10 Things You Didn't Know About Belgrade

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1. First thing first - did you know what its name means? Belgrade (Beograd on Serbian) literally means White city (beo - white, grad - city). Originally (about 279. BC) its name was Singidunum - from words “dunum” (hill - as there are 20 hills in Belgrade) or “din” (city).

2. Belgrade is very old and has long and painful history. It has been fought over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times, including by Attila the Hun.
Also, there’s a legend that Attila’s grave is under Kalemegdan fortress.

3. Here we have a huge coffee culture. Drinking coffee is a way of life. We drink it when we wake up, in the afternoon, when we want to see our friends we invite them over for a cup of coffee.
If you walk down the Knez Mihailova street, for example, you’ll see that caffes are always full.

4. Speaking of coffee, if you visited Belgrade or Serbiain general, you surely heard of our tavernas, or as we call it, kafanas. Oldest kafana in Belgrade is literally called “?” (question mark).

5. We have our own Silicone Valley - but it has nothing to do with technology. Strahinjića Bana street has earned that nickname because it has loads of super fancy caffes and restaurants, visited by rich men and their ladies who are fans of plastic surgeries.

6. Despite of Serbia being a landlocked country, Belgrade has its sea. Well, not really, but Ada Ciganlija is populary called Belgrade’s sea and it’s one of the locals’ favorite spots - its beaches and caffes (see number 3) are always completely full during the summer.

7. The Church of Saint Sava is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world and even one of the largest church buildings in the world.

8. Belgrade is a mix of many cultures we had contact with during our long history. As a result, Serbian cuisine has been influenced by Balkan, Turkish, Mediterranean and Hungarian and Austrian cuisine, which makes it truly unique and super interesting.

9. Slavija is one of the busiest and trickiest squares in Belgrade, but little do tourists (and majority of locals) know that until the 1880s this square was a place where the inhabitants of Belgrade were hunting wild ducks.