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Belgrade is the Capital city and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkan Peninsula. , the population of Belgrade city proper stands at 1,197,114, its contiguous urban area has 1,298,661 inhabitants, while population of city's administrative area totals 1,681,405 people. It is one of the major cities of Southeast Europe and the third-most populous city on the river Danube.
Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the world. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thracians-Dacians inhabited the region and, after 279 BC, Celts settled the city, naming it Singidunum. It was Roman Serbia under the reign of Augustus and awarded Roman Town privileges in the mid-2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Empire, the Bulgarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary before it became the seat of the Serbian king Stefan Dragutin in 1284. Belgrade served as capital of the Serbian Despotate during the reign of Stefan Lazarević, and then his successor Đurađ Branković returned it to the Hungarian king in 1427. Noon bells in support of the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire during the siege in 1456 have remained a widespread church tradition to this day. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.
Following the Serbian Revolution, Belgrade was once again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. Zemun remained the southernmost Austria-Hungary post until 1918, when it was attached to the city, due to former Austro-Hungarian territories becoming part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after World War I. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation to its dissolution. In a fatally strategic position, the city has been battled over in 115 wars and razed 44 times, being bombed five times and besieged many times.
Being Serbia's primate city, Belgrade has special administrative status within Serbia. It is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies, and government ministries, as well as home to almost all of the largest Serbian companies, media, and scientific institutions. Belgrade is classified as a Beta-Global city. The city is home to the University Clinical Centre of Serbia, a hospital complex with one of the largest capacities in the world; the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox church buildings; and the Belgrade Arena, one of the largest capacity indoor arenas in Europe.
Belgrade hosted major international events such as the Danube River Conference of 1948, the first Non-Aligned Movement Summit (1961), the first major gathering of the OSCE (1977–1978), the Eurovision Song Contest (2008), as well as sports events such as the first FINA World Aquatics Championships (1973), UEFA Euro (1976), Universiade (2009) and EuroBasket three times (1961, 1975, 2005). On 21 June 2023, Belgrade was confirmed host of the BIE- Specialized Exhibition Expo 2027.
The Avars, under Bayan I, conquered the whole region and its new Slavic population by 582. Warriors of the Steppe: a military history of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to 1700, p. 76 Following Byzantine reconquest, the Byzantine chronicle De Administrando Imperio mentions the White Serbs, who had stopped in Belgrade on their way back home, asking the strategos for lands; they received provinces in the west, towards the Adriatic, which they would rule as subjects to Heraclius (610–641).Bohlau, 1964, Slavistische Forschungen, Volume 6, p. 103. University of California. In 829, Khan Omurtag was able to add Singidunum and its environs to the First Bulgarian Empire. A Concise History of Bulgaria, R. J. Crampton, Edition 2, revised, Cambridge University Press, 2005, , p. 10.Земя на световен кръстопът, Борис Стоев Чолпанов, Изд. на Българската академия на науките, 1993, стр. 39. The first record of the name Belograd appeared on April, 16th, 878, in a Papal missive to Bulgarian ruler Boris I. This name would appear in several variants: Alba Bulgarica in Latin, Griechisch Weissenburg in High German, Nándorfehérvár in Hungarian, and Castelbianco in Venetian, among other names, all variations of 'white fortress' or 'Bulgar white fortress'. For about four centuries, the city would become a battleground between the Byzantine Empire, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, and the Bulgarian Empire. Basil II (976–1025) installed a garrison in Belgrade. Byzantium in the year 1000, p. 121 The city hosted the armies of the First Crusade and the Second Crusade, but, while passing through during the Third Crusade, Frederick Barbarossa and his 190,000 Third Crusade saw Belgrade in ruins.
King Stefan Dragutin (r. 1276–1282) received Belgrade from his father-in-law, Stephen V of Hungary, in 1284, and it served as the capital of the Kingdom of Syrmia, a vassal state to the Kingdom of Hungary. Dragutin (Hungarian: Dragutin István) is regarded as the first Serbian king to rule over Belgrade.
Following the battles of Maritsa (1371) and Kosovo field (1389), Moravian Serbia, to Belgrade's south, began to fall to the Ottoman Empire.
The northern regions of what is now Serbia persisted as the Serbian Despotate, with Belgrade as its capital. The city flourished under Stefan Lazarević, the son of Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović. Lazarević built a castle with a citadel and towers, of which only the Despot's tower and the west wall remain. He also refortified the city's ancient walls, allowing the Despotate to resist Ottoman conquest for almost 70 years. During this time, Belgrade was a haven for many Balkan peoples fleeing Ottoman rule, and is thought to have had a population ranging between 40,000 and 50,000 people.
In 1427, Stefan's successor Đurađ Branković, returning Belgrade to the Hungarian king, made Smederevo his new capital. Even though the Ottomans had captured most of the Serbian Despotate, Belgrade, known as Nándorfehérvár in Hungarian, was unsuccessfully besieged in 1440 and 1456. As the city presented an obstacle to the Ottoman advance into Hungary and further, over 100,000 Ottoman soldiers besieged it in 1456, in which the Christian army led by the Hungarian General John Hunyadi successfully defended it. The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day, which is now a cultural symbol of Hungary.
