Serbia
A landlocked Balkan crossroads on the Danube, between empires and eras
Serbia sits at the heart of the Balkans, a landlocked country where the Danube and Sava rivers meet beneath the fortress of Belgrade, a city that has been fought over more than perhaps any other in Europe. Home to about 6.6 million people, it straddles the divide between the fertile Pannonian plains of the north and the mountainous south, and between the Central European and Balkan worlds. Heir to a proud medieval kingdom and a turbulent modern history, Serbia balances its Orthodox heritage with an ambition to join the European Union.
The northern province of Vojvodina is flat, fertile farmland, part of the Pannonian Basin, while the south rises into the Dinaric and Balkan mountains, reaching Midžor at 2,169 meters on the Bulgarian border. The Danube flows across the north and through the dramatic Iron Gates gorge on the Romanian frontier, and the Sava, Tisa, and Morava are its major tributaries. A continental climate brings hot summers and cold winters. Agriculture, mining, energy, and a growing tech sector drive the economy from the Belgrade hub.
The medieval Serbian kingdom and empire flourished under the Nemanjić dynasty before the catastrophic defeat at Kosovo in 1389 ushered in Ottoman rule, a defining moment in national mythology. Serbia regained independence in the nineteenth century and was central to the founding of Yugoslavia, whose violent collapse in the 1990s left deep scars. Now a sovereign republic after Montenegro's 2006 departure and the contested independence of Kosovo, Serbia pursues EU candidacy while maintaining close ties with Russia.