44.82056°N 20.46222°E / 44.82056; 20.46222
Country	Serbia
District	City of Belgrade
Municipalities	17
Establishment	before 279 BC (Singidunum)[1]
Government
• Mayor	Dragan Đilas (DS)
• Ruling parties	DS/G17+/SPS-PUPS/LDP
Area[2]
• City	359.96 km2 (138.98 sq mi)
• Urban	869 km2 (336 sq mi)
• Metro	3,222.68 km2 (1,244.28 sq mi)
Elevation[3]	117 m (384 ft)
Population (2011)[4]
• City	1,154,589
• Density	3,207.5/km2 (8,307/sq mi)
• Metro	1,639,121
• Metro density	508.6/km2 (1,317/sq mi)
Demonym	Belgrader
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	11000
Area code(s)	(+381) 11
Car plates	BG
Website	www.beograd.rs

Belgrade ( /ˈbɛlɡreɪd/; Serbian: Београд; [beǒɡrad] ( listen); names in other languages) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans.^[5] Its name in English translates to White city. The city proper has a population of over 1.1 million, while its metropolitan area has over 1.6 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe.^[6]

One of the largest prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved around the area Belgrade in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city, naming it Singidūn.^[7] It was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid 2nd century.^[8] It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times before it became the capital of King Stephen Dragutin (1282–1316). In 1521 Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of a the Sanjak of Smederevo.^[9] It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. The north of Belgrade remained a Habsburg outpost until 1918, when it was merged into the capital city. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times.^[10] Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia (in various forms of governments) from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006.

Belgrade has a special administrative status within Serbia.^[11] Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council.^[12] It covers 3.6% of Serbia's territory, and 22.5% of the country's population lives in the city.^[13]

Geography[link]

Satellite image of Belgrade

Belgrade lies 116.75 metres (383.0 ft) above sea level and is located at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. The historical core of Belgrade, Kalemegdan, lies on the right banks of both rivers. Since the 19th century, the city has been expanding to the south and east; after World War II, Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) was built on the left bank of the Sava river, connecting Belgrade with Zemun. Smaller, chiefly residential communities across the Danube, like Krnjača and Borča, also merged with the city. The city has an urban area of 360 square kilometres (140 sq mi), while together with its metropolitan area it covers 3,223 km² (1,244 sq mi). Throughout history, Belgrade has been a crossroads between the West and the Orient.^[14]

On the right bank of the Sava, central Belgrade has a hilly terrain, while the highest point of Belgrade proper is Torlak hill at 303 m (994 ft). The mountains of Avala (511 m (1,677 ft)) and Kosmaj (628 m (2,060 ft)) lie south of the city.^[15] Across the Sava and Danube, the land is mostly flat, consisting of alluvial plains and loessial plateaus.

Climate[link]

Belgrade lies on the transition zone of humid subtropical (Cfa) and humid continental (Dfa) climate zones,^[16] with four seasons and uniformly spread precipitation. Monthly averages range from 0.4 °C (32.7 °F) in January to 21.8 °C (71.2 °F) in July, with an annual mean of 12.2 °C (54.0 °F). There are, on average, 31 days a year when the temperature is above 30 °C, and 95 days when the temperature is above 25 °C. Belgrade receives about 680 millimetres (27 in) of precipitation a year, with late spring being wettest. The average annual number of sunny hours is 2,025. The highest officially recorded temperature in Belgrade was +43.1 °C (110 °F) on 24 July 2007,^[17] while on the other end, the lowest temperature was −26.2 °C (−15 °F) on 10 January 1893.^[18]

History[link]

History of Belgrade
This article is part of a series
Ancient times
Singidunum
State of the Scordisci
Middle Ages
Kingdom of Syrmia
Serbian Despotate
Banate of Belgrade
Siege of Belgrade (1456)
Modern times
Pashaluk of Belgrade
Siege of Belgrade (1688)
Siege of Belgrade (1717)
Kingdom of Serbia (1718–1739)
Capture of Belgrade (1739)
Treaty of Belgrade
Principality of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(Belgrade Oblast)
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
(Belgrade City Administration)
Serbia (1941-1944)
Bombing of Belgrade in World War II
Belgrade Offensive
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia
v t e