Belgrade was made the seat of the Pashalik of Belgrade (also known as the Sanjak of Smederevo), and quickly became the second largest Ottoman town in Europe at over 100,000 people, surpassed only by Constantinople. Ottoman rule introduced Ottoman architecture, including numerous mosques, and the city was resurrected—now by Oriental influences.
In 1594, a major Banat Uprising was crushed by the Ottomans. In retribution, Grand vizier Sinan Pasha ordered the of Saint Sava to be publicly torched on the Vračar plateau; in the 20th century, the church of Saint Sava was built to commemorate this event.
Occupied by the Habsburgs three times (1688–1690, 1717–1739, 1789–1791), headed by the Holy Roman Princes Maximilian of Bavaria and Eugene of Savoy, and field marshal Baron Ernst Gideon von Laudon, respectively, Belgrade was quickly recaptured by the Ottomans and substantially razed each time. During this period, the city was affected by the two Great Serbian Migrations, in which hundreds of thousands of Serbs, led by two Serbian Patriarchs, retreated together with the Austrian soldiers into the Habsburg Empire, settling in today's Vojvodina and Slavonia.Dejan Medaković (1990). 9788613009030, BIGZ (online reprint by Serbian Unity Congress library). ISBN 9788613009030
During the First Serbian Uprising, Serbian revolutionaries held the city from 8 January 1807 until 1813, when it was retaken by the Ottomans. In 1807, Turks in Belgrade were massacred and forcefully converted to Christianity. The massacre was encouraged by Russia in order to cement divisions between the Serb rebels and the Ottoman Porte. Around 6,000 Muslims and Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity. Most mosques were converted into churches. Muslims, Jews, Aromanians and Greeks were subjected to forced labour, and Muslim women were widely made available to young Serb men, and some were taken into slavery. Milenko Stojković bought many of them, and established his harem for which he gained fame. In this circumstances Belgrade demographically transformed from Ottoman to Serb. After the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815, Serbia achieved some sort of sovereignty, which was formally recognised by the Porte in 1830.
The development of Belgrade architecture after 1815 can be divided into four periods. In the first phase, which lasted from 1815 to 1835, the dominant architectural style was still of a Balkan character, with substantial Ottoman influence. At the same time, an interest in joining the European mainstream allowed Central and Western European architecture to flourish. Between 1835 and 1850, the amount of Neoclassicism and baroque buildings south of the Austrian border rose considerably, exemplified by St Michael's Cathedral (Serbian: Saborna crkva), completed in 1840. Between 1850 and 1875, new architecture was characterised by a turn towards the newly popular Romanticism, along with older European architectural styles. Typical of Central European cities in the last quarter of the 19th century, the fourth phase was characterised by an Eclecticism style based on the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
In 1841, Prince Mihailo Obrenović moved the capital of the Principality of Serbia from Kragujevac to Belgrade. During his first reign (1815–1839), Prince Miloš Obrenović pursued expansion of the city's population through the addition of new settlements, aiming and succeeding to make Belgrade the centre of the Principality's administrative, military and cultural institutions. His project of creating a new market space (the Abadžijska čaršija), however, was less successful; trade continued to be conducted in the centuries-old Donja čaršija and Gornja čaršija. Still, new construction projects were typical for the Christian quarters as the older Muslim quarters declined; from Serbia's autonomy until 1863, the number of Belgrade quarters even decreased, mainly as a consequence of the gradual disappearance of the city's Muslim population. An Ottoman city map from 1863 counts only 9 Muslim quarters ( mahalas). The names of only five such neighbourhoods are known today: Ali-pašina, Reis-efendijina, Jahja-pašina, Bajram-begova, and Laz Hadži-Mahmudova. Following the Čukur Fountain incident, Belgrade was bombed by the Ottomans. (2025). 9788681157459, The Cultural Heritage Protection Institute of the City of Belgrade. ISBN 9788681157459
On 18 April 1867, the Ottoman government ordered the Ottoman garrison, which had been since 1826 the last representation of Ottoman suzerainty in Serbia, withdrawn from Kalemegdan. The forlorn Porte's only stipulation was that the Ottoman flag continue to fly over the fortress alongside the Serbian one. Serbia's de facto independence dates from this event.Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume 2: Reform, Revolution and Republic—The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808–1975 (Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 148. In the following years, urban planner Emilijan Josimović had a significant influence on Belgrade. He conceptualised a regulation plan for the city in 1867, in which he proposed the replacement of the town's crooked streets with a grid plan. Of great importance also was the construction of independent Serbian political and cultural institutions, as well as the city's now-plentiful parks. Pointing to Josimović's work, Serbian scholars have noted an important break with Ottoman traditions. At the time of independence, Belgrade had a mainly Ottoman look, and Josimović stated he wanted to rebuild Belgrade so that "the capital does not retain the form that barbarism gave it". Josimović designed Belgrade to resemble Vienna, right down to building grand boulevards inspired by the Ringstrasse. All that remains of Ottoman Belgrade today are two mosques, the citadel, and a fountain with Arabic inscriptions. However, Istanbul—the capital city of the state to which Belgrade and Serbia de jure still belonged—underwent similar changes.
In May 1868, knez Mihailo was assassinated with his cousin Anka Konstantinović while riding in a carriage in his country residence.
