subject: Belgrade: Moon Of Europes Oldest Cities [print this page] Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic and Serbian Latin Beograd) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the city proper had 1,281,801 inhabitants, with which it is the district center, 1 576 124 inhabitants . In 2008, the city population was estimated at 1,104,240 inhabitants.
Belgrade is moon of Europes oldest cities, with a history that stretches over 7000 years. The earliest traces of human presence in the region date back to prehistory (Vinca culture). Historically, state of transatlantic city of Belgrade is Singidunum, a Roman colony in the province of Moesia.
The Slavic name Belgrade was officially raised for the first time April 16 878, in a letter sent by Pope John VIII to Bulgarian Prince Boris. Its meaning the "white city". Throughout its turbulent history, Belgrade has been conquered by 40 armies: it was Roman, Byzantine, Hungarian, Ottoman, then the capital of Serbia truly independent in 1878.
Belgrade today has a status which has an Assembly and a special government, like the districts of Serbia . Its urban area, called the Belgrade District is divided into 17 municipalities all have their own local council . The Belgrade District covers 3.6 of the territory of Serbia and home to 21 of the population (excluding Kosovo) . Belgrade is the economic center of Serbia, but also the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.
Belgrade is located at north latitude and 20 east longitude. Built in northern central Serbia, at the confluence of river Sava, and a river, the Danube, the capital of Serbia lies at the boundary between two geographical areas: the Pannonian plain, part of leurope East and the Balkan Peninsula .
The city itself, in its current boundaries, covers an area of 359.96 km2, and if lon added lensemble its metropolitan area, that is to say the district of Belgrade, 3222, 68 km2. The average altitude is 116.75 m above sea level on the right bank of the Sava, the center of the city consists of a number of hills, the highest of which, that of Torlak, in the municipality of Vodovac, culminates at 303 m.
The lowest point of the city, 70 meters is in the river island of Ada Huja. Mountains and Kosmaj Avala, located respectively at 511 m and 628 m, rising south of the city . On the left bank of the Sava and Danube rivers, the terrain is generally flat, consists of alluvial plains and plateaus of lss. The dictrict Belgrade retains many forests, the most important are those mountains and Kosmaj swallow, Trenja, Lipovica, Topaider, Obrenovaki zabran .
The historic center of the capital, today the Belgrade Fortress and Kalemegdan Park (in the municipality of Stari Grad, "old town"), is on the right bank of two rivers. Since the nineteenth century the city expanded south and east. After the Second World War, the area of Novi Beograd, "New Belgrade" was built on the left bank of the Sava, bringing together Belgade to the ancient town of Zemun. Residential communities, across the Danube, as Krnja and OVCA were also integrated in the city of Belgrade.
Belgrade is situated at the confluence of the Sava and Danube. This position has often impressed travelers. Thats the way quen September 1833 the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, back dune Prince Milos Obrenovic visit to hint the Danube, wrote in his travel diary: "The river, broad and deep, has waves like the sea ".
There are also, in 1888, under the pen of Count dHaussonville, this description of the river as seen from the Kalemegdan citadel: "Having walked the strip of light around Semlin (Zemun), it describes a curve in the plain perfect and gathers the waters greener passage of the Save, and then swelled its tributary, carrying with it the fortunes of twenty sovereign peoples, he resumed his course to Lorient .
Belgrade home has a special status that makes the capital a territorial unit in itself. In fact, Belgrade is also the administrative center called dun District City of Belgrade, Serbian Cyrillic. This district is divided into 17 municipalities . Ten of the attendees have the status of municipality "urban": they are part of the capital city. The other seven municipal status "peri": they are located near the capital.
