In Your Pocket City Guides
Belgrade In Your Pocket is a free guide in English language. A free copy of this guide can be found in Belgrade hotels, hostels, Belgrade Airport arrival terminal, train station, Belgrade Tourist organization Information centres, embassies, foreign cultural and trade centres, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, 3 business centres and Ušće shopping center, as well as in offices of guide’s sponsors. This copy is also available to all guests and members of various cultural and sport manifestations.
The guide can be downloaded from In Your Pocket web portal http://www.inyourpocket.com/serbia/belgrade , .
The first edition of Belgrade In Your Pocket guide was printed in 10.000 copies, covering the period April-June 2008, and distributed at the mentioned locations from April 15. Due to a large demand and constant growth of the distributive network, Belgrade In Your Pocket guide publish nowadays every two months with the circulation of 20.000 copies.
Novi Sad In Your Pocket guides are published twice a year, before the Exit festival and New Year Eve, with the circulation of 25.000 copies. The guide can be downloaded from In Your Pocket web portal http://www.inyourpocket.com/serbia/novi-sad.
In cooperation with The Tourist Organisation of Niš, Niš In Your Pocket guide is published twice a year with the circulation of 10.000 copies . The guide can be downloaded from In Your Pocket web portal: http://www.inyourpocket.com/serbia/Nis.
Belgrade Guide
Highlights
Belgrade under Turks
A new force was born in the east, a new Turkish state that defeated Byzantium and worried the whole cultural world. Its wish was to rule over Belgrade since it was the important point in it’s conquers towards Western Europe.
On August 6, 1456, Christian army led by Hungarian commander János Hunyadi, (Sibinjanin Janko). The fighters of priest Jan Kapistran helped him, and sultan Mohamed’s plan to conquer the cities of Western Europe and take over the old emperor’s throne failed, his forces were defeated and Belgrade was defended. After this Christian fight against the Turks, Belgrade got another attribute: the rampart of Christianity.
In 1490 sultan Bajazit II tried a trick, promising the deputies of Belgrade commander a big reward in exchange for giving away the town. This attempt of treason was discovered and punished – the main actors were put in Belgrade prison were they were starved, forced to kill, impale and eat one another. That high was the price of Belgrade’s freedom.
On 29 August 1521, Sulejman conquered and burns Belgrade, and a Christian town slowly became a Muslim town with oriental characteristics downtown, numerous mosques, (drinking) fountains, turbeh, Turkish baths, stores, market places and developed commercial life. Old courts and towers were destroyed; the glory of aristocratic life was gone since the Serbian aristocracy disappeared, cultural heritage, churches and monasteries damaged, and Serbs from Belgrade were forced to move to Carigrad (Istanbul) were one can even today find the monuments of our past. That was the first migration of Serbs.
Turkish author of travels, Evliya Çelebi describes Belgrade’s reinforced fortress: it had double ramparts, with the total of 11 towers and 5060 cogs, divided into Upper (inner) town - with four lines of ramparts decorated with four iron gates, a fortress surrounded with five “sky-high” towers – and the Lower town.
The end of 13th century was particularly difficult for the Turkish Empire – janissaries (young Christians turned into Muslims, forming the base of the Turkish army) rebelled, robbed Turkish courts and threatened the sultan himself. This weaken empire was attacked by the forces of Holly Association (Austria, Poland and Venice, later on to be accompanied by Russia under the leadership of czar Peter the Great) and this resulted in many robberies and killings of population, and a two-year long Austrian rule over Belgrade that started in 1688. During the second great migration in 1690, Serbian population moved to a far away place on the Danube, to St. Andrea, and it became an important shelter for the Serbian people, its highest church dignitary (the patriarch Arsenije) and relics.
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