With the Principality's full independence in 1878 and its transformation into the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882, Belgrade once again became a key city in the Balkans, and developed rapidly. Nevertheless, conditions in Serbia remained those of an overwhelmingly agrarian country, even with the opening of a railway to Niš, Serbia's second city. In 1900, the capital had only 70,000 inhabitants (at the time Serbia numbered 2.5 million). Still, by 1905, the population had grown to more than 80,000 and, by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, it had surpassed the 100,000 citizens, disregarding Zemun, which still belonged to Austria-Hungary.
The first-ever projection of motion pictures in the Balkans and Central Europe was held in Belgrade in June 1896 by André Carr, a representative of the Lumière brothers. He shot the first motion pictures of Belgrade in the next year; however, they have not been preserved. The first permanent cinema was opened in 1909 in Belgrade.
In 1927, Belgrade's first airport opened, and in 1929, its first radio station began broadcasting. The Pančevo Bridge, which crosses the Danube, was opened in 1935, while King Alexander Bridge over the Sava was opened in 1934. On 3 September 1939 the first Belgrade Grand Prix, the last Grand Prix motor racing race before the outbreak of World War II, was held around the Belgrade Fortress and was followed by 80,000 spectators. The winner was Tazio Nuvolari.
Taking Belgrade by bluff. By: Heaton, Colin D., World War II, 08984204, Jan98, Vol. 12, Issue 5 Belgrade was more directly occupied by the German Army in the same month and became the seat of the puppet Nedić regime, headed by its namesake general. Some of today's parts of Belgrade were incorporated in the Independent State of Croatia in occupied Yugoslavia, another puppet state, where Ustashe regime carried out the Genocide of Serbs.
During the summer and autumn of 1941, in reprisal for guerrilla attacks, the Germans carried out several massacres of Belgrade citizens; in particular, members of the Jewish community were subject to mass shootings at the order of General Franz Böhme, the German Military Governor of Serbia. Böhme rigorously enforced the rule that for every German killed, 100 Serbs or Jews would be shot. Belgrade became the first city in Europe to be declared by the Nazi occupation forces to be judenfrei. The resistance movement in Belgrade was led by Major Žarko Todorović from 1941 until his arrest in 1943. Zbornik dokumenata vojnoistorijskog instituta: TOM XIV, Knjiga 1 , znaci.net; accessed 15 March 2016.
Just like Rotterdam, which was devastated twice by both German and Allied bombing, Belgrade was bombed once more during World War II, this time by the Allies on 16 April 1944, killing at least 1,100 people. This bombing fell on the Orthodox Christian Orthodox Easter. Most of the city remained under German occupation until 20 October 1944, when it was liberated by the Red Army and the Communist Yugoslav Partisans.
On 29 November 1945, Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade (later renamed to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 7 April 1963).
In 1948, construction of New Belgrade started. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the new regime made a point of rebuilding Belgrade in a modernistic style inspired by Le Corbusier to show that Yugoslavia was in the forefront of progress. In 1958, Belgrade's first television station began broadcasting. In 1961, Belgrade hosted the first and founding conference of the Non-Aligned Movement under Tito's chairmanship. In 1962, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was built. In the 1960s, a number of prestige buildings were put up such as the parliament building, the Ušće Towers which served as the headquarters for the Central Committee of the League of Communists, and the Hotel Jugoslavija. An American journalist from the Washington Post newspaper wrote in 1967: "Belgrade is a lively, frivolous, noisy, jam-packed city compared with the one I remember from twenty years ago".. In 1964, Tito embarked upon the policy of "market socialism" that allowed capitalism to co-exist with communism. As a result, Western visitors to Belgrade in the late 1960s were astonished to see that the main streets were dominated by gigantic and garish billboards promoting Western brands such as Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, Siemens and Pan Am, giving Belgrade a very Western feel. Likewise, the Belgradians in the 1960s were described as dressed very much in fashionable Western styles with visitors noting that many women had an obsession with having their hair bleached blonde. The German historian Marie-Jannine Calic wrote that in the 1960s Belgrade "a vibrant hustle and bustle prevailed in the streets, squares, and numerous cafes." She also noted that the core of Belgrade had a very modern look, but that "along the mighty boulevards huddled pathetic little stores selling cloth, metal goods and dishware next to the dingy workshops of shoemakers, silversmiths and candle makers". On the periphery of Belgrade, there was a semi-rural feel as chickens and cows wandered about the streets while the people lived in dire poverty, making their living as peddlers, wandering musicians, rag pickers, panhandlers, shoe shiners, scissor grinders, casual laborers and other marginal occupations. In 1968, major student protests led to several street clashes between students and the police.
By 1969, the population of Belgrade passed the one million mark for the first time. The population increase was largely due to people moving from rural areas to Belgrade as it was estimated in 1969 that two of three Belgradians had been born in the countryside. The population increase in the 1960s imposed serious social strains as more people were moving to Belgrade faster than the pace of housing construction, leading a housing crisis. The 1961 Yugoslav census showed that an average of 2.5 people lived per one room in Belgrade compared to the average of 1.6 people per room in the rest of Yugoslavia. In 1965, it was estimated that there was a shortage of 50, 000 housing units in Belgrade, which led to many people to make illegal makeshift homes in shops, basements, laundry rooms and even elevator shafts while on the periphery of Belgrade people built wooden huts and cottages. The mayor of Belgrade, Branko Pešić, told a journalist in 1965: "In the last seven or eight years, 20,000 to 30,000 people have come to Belgrade each year. That equals an entire small town...And all of these people find shelter somewhere, hole up someplace. Some get an apartment, but that is the smallest percentage of them. A great number are forced...to house in basement, in unhygienic apartments and barracks. And whoever has not yet seen this should definitely see what this looks like...Something like this doesn't even exist in Africa".
