Our friend from Belgrade tell us a little story about her beautiful town
THE STORY OF MY BELGRADE
The Belgrade is one of the oldest and most battered cities in the world.
There is two legends about his origin. In the first, the Argonauts sailed up the Danube and they came to the fork in the river; one branch beckoned toward the north and the other toward the west at the Adriatic. It was the place where the Sava merged with the Danube. From that time Early Stone Age the Beldrade is existing.
According to another legend, the Danube is one of the four rivers that spring from Paradise, which make Belgrade one of the famous cities starting with a B ( Vienna - at serbian it's Bec, then Bratislava,Budapest,Bucharest,Braila )whose walls are washed by it's waters. This heavently river flows through "THE PORTAL OF WARS" as the Turks used to call Belgrade.
The oldest Belgrade was built on the Neolithic period on Vincha culture, between the years 2300 and 2000 B. C. The first settlement was called Singidunum and is attributed to the Celtic tribe of Skordiscs. This name came from the Singi tribe who livded where the Danube forks at the foot of the Kaualak cliff (present day Kalemegdan) .
In the 1st century the Roman Singidunum was the headquarters of two legions, the 4th Scythian and the 5th Macedonian. From that period remained a cemetery which was used until the 19th century. It stood where is today park Tasmajdan. This "eternal city" was built like Rome on seven hills. Many Roman Emperores past throughout and stopped of f in Singidunum. Early signs of Christianity appeared here. During the reign of Diocletian, Christians were severely persecuted in Singidunum and Christian priests were thrown into Danube. This gave rise to the cult of the first Christian martyrs of Belgrade.
Soon the great migration started and the city was destroyed by the conquering Goths and Huns, and in the 6th century it was restored by the Byzantine Emperior Justinian, the sameone who built Church of Wisdom, the temple of temples, the Agia Sofia in Constantinopole. The Belgrade was ravaged by the Avars, Bulgarians, and in the 7th century the Slavs entered the destroyed Byzantine fortification. They gave it a name, a WHITE CITY, which may have denoted not only the color of its walls but also that this was a town in the north with the northern wind called Kosava. In the 12th century, when the Ugrians were forced to retreat in the face of Byzantum they destroy the town, moved its stones to the left bank of the Sava and there built the town of Zemun which existe in the same place today.
1521 Belgrade fell into the Turkish hands. The Belgrade's Church of St. Petka, the Serbian patron saint had the first icon in the Christian world, the icon of the Virgin Mary, painted by Luke the Apostle him self (he was the first icon painter). According to one version, when Belgrade fell into Turkish hands the icon was moved to Smederevo and later all trace of it disappeared. The story was that Virgin Mary once save Constantinopole so the contemporary belived that she will saved Belgrade and Christianity. The Turkish knew that story too so she was stolen. Turks did a one more think to be shure that they will conquer Belgrade they removed from the Serbian monastery of Milesevo the relics of St. Sava the Serbian prince of the Nemanjic dynasty, took them to Belgrade and burned them at a place cold Vracar. It is today a same spot were the tample of St. Sava is.
The Turks had one saying: "You break a circle with a circle". Even under that rule they were still many Srbs left in Belgrade. Turkish even forbite a trade by the Serbian population. But even after 1521 everybody in Belgrade spoke serbian and capte their religion. Turks couldnt do anything against that. This comes as no suprise becouse for a while Serbian language was in diplomatic use even in the Istanbul, Turkish capital. At that same time the Srbs lived on the Sava side and the Turks on the Danube side of the town.
In a period from1718 to 1739 Austrian army beated Turks and built baroque Belgrade. In the following year Turks come again and destroy Belgrade again. The story about this war betwen Austria and Turk ie was compose in opera named "The siege of Belgrade" it was compose by Italian composer Stephen Storazze who was a Mozart pupile. Later it was performed in New York too.
Ivana Ciric (Belgrade february 2001)