Exploring secrets, surprises of Serbia’s capital

By C.J. Wood

Special to the Herald Union

WIESBADEN, Germany - Lush parks and tree-lined boulevards entice even the tired traveler in the capital of Serbia.

Belgrade encourages wandering, whether through its many old neighborhoods or beautiful museums.

Any visitor to the city will want to see the Belgrade Fortress, which includes Kalemegdan Park. Currently the location of a temporary movie set for a film dated in the 19th century, the park includes a war museum, mosque in ruins, zoo, natural history museum, sultan’s tomb and trendy cafes.

The incredible Military Museum, founded in 1878, chronicles military archaeology from Celtic times to the present. The museum’s collection that includes original weapons and artifacts is extensive and takes a minimum of three hours to view. The museum was built during the communist era and has exhibits that convey the ideology of the time.

The Kalemegdan, built mostly in the 18th century, has little left from ancient times except Roman headstones, but outside the museum is a spectacular exhibit of well-restored tanks and artillery.

The Museum of Natural History near the front entrance in Kalemegdan is a small collection of local and foreign animals.

The Kalemegdan has beautiful vistas of the Sava and Danube Rivers. Near the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers is the island park Ada Ciganlija, which includes peaceful bike trails and an old paddle wheel steamer.

Belgrade is a city of contrasts, where communist-era trams compete with luxury cars on hectic streets. Belgrade’s sad past haunts its many old neighborhoods and contrasts sharply with its Victorian charm and friendly population. Sanctioned graffiti murals give the city a youthful edge. Near Kalemegdan, the cafes and fashion shops of Knez Milhailova Street also stand out starkly with the crowded kiosks and flea markets near socialist-era public housing high rises. Belgrade’s varied kiosks are the city’s trademark and were developed by the former communist government to encourage entrepreneurship.

The Ethnographic Museum near Trg Republica displays three floors of mostly 19th century folk dress, household goods, village architecture and some retro-communist fashion from the 1960s; well worth the 100 dinar or €1 admission fee.

Towering over Belgrade is the Cathedral of St. Sava, an Orthodox church. St. Sava was the spiritual founder of the Serbian nation, and he is honored with an incredible domed church that is 79 meters high. It is illuminated with floodlights at night and sparkles like a glittering jewel. Its exterior is a modern interpretation of Serbian-Byzantine architecture. Inside visitors are awestruck with painted splendor and sculpted artwork.

The Nicola Tesla Museum, dedicated to the famous Serbian-American electrical inventor, looks like the movie set of “Frankenstein” circa 1935. It includes electrical inductors that shoot sparks across the room at neon tubes.

No trip to the former socialist Yugoslavia would be complete without visiting the mausoleum of Marshal Tito, who rebuilt Yugoslavia after World War II and united the people of Serbia until he died in 1980. Nearby is the Museum of Yugoslav History, which shows the sophistication of Belgrade’s fashion scene during the Tito years.

In the new Serbia, Tito remains a popular icon of a peaceful and happy past for many Serbians. Tito’s close relationship with the United States brought prosperity to Serbia, which was part of Yugoslavia during the Cold War.

Take the bus to see more of Serbia. Its bus lines run frequently and represent a better value than the frail train system. A bus ticket from Belgrade to Novi Sad, located about 55 miles north of Belgrade, is only about €5. The trip between Novi Sad and Subotica, near the Hungarian border, in autumn takes the traveler past cornfields dotted with haystacks and Larch forests in burnt-yellow glory.

A shuttered museum in the train station, which appears to be closed to the public, reveals interesting pictures and artifacts from the partisan conflict during World War II.

Further downtown the city livens up a bit with a lively Ottoman-era central market and the dramatically lit Petrovaradin Citadel located next to the Danube.

Air travel to Serbia from Germany is frequent and cheap, and Serbian hotels are reasonably priced. Serbia’s Jat Airways flies frequently from Frankfurt am Main. The cheap, comfortably worn, communist-era Park Hotel and the remodeled Belgrade City Hotel, both in central Belgrade, are both good values and well-located.