In 1972, Belgrade faced a smallpox outbreak, the last major outbreak of smallpox in Europe since World War II. Between October 1977 and March 1978, the city hosted the first major gathering of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with the aim of implementing the Helsinki Accords from, while in 1980 Belgrade hosted the UNESCO General Conference. (2025). 9783899719383, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783899719383 Josip Broz Tito died in May 1980 and his funeral in Belgrade was attended by high officials and state delegations from 128 of the 154 members of the United Nations from all over the world, based on which it became one of the largest funerals in history.
In 1999, during the Kosovo War, the NATO bombing campaign targeted a number a buildings in Belgrade. Among the sites bombed were some ministry buildings, the RTS building, hospitals, Hotel Jugoslavija, the Central Committee building, Avala Tower, and the Chinese embassy. Between 500 and 2,000 civilians were killed in Serbia and Montenegro as a result of the NATO bombings, of which 27 were killed in Belgrade. After the Yugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to the highest number of and internally displaced persons in Europe, with more than a third of these refugees having settled in Belgrade. (2025). 9789211317848, United Nations Human Settlements Programme. ISBN 9789211317848
After the 2000 presidential elections, Belgrade was the site of major public protests, with over half a million people taking part. These demonstrations resulted in the ousting of president Milošević as a part of the Otpor movement.
In addition to Belgrade Waterfront, the city is under rapid development and reconstruction, especially in the area of New Belgrade, where (as of 2020) apartment and office buildings were under construction to support the burgeoning Belgrade IT sector, now one of Serbia's largest economic players. In September 2020, there were around 2000 active construction sites in Belgrade. The city budget for 2023 stood at 205,5 billion dinars (1.750 billion Euros). The budget for the city of Belgrade has been estimated to be more than 2 billion Euros for 2024.
On the right bank of the Sava, central Belgrade has a hilly terrain, while the highest point of Belgrade proper is Torlak hill at . The mountains of Avala () and Kosmaj () lie south of the city. Across the Sava and Danube, the land is mostly flat, consisting of and loam . One of the characteristics of the city terrain is mass wasting. On the territory covered by the General Urban Plan there are 1,155 recorded mass wasting points, out of which 602 are active and 248 are labeled as 'high risk'. They cover almost 30% of the city territory and include several types of mass wasting. are located on the slopes above the rivers, mostly on the clay or loam soils, inclined between 7 and 20%. The most critical ones are in Karaburma, Zvezdara, Višnjica, Vinča and Ritopek, in the Danube valley, and Umka, and especially its neighbourhood of Duboko, in the Sava valley. They have moving and dormant phases, and some of them have been recorded for centuries. Less active downhill creep areas include the entire Terazije slope above the Sava (Kalemegdan, Savamala), which can be seen by the inclination of the Pobednik monument and the tower of the Cathedral Church, and the Voždovac section, between Banjica and Autokomanda.
Landslides encompass smaller areas, develop on the steep cliffs, sometimes being inclined up to 90%. They are mostly located in the artificial loess hills of Zemun: Gardoš, Ćukovac and Kalvarija.
However, the majority of the land movement in Belgrade, some 90%, is triggered by the construction works and faulty water supply system (burst pipes, etc.). The neighbourhood of Mirijevo is considered to be the most successful project of fixing the problem. During the construction of the neighbourhood from the 1970s, the terrain was systematically improved and the movement of the land is today completely halted.
Belgrade may experience thunderstorms at any time of the year, experiencing 31 days annually, but it's much more common in spring and summer months. Hail is rare and occurs exclusively in spring or summer.
The highest officially recorded temperature in Belgrade was on 24 July 2007, while on the other end, the lowest temperature was on 10 January 1893. The highest recorded value of daily precipitation was on 15 May 2014.
The 2024 Belgrade City Assembly election was won by the Serbian Progressive Party, which formed a ruling coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia. Between 2004 and 2013, the Democratic Party was in power. Due to the importance of Belgrade in political and economic life of Serbia, the office of city's mayor is often described as the third most important office in the state, after the President of the Government and the President of the Republic.
As the capital city, Belgrade is seat of all Serbian state authorities – executive, legislative, judiciary, and the headquarters of almost all national political parties as well as 75 diplomatic missions. This includes the National Assembly, the Presidency, the Government of Serbia and all the ministries, Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.
Most of the municipalities are situated on the southern side of the Danube and Sava rivers, in the Šumadija region. Three municipalities (Zemun, New Belgrade, and Surčin), are on the northern bank of the Sava in the Syrmia region and the municipality of Palilula, spanning the Danube, is in both the Šumadija and Banat regions.
