Serbia Packages/Deals & Travel Agents Near Me

With the secession of Montenegro in June 2006, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was dissolved, leaving Serbia an independent country. The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was all that remained of an old Yugoslav federation that once included Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia.

Now, Serbia strives to bury a tumultuous past associated with the name Yugoslavia. The name was first used in 1929 when the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to represent the kingdom's geographical location in Europe; literally translated, Yugoslavia means "Land of the Southern Slavs." (Yug means "south.")

However, forgetting the past will be difficult. The bitter wars for independence were followed by fighting in Serbia's former Kosovo province and by a NATO bombing campaign aimed at ending Serbian attacks on the Kosovo Albanians.

Today, the country is a nonviolent place. Additionally, former Yugoslav politicians and military leaders are on trial for war crimes. Anyone wanting to visit the region should visit the city of Belgrade and/or arrange an organized tour of the region with experienced tour operators.

Travelers will find that Serbia offers a variety of scenery, including low mountains and highlands. A range of architectural styles, including Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and baroque, dot the landscape. Ruins, fortresses, Byzantine-style basilicas, churches and various other monuments all attest to the complexity of the region's history.

Geography

Landlocked Serbia is characterized by rolling hills and plains. It is located in the central portion of the Balkan Peninsula and has a temperate, Continental climate. Rivers flow through it, including the famous Danube, and Serbia's capital of Belgrade lies at the junction of the Danube and Sava rivers.

The majority of Serbia consists of flatlands, highlands and mountains, making for picturesque scenery and much natural diversity.

History

Slavic tribes (Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) settled in the Balkans in the sixth century, occupying much of the region until 1217 when an independent Serbian kingdom was established. In the 14th century, Serbia became a leading Slavic kingdom under Stephen Dusan, who ruled most of the Balkan Peninsula. The idea of a Greater Serbia dates back to that time. That independent kingdom came to an end on the fields of Kosovo, when the invading Ottoman Turks conquered the land in 1389 and held it for nearly 500 years.

Only in 1878 was Serbia strong enough to declare its independence. From the beginning, the notion of an ethnic-Slavic country posed a threat to the other major power in the region, the multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire. As Serbia grew stronger and spread its influence in the Balkan Wars, conflicts with its neighbor grew, finally boiling over with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, which ignited World War I.

When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded at the end of the war, Serb leaders (especially Premier Nikola Pasic) thought the country was not a collection of equals, but a union of southern Slavs under the protection and control of the Serbs, a role Serbia had earned because of its prior independence and military power.

This enraged the Croatians and Macedonians and left the country in a continuous struggle until it collapsed under the German invasion at the beginning of World War II. This same conflict resurfaced at the end of World War II, with the creation of modern Yugoslavia under Marshall Josip Tito. Tito, however, was able to keep the ethnic rivalries in check by purging nationalists or playing them against each other.

After Tito's death in 1980, this conflict came out into the open, with Serb nationalists arguing that Yugoslavia had always held their people back, although Croatian nationalists countered that the country was dominated by the Serbs at the expense of the other republics. The government's harsh suppression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1989 was the final straw that led the other republics to abandon Yugoslavia.

The fighting—brief in Slovenia but vicious in Croatia and Bosnia—dragged on for four years, finally grinding to a halt in October 1995 with the signing of a peace agreement in Dayton, Ohio. Serbia's campaign to cleanse Kosovo of rebellious ethnic Albanians did not stop, however, and it took the intervention of NATO forces to bring peace to the province.

In February 2003, the two republics of Serbia and Montenegro joined to form the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in order to strengthen the region politically and economically. Meanwhile, in Kosovo, a NATO-led Kosovo force was present to help stabilize the Serbian-Albanian conflict and to assist the government with security issues.

In June 2006, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was severed when Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia via a national referendum. Serbia peacefully accepted this separation and its own independence, making this move only the second peaceful separation in the history of Yugoslavia (the first was the independence of Macedonia).

In February 2008, the Serbian province of Kosovo voted in its assembly to declare independence from Serbia. This action caused internal conflict among Serbians, many of whom did not want the separation to occur. However, Kosovo remains firm in its goal to be its own country. Serbia, although it does not acknowledge the separation, must now wait to see how the new country of Kosovo is accepted into the international community.

Snapshot

Serbia's main attractions are historical sites, pretty lakes, spas, river cruises, fishing, skiing, marvelous churches and monasteries, folk arts, fascinating food and culture, good prices and spectacular scenery.

Serbia appeals to travelers who have already been to Europe once or twice and are ready to get off the beaten track.

Potpourri

Banja means "spa" in Serbian, and Serbia has many. Notable mineral-water resorts include Vrnjacka Banja near Mount Goc; Bukovicka Banja at Arandjelovac; Mataruska Banja near Kraljevo; and Sokobanja, located near the medieval town of Sokograd.

Constantine, the Roman emperor who made Christianity the state religion of Rome (and thus nearly all of Europe), was born in Nis.

Kragujevac was the capital of Serbia 1818-1841 and residence of Serbian princes until 1842. The old palaces are worth seeing.

Serbian author Zoran Zivkovic is one of the country's most celebrated writers and has written many books that have been translated and published internationally, including Time Gifts and Impossible Stories.