The origins of Belgrade

Looking far back into history, before anything we know, we see the place where Belgrade is now under the great Pannonia sea. This sea, while withdrawing, left the Danube to us. The Danube follows old, long gone naval courses of old Europe. The Danube always invited people to inhabit its banks. The remains from the oldest prehistoric, that is Palaeolithic findings prove just that. They are situated in a mine near Lestane, near Bajloni market, in a cave near Cukarica as well as the remains from Neolithic period found in Vinca, Zarkovo and the Upper town of Belgrade fortress.

The official history of Belgrade started seven thousand years ago, which makes our city one of the oldest cities in Europe. It’s old, very old our Belgrade!

Long before Jesus Christ, a new, powerful people of that time, the Celts or Gales came among quiet, peace loving natives to the Balkan Peninsula and founded Belgrade on the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. In the 4th century B.C. the warrior Celtic tribe Skordisk stepped on the hill above the two rivers and founded a small city-fortress naming it Singidunum. It is the first and the oldest name of Belgrade. The word “dunum” in the old language of the Celts means “fortress”, and this etymology of the name gives our capital a role it is to have through the centuries – to be a barricade, a shield, the place of fights and defence. So Belgrade was founded!