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Belgrade is home to many ethnicities from across the former Yugoslavia and the wider Balkans region. The main ethnic group comprising over 86% of the metropolitan population of Belgrade are Serbs (1,449,241). Some significant minorities include Roma (23,160), Yugoslavs (10,499), Gorani people (5,249), Montenegrins (5,134), Russians (4,659), Croats (4,554), Macedonians (4,293), and ethnic Muslims (2,718). Many people came to the city as economic migrants from smaller towns and the countryside, while tens of thousands arrived as refugees from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as a result of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Refugee Serbs Assail Belgrade Government : The Washington Post, Tuesday, 22 June 1999. The most recent wave of immigration following the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians register their residence in Serbia, majority of them in Belgrade.
Between 10,000 and 20,000 Han Chinese are estimated to live in Belgrade and, since their arrival in the mid-1990s, Block 70 in New Belgrade has been known colloquially as the Chinese quarter. Many Middle Easterners, mainly from Syria, Iran, Jordan and Iraq, arrived in order to pursue their studies during the 1970s and 1980s, and have remained in the city. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, small communities of Aromanians, Czechs, Greeks, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Turkish people, Armenians and Russians White émigrés also existed in Belgrade. There are two suburban settlements with significant minority population today: Ovča and the village of Boljevci, both with about one quarter of their population being Romanians and Slovaks, respectively. Immigration to Belgrade from other countries accelerates. In 2023, more than 30,000 foreign workers got working and residence permits only in Belgrade.
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There once was a significant Jewish community in Belgrade but, following the World War II Nazi occupation of the city and subsequent Jewish emigration, their numbers have fallen from over 10,000 to just 295. Belgrade also used to have one of the largest Buddhist colonies in Europe outside Russia when some 400 mostly Buddhist Kalmyks settled on the outskirts of Belgrade following the Russian Civil War. The first Buddhist temple in Europe was built in Belgrade in 1929. Most of them moved away after the World War II and their temple, Belgrade pagoda, was abandoned, claimed by the new Communist regime and eventually demolished.
As of 2019, Belgrade contained 31.4% of Serbia's employed population and generated over 40.4% of its GDP. City GDP in 2023 at purchasing power parity is estimated at $73 bn USD, which is $43,400 per capita in terms of purchasing power parity. Nominal GDP in 2023 is estimated at $31.5 bn USD, which is $18.700 per capita.
New Belgrade is the country's Central business district and one of Southeastern Europe's financial centres. It offers a range of facilities, such as hotels, congress halls (e.g. Sava Centar), Class A and B office buildings, and business parks (e.g. Airport City Belgrade). Over of land is under construction in New Belgrade, with the value of planned construction over the next three years estimated at over 1.5 billion euros. The Belgrade Stock Exchange is also located in New Belgrade.
With 6,924 companies in the IT sector (), Belgrade is one of the foremost information technology hubs in Southeast Europe. Microsoft's Development Center Serbia, located in Belgrade, was, at the time of its establishment, the fifth such programme on the globe. Many global IT companies choose Belgrade as their European or regional centre of operations, such as Asus, Intel, Dell, Huawei, Ubisoft, Yandex,Nutanix, NCR Corporation etc. The most famous Belgrade IT startups, among others, are Nordeus, ComTrade Group, Mikroelektronika, FishingBooker, and Endava. IT facilities in the city include the Mihajlo Pupin Institute and the ILR, as well as the brand-new IT Park Zvezdara. Many prominent IT innovators began their careers in Belgrade, including Voja Antonić and Veselin Jevrosimović.
In April 2025, the average New Belgrade CBD monthly net salary stood at 177.418 RSD ($1760)
in net terms, with the gross equivalent at 242.254 RSD ($2403), while in Belgrade with suburbs is Euros 1.058 .
According to Cushman & Wakefield, Knez Mihajlova street is 36th most expensive retail street in the world in terms of renting commercial space.
As an example of the attractiveness of the city and its importance in this part of the continent is the fact that numerous multinational companies choose precisely Belgrade to place its local headquarters. An early example of this was the multinational food-giant McDonald's opening its first ever restaurant in a communist country in Europe in Belgrade.
Most of Serbia's film industry is based in Belgrade. FEST is an annual film festival that has been held since 1971. Through 2013, the festival had been attended by four million people and had presented almost 4,000 films.
The city was one of the main centres of the Yugoslav new wave in the 1980s: VIS Idoli, Ekatarina Velika, Šarlo Akrobata and Električni Orgazam were all from Belgrade. Other notable Belgrade rock acts include Riblja Čorba, Bajaga i Instruktori and Partibrejkers. Today, it is the centre of the Serbian hip hop scene, with acts such as Beogradski Sindikat, Bad Copy, Škabo, Marčelo, and most of the Bassivity Music stable hailing from or living in the city. There are numerous theatres, the most prominent of which are National Theatre, Theatre on Terazije, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Zvezdara Theatre, and Atelier 212. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is also based in Belgrade, as well as the National Library of Serbia. Other major libraries include the Belgrade City Library and the Belgrade University Library. Belgrade's two opera houses are: National Theatre and Madlenianum Opera House. Following the victory of Serbia's representative Marija Šerifović at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, Belgrade hosted the Contest in 2008.
There are more than 1650 in Belgrade.
