Belgrade in the context of "Danube Valley"

Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country in Southeast and Central Europe. Located in the Balkans, it borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia to the northwest, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest. Serbia also claims to share a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia has about 6.6 million inhabitants, excluding Kosovo. Serbia's capital, Belgrade, is also the largest city in the country.

Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic age, the territory of modern-day Serbia faced Slavic migrations in the 6th century. Several regional states were founded in the Early Middle Ages and were at times recognised as tributaries to the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by the Holy See and Constantinople in 1217, reaching its territorial apex in 1346 as the Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire annexed the entirety of modern-day Serbia; their rule was at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th century while maintaining a foothold in Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory.

The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynasty (replaced by the Karađorđević dynasty for a short time). The Principality of Serbia, under the suzerainty of the Turkish Empire, de facto achieved full independence when the very last Ottoman troops left Belgrade in 1867. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 recognized the formal independence of the Principality of Serbia, and in its composition Nišava, Pirot, Toplica and Vranje districts entered the South part of Serbia.

In 1882, Serbia was elevated to the status of a kingdom, initially maintaining a foreign policy friendly to Austria-Hungary before turning to the Russian Empire and France following a coup d'état in 1903. Between 1912 and 1913, Serbia greatly enlarged its territory through engagement in the First and Second Balkan Wars – Sandžak-Raška, Kosovo Vilayet and Vardar Macedonia were annexed. At the end of World War I in 1918 it united with Vojvodina and the Kingdom of Montenegro, and in December 1918 it merged with the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under the continued rule of the Karađorđević dynasty.

The Danube (/ˈdæn.juːb/ DAN-yoob; see also other names) is a river in Europe, the second-longest after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest of Germany south through the Danube Delta in Romania into the Black Sea. A large and historically important river, it was once a frontier of the Roman Empire. In the 21st century, it connects ten European countries, running through their territories or marking a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km (1,770 mi), passing through or bordering Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine. Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Its drainage basin amounts to 817,000 km (315,000 sq mi) and extends into nine more countries.

The Danube's longest headstream, the Breg, rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, while the river carries its name from its source confluence in the palace park in Donaueschingen onwards. Since ancient times, the Danube has been a traditional trade route in Europe. Today, 2,415 km (1,501 mi) of its total length are navigable. The Danube is linked to the North Sea via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, connecting the Danube at Kelheim with the Main at Bamberg. The river is also an important source of hydropower and drinking water.

The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleolithic and the Iron Age. Written histories of European art often begin with the Aegean civilizations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. However a consistent pattern of artistic development within Europe becomes clear only with Ancient Greek art, which was adopted and transformed by Rome and carried; with the Roman Empire, across much of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.

The influence of the art of the Classical period waxed and waned throughout the next two thousand years, seeming to slip into a distant memory in parts of the Medieval period, to re-emerge in the Renaissance, suffer a period of what some early art historians viewed as "decay" during the Baroque period, to reappear in a refined form in Neo-Classicism and to be reborn in Post-Modernism.

Divine Liturgy (Koine Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία, romanized: Theía Leitourgía, pronounced [ˈθi.a li.turˈʝi.a]) or Holy Liturgy is the usual name used in most Eastern Christian rites for the Eucharistic service.

The Eastern Orthodox Churches, Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Lutheran Churches believe the Divine Liturgy transcends both time and the world. All believers are seen as united in worship in the Kingdom of God along with the departed saints and the angels of heaven. Everything in the liturgy is seen as symbolic, but not merely so, for it makes present the unseen reality. According to Eastern tradition and belief, the liturgy's roots go back to the adaptation of Jewish liturgy by Early Christians. The first part, termed the "Liturgy of the Catechumens", includes the reading of scriptures like those in a synagogue, and in some places, also a sermon/homily. The second half, the "Liturgy of the Faithful", is based on the Last Supper and the first Eucharistic celebrations by Early Christians. Eastern Christians (and many other branches of Christianity) believe that the Eucharist is the central part of the service in which they participate, as they believe the bread and wine truly become the real Body and Blood of Christ, and that by partaking of it they jointly become the Body of Christ (that is, the Church). Each liturgy has its differences from others, but most are very similar to each other with adaptations based on tradition, purpose, culture and theology.

Christianity is the predominant religion in Serbia. The Constitution of Serbia defines it as a secular state with guaranteed religious freedom. Eastern Orthodox Christians with 6,079,396 members, comprise 84.5% of country's population. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country; adherents of it are overwhelmingly Serbs. Public schools in Serbia allow religious teaching, most commonly with the Serbian Orthodox Church. Serbian public holidays include the religious celebrations of Eastern Orthodox Christians. Other Orthodox Christian communities in Serbia include Montenegrins, Romanians, Macedonians, and Bulgarians. The Catholic Church is prominent in north Vojvodina amongst the Hungarian minority. Protestantism is most largely found in Slovak populations within Bački Petrovac and Kovačica. Christianity first arrived in Serbia in the 9th century. It became state-religion in the 9th century when Serbia began to identify as a Christian country. In a 2011 census, 91.22% of Serbians identified as Christian.

Dragutin Inkiostri-Medenjak (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгутин Инкиостри Медењак; 1866–1942) was a Serbian painter, collector of folk ornaments and handicrafts, and is considered the first interior designer in Serbia. In 1912, he was put in charge of designing the interior of the House of Vuk's Foundation.

He was born in Split as Carlo Inchiostri. After settling down in Belgrade, he changed his name to Dragutin and added his mother's surname. Following studies in Florence, he travelled through Serbia and the rest of Yugoslavia. Inkiostri Medenjak wrote his chief work Moja teorija o dekorativnoj srpskoj umetnosti i njenoj primeni in 1925.

Ferizaj or Uroševac, is a city and a municipality in Kosovo. It is the third largest city in Kosovo by population and also the seat of Ferizaj Municipality and the Ferizaj District. According to the last census of 2024, the municipality of Ferizaj has 109,255 inhabitants.

Ferizaj has been populated since the prehistoric era by the Starčevo, Vinča and Baden culture. During the Ottoman period, Ferizaj served as a trading centre on the route between Belgrade and Thessaloniki. Ferizaj has always been considered as a city where tolerance and coexistence in terms of religion and culture has been part of the society in the last centuries. During and after the Kosovo War in 1999, the US Army base Camp Bondsteel was established outside of the city, now being used by forces belonging to KFOR. It is the largest and the most expensive foreign military base built by the Americans in South Eastern Europe, since the Vietnam War.

Vojvodina (Serbian: Војводина, IPA: [vǒjvodina], VOY-və-DEE-nə), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина, romanized: Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina), is an autonomous province in northern Serbia. It encompasses the historical and geographical regions of Bačka, Banat, Syrmia, and northernmost part of Mačva, lying to the north of the national capital Belgrade and the Sava and Danube rivers. Vojvodina has 1.7 million inhabitants, about a quarter of the country's population, and its administrative centre, Novi Sad, is the second largest city in Serbia.