Ancient city[link]

Lady of Vinča (5500 BC)

The Neolithic Starčevo- and Vinča cultures prospered in the Belgrade area and dominated the Balkans (as well as parts of Central Europe and Asia Minor) about 7,000 years ago.^{[7][21][22][23]}

The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians were the masters of this area prior to the Roman conquest.^[24] Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi,^[7] while after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it "Singidūn" (dun, fortress).^[7] In 34-33BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade. It became the romanized Singidunum in the 1st century AD, and by the mid-2nd century, the city was proclaimed a municipium by the Roman authorities, evolving into a full fledged colonia (highest city class) by the end of the century.^[8] Apart from the first Christian Emperor of Rome who was born on the territory in modern Serbia in Naissus – Constantine I known as Constantine the Great^[25] – another early Roman Emperor was born in Singidunum: Flavius Iovianus (Jovian), the restorer of Christianity.^[26] Jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the site passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.^[23] Across the Sava from Singidunum was the Celtic city of Taurunum (Zemun); the two were connected with a bridge throughout Roman and Byzantine times.^[27]

Middle Ages[link]

The 1456 Siege of Belgrade, as depicted by Turkish miniaturist Mohammed Bey in 1584

Despot Stefan Tower

Kalemegdan

In 442, the area was ravaged by Attila the Hun.^[28] In 471, it was taken by Theodoric the Great, who continued into Greece.^[29] As the Ostrogoths left for Italy, the Gepids took over the city. In 539 it was retaken by the Byzantines.^[30] In 577, some 100,000 Slavs poured into Thrace and Illyricum, pillaging cities and settling down.^[31] The Avars and Bulgarians under Bayan I had by 582 conquered the whole region.^[32] According to Byzantine chronicle De Administrando Imperio, the White Serbs had during the rule of Heraclius (610–641) contacted the strategos of Belgrade, asking for lands; they received provinces in the west, towards the Adriatic, which they would rule as foederati.^[33] When the Avars were finally destroyed in the 9th century by the Frankish Kingdom, it fell back to Byzantine rule, while Taurunum became part of the Frankish realm (renamed Malevilla).^[34] At the same time (around 878), the first record of the name Beligrad appeared, during the rule of Tsar Boris I-Michael at the First Bulgarian Empire. For about four centuries, the city remained a battleground between the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the First Bulgarian Empire.^[35] Basil II (976–1025) installed a garrison in Belgrade.^[36] The city hosted the armies of the First and the Second Crusade;^[37] while passing through during the Third Crusade, Frederick Barbarossa and his 190,000 crusaders saw Belgrade in ruins.^[38]

Stephen Dragutin (r. 1276–1282), received Belgrade from his father-in-law, Stephen V of Hungary in 1284; it served as the capital of the Kingdom of Syrmia, and Dragutin is regarded as the first Serbian king to rule over Belgrade.^[39]

Following the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 and the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Serbian Empire began to crumble as the Ottoman Empire conquered its southern territory.^[40][41] The north resisted through the Serbian Despotate, which had Belgrade as its capital. The city flourished under Stefan Lazarević, son of Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović. Lazarević built a castle with a citadel and towers, of which only the Despot's tower and west wall remain. He also refortified the city's ancient walls, allowing the Despotate to resist the Ottomans for almost 70 years. During this time, Belgrade was a haven for many Balkan peoples fleeing Ottoman rule, and is thought to have had a population of 40, 000 to 50,000 people.^[39]

In 1427, Stefan's successor Đurađ Branković had to return Belgrade to the Hungarians, and Smederevo became the new capital. During his reign, the Ottomans captured most of the Serbian Despotate, unsuccessfully besieging Belgrade first in 1440^[37] and again in 1456.^[42] As it presented an obstacle to their further advance into Central Europe, over 100,000 Ottoman soldiers^[43] launched the 1456 Siege of Belgrade, in which the Christian army under Hungarian warlord John Hunyadi successfully defended the city from the Ottomans, wounding Sultan Mehmed II.^[44] This battle has been characterized as having "decided the fate of Christendom";^[45] the noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day.^[37][46]