The Museum of Contemporary Art was the first contemporary art museum in Yugoslavia and one of the first museums of this type in the world. Following its foundation in 1965, has amassed a collection of more than 8,000 works from art produced across the former Yugoslavia. The collection represents some of the most notable Serbian and Yugoslav 20th century artists, including Sava Šumanović, Nadežda Petrović, Petar Dobrović, Milena Pavlović-Barili, Milan Konjović, Zora Petrović, Đorđe Andrejević Kun, Vladimir Veličković, Petar Lubarda, Krsto Hegedušić, Mića Popović, Ivan Meštrović, Antun Augustinčić, Toma Rosandić, Olga Jevrić, Olga Jančić, Lojze Dolinar, among others. The museum was closed in 2007, but has since been reopened in 2017 to focus on the modern as well as on the Yugoslav art scenes. Artist Marina Abramović, who was born in Belgrade, held an exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art, which the New York Times described as one of the most important cultural happenings in the world in 2019. The exhibition was seen by almost 100,000 visitors. Marina Abramović made a stage speech and performance in front of 20,000 people. In the heart of Belgrade you can also find the Museum of Applied Arts, a museum that has been awarded for the Institution of the Year 2016 by ICOM. The Military Museum, established in 1878 in Kalemegdan, houses a wide range of more than 25,000 military objects dating from the prehistoric to the medieval to the modern eras. Notable items include Turkish and oriental arms, national banners, and Yugoslav Partisan regalia.
The Museum of Aviation in Belgrade located near Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has more than 200 aircraft, of which about 50 are on display, and a few of which are the only surviving examples of their type, such as the Fiat G.50. This museum also displays parts of shot down US and NATO aircraft, such as the F-117 and F-16.
The Nikola Tesla Museum, founded in 1952, preserves the personal items of Nikola Tesla, the inventor after whom the Tesla unit was named. It holds around 160,000 original documents and around 5,700 personal other items including his urn. The last of the major Belgrade museums is the Museum of Vuk and Dositej, which showcases the lives, work and legacy of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Dositej Obradović, the 19th century reformer of the Serbian literary language and the first Serbian Minister of Education, respectively. Belgrade also houses the Museum of African Art, founded in 1977, which has a large collection of art from West Africa.
With around 95,000 copies of national and international films, the Yugoslav Cinematheque is the largest in the region and among the 10 largest archives in the world. The institution also operates the Museum of Yugoslav Cinematheque, with movie theatre and exhibition hall. The archive's long-standing storage problems were finally solved in 2007, when a new modern depository was opened. The Yugoslav Film Archive also exhibits original Charlie Chaplin's stick and one of the first movies by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
The Belgrade City Museum moved into a new building in downtown in 2006. The museum hosts a range of collections covering the history of urban life since prehistory. Belgrade City Museum also includes additional sites, such as Ivo Andrić Museum, Princess Ljubica's Residence, Paja Jovanović Museum, Jovan Cvijić Museum. The Museum of Yugoslavia has collections from the Yugoslav era. Beside paintings, the most valuable are Moon rocks donated by Apollo 11 crew Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins while visiting Belgrade in 1969 and from mission Apollo 17 donated by Richard Nixon in 1971. The museum also houses Joseph Stalin's sabre with 260 brilliants and diamonds, donated by Stalin himself. The Museum of Science and Technology, founded in 1989, moved to the building of the first city's power plant in Dorćol in 2005.
The oldest architecture is found in Kalemegdan Park. Outside of Kalemegdan, the oldest buildings date only from the 18th century, due to its geographic position and frequent wars and destructions. The oldest public structure in Belgrade is a nondescript Turkish türbe, while the oldest house is a modest clay house on Dorćol, from late 18th century. Western influence began in the 19th century, when the city completely transformed from an oriental town to the contemporary architecture of the time, with influences from neoclassicism, romanticism, and academic art. Serbian architects took over the development from foreign builders in the late 19th century, producing the National Theatre, Stari dvor, Cathedral Church and later, in the early 20th century, the House of the National Assembly and National Museum, influenced by art nouveau. Elements of Serbo-Byzantine Revival are present in buildings such as Vuk Foundation House, old Post Office in Kosovska street, and sacral architecture, such as St. Mark's Church (based on the Gračanica monastery), and the Church of Saint Sava. In the socialist period, housing was built quickly and cheaply for the huge influx of people fleeing the countryside following World War II, sometimes resulting in the brutalist architecture of the blokovi ('blocks') of New Belgrade; a socrealism trend briefly ruled, resulting in buildings like the Dom Sindikata. However, in the mid-1950s, modernism trends took over, and still dominate the Belgrade architecture. Belgrade has the second oldest sewer system in Europe. The Clinical Centre of Serbia spreads over 34 hectares and consists of about 50 buildings, while also has 3,150 beds considered to be the highest number in Europe, and among highest in the world.
The historic areas and buildings of Belgrade are among the city's premier attractions. They include Skadarlija, the National Museum and adjacent National Theatre, Zemun, Nikola Pašić Square, Terazije, Studentski Trg, the Kalemegdan Fortress, Knez Mihailova, the Parliament, the Church of Saint Sava, and the Old Palace. On top of this, there are many parks, monuments, museums, cafés, restaurants and shops on both sides of the river. The hilltop Avala Monument and Avala Tower offer views over the city. According to The Guardian, Dorćol is the one of top ten coolest suburbs in Europe. The elite neighbourhood of Dedinje is situated near the Topčider and Košutnjak parks. The Dedinje Royal Compound which houses the former royal residences of (Kraljevski Dvor and Beli dvor) is open for visitors. The palace has many valuable artworks. Nearby, Josip Broz Tito's mausoleum, called The House of Flowers, documents the life of the former Yugoslav president.
Ada Ciganlija is a former island on the Sava, and Belgrade's biggest sports and recreational complex. Today it is connected with the right bank of the Sava via two causeways, creating an artificial lake. It is the most popular destination for Belgraders during the city's hot summers. There are of long beaches and sports facilities for various sports including golf, football, basketball, volleyball, rugby union, baseball, and tennis. During summer there are between 200,000 and 300,000 bathers daily.
Belgrade is also known for tourist activities involving extreme sports such as bungee jumping, water skiing, and . There are numerous trails on the island, where it is possible to ride a bike, go for a walk, or go jogging. Apart from Ada, Belgrade has total of 16 islands on the rivers, many still unused. Among them, the Great War Island, at the confluence of Sava, stands out as an oasis of unshattered wildlife (especially birds). These areas, along with nearby Small War Island, are protected by the city's government as a nature preserve. There are 37 protected natural resources in the Belgrade urban area, among which eight are geo-heritage sites, i.e. Straževica profile, Mašin Majdan-Topčider, Profile at the Kalemegdan Fortress, Abandoned quarry in Barajevo, Karagača valley, Artesian well in Ovča, Kapela loess profile, and Lake in Sremčica. Other 29 places are biodiversity sites.
Tourist income in 2016 amounted to nearly half a billion ; with a visit of almost a million registered tourists. Of those, in 2019 more than 100,000 tourists arrived by 742 river cruisers. Average annual growth is between 13% and 14%.
As of 2018, there are three officially designated camp grounds in Belgrade. The oldest one is located in Batajnica, along the Batajnica Road. Named "Dunav", it is one of the most visited campsites in the country. The second one is situated within the complex of the ethno-household "Zornić's House" in the village of Baćevac, while the third is located in Ripanj, on the slopes of Avala mountain. In 2017 some 15,000 overnights were recorded in camps.
Belgrade is a common stop on the Rivers Route, European cycling route known as "Danube Bike Trail" in Serbia as well as on the Sultans Trail, a long-distance hiking footpath between Vienna and Istanbul.
Many weekend visitors—particularly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia—prefer Belgrade nightlife to that of their own capitals due to its perceived friendly atmosphere, plentiful clubs and bars, cheap drinks, lack of significant language barriers, and a lack of night life regulation. One of the most famous sites for alternative cultural happenings in the city is the SKC (Student Cultural Centre), located right across from Belgrade's highrise landmark, the Belgrade Palace tower. Concerts featuring famous local and foreign bands are often held at the centre. SKC is also the site of various art exhibitions, as well as public debates and discussions.
A more traditional Serbian nightlife experience, accompanied by traditional music known as Starogradska (roughly translated as Old Town Music), typical of northern Serbia's urban environments, is most prominent in Skadarlija, the city's old Bohemianism neighbourhood where the poets and artists of Belgrade gathered in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Skadar Street (the centre of Skadarlija) and the surrounding neighbourhood are lined with some of Belgrade's best and oldest traditional restaurants (called in Serbian), which date back to that period. At one end of the neighbourhood stands Belgrade's oldest beer brewery, founded in the first half of the 19th century. One of the city's oldest kafanas is the Znak pitanja ('?').
The Times reported that Europe's best nightlife can be found in Belgrade. In the Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences Guide of 2009, Belgrade was placed at the 1st spot among the top 10 party cities in the world.
In addition to fashion, there are two major design shows held in Belgrade every year which attract international architects and industrial designers such as Karim Rashid, Daniel Libeskind, Patricia Urquiola, and Konstantin Grcic. Both the Mikser Festival and Belgrade Design Week feature lectures, exhibits and competitions. Furthermore, international designers like Sacha Lakic, Ana Kraš, Bojana Sentaler, and Marek Djordjevic are originally from Belgrade.
High-circulation daily newspapers published in Belgrade include Politika, Blic, Alo!, Kurir and Danas. There are two sporting dailies, Sportski žurnal and DSL Sport, and one economic daily, Privredni pregled. A new free distribution daily, 24 sata, was founded in the autumn of 2006. Also, Serbian editions of licensed magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, Men's Health, Grazia and others have their headquarters in the city.
Ada Ciganlija island, with its lake and beaches, is one of the most important recreational areas in the city. With a total of 8 km beaches, and a variety of bars, cafés, restaurants and sport facilities, Ada Ciganlija attracts many visitors, especially in summertime.
Košutnjak Park Forest has numerous running and bike trails, sports facilities for a variety of sports, and indoor and outdoor pools. It is a popular destination that is located only 2 km from Ada Ciganlija.
During the 1960s and 1970s Belgrade held a number of major international events such as the first ever World Aquatics Championships in 1973, 1976 European Football Championship and 1973 European Cup Final, European Athletics Championships in 1962 and European Indoor Games in 1969, European Basketball Championships in 1961 and 1975, European Volleyball Championship for men and women in 1975 and World Amateur Boxing Championships in 1978.
Since the early 2000s Belgrade again hosts major sporting events nearly every year. Some of these include EuroBasket 2005, European Handball Championship (men's and women's) in 2012, World Handball Championship for women in 2013, European Volleyball Championships for men in 2005 for men and 2011 for women, the 2006 and 2016 European Water Polo Championship, the European Youth Olympic Festival 2007 and the Universiade. More recently, Belgrade hosted European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2017 and the basketball EuroLeague Final Four tournaments in 2018 and 2022. Global and continental championships in other sports such as tennis, futsal, judo, karate, wrestling, rowing, kickboxing, table tennis, and chess have also been held in recent years.
The city is home to Serbia's two biggest and most successful football clubs, Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan. Red Star won the UEFA Champions League ( European Cup) in 1991, and Partizan was runner-up in 1966. The two major stadiums in Belgrade are Marakana (Red Star Stadium) and Partizan Stadium. The Eternal derby is between Red Star and Partizan.
With a capacity of 19,384 spectators,Belgrade Arena is one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe. It is used for major sporting events and large concerts. In May 2008, it was the venue for the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest.Aleksandar Nikolić Hall is the main venue of basketball clubs KK Partizan, the European champion of 1992, and KK Crvena Zvezda. In recent years, Belgrade has also given rise to several world-class tennis players such as Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković and Novak Djokovic. Ivanovic and Djokovic are the first female and male Belgraders, respectively, to win Grand Slam singles titles and been ATP number 1 with Jelena Janković. The Serbian national team won the 2010 Davis Cup, beating the French team in the finals played in the Belgrade Arena.
The Belgrade Marathon is held annually since 1988. Belgrade was a candidate to host the 1992 and the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
The city is also home to 195 primary (elementary) schools and 85 secondary schools. The primary school system has 162 regular schools, 14 special schools, 15 art schools, and 4 adult schools, while the secondary school system has 51 vocational schools, 21 gymnasiums, 8 art schools and 5 special schools. The 230,000 pupils are managed by 22,000 employees in over 500 buildings, covering around .
Beovoz was the regional rail network that provided mass-transit services in the city, similar to Paris's RER and Toronto's GO Transit. The main usage of system was to connect the suburbs with the city centre. Beovoz was operated by Serbian Railways. However, this system was abolished back in 2013, mostly due to introduction of more efficient BG Voz. Belgrade is one of the last big European capitals and cities with over a million people to have no metro or subway or other rapid transit system. As of November 2021, the Belgrade Metro is currently under construction, which will have 2 lines. The first line is expected to be operational by August 2028.
The new Belgrade Centre railway station is the hub for almost all national and international trains. The high-speed rail that connects Belgrade with
Politika: "Puštena u saobraćaj brza pruga Beograd-Novi Sad" The extension towards Subotica and Budapest is under construction, and there are plans for a southwards extension towards Niš and North Macedonia.
The city is placed along the Pan-European corridors X and VII. The motorway system provides for easy access to Novi Sad and Budapest to the north, Niš to the south, and Zagreb to the west. Expressway is also toward Pančevo and new Expressway construction toward Obrenovac (Montenegro) is scheduled for March 2017. Belgrade bypass is connecting the E70 and E75 motorways and is under construction.
Situated at the confluence of two major rivers, the Danube and the Sava, Belgrade has 11 bridges, the most important of which are Branko's Bridge, Gazela Bridge, Ada Bridge and Pupin Bridge, the first two of which connect the core of the city to New Belgrade. In addition, an 'inner magistral semi-ring' is almost done and includes a new Ada bridge across the Sava river (opened in 2012) and a new Pupin bridge (opened in 2014) across the Danube, which ease commuting within the city and unload traffic from the Gazela Bridge and Branko's Bridge.
The Port of Belgrade is on the Danube, and allows the city to receive goods by river. The city is also served by Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, west of the city centre, near Surčin. At its peak in 1986, almost 3 million passengers travelled through the airport, though that number dwindled to a trickle in the 1990s. Following renewed growth in 2000, the number of passengers reached approximately 2 million in 2004 and 2005, over 2.6 million passengers in 2008, reaching over 3 million passengers. A record with over 4 million passengers was broken in 2014, when Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport became the second fastest growing major airport in Europe. The numbers continued to grow steadily and the all-time peak of over 6 million passengers was reached in 2019.
Some of the city's municipalities are also twinned to small cities or districts of other big cities; for details see their respective articles.
Belgrade has received various domestic and international honours, including the French Légion d'honneur (proclaimed 21 December 1920; Belgrade is one of four cities outside France, alongside Liège, Luxembourg City and Volgograd, to receive this honour), the Czechoslovak War Cross (awarded 8 October 1925), the Yugoslavian Order of the Karađorđe's Star (awarded 18 May 1939) and the Yugoslavian Order of the People's Hero (proclaimed on 20 October 1974, the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of Nazi Germany occupation during World War II). All of these decorations were received for the war efforts during World War I and World War II. In 2006, Financial Times' magazine FDi magazine awarded Belgrade the title of City of the Future of Southern Europe.
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