P11 - Serbia - Beograd

Beograd, Serbia

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula. With a population of 1,630,000 (official estimate 2007), Belgrade is the largest city in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, second largest city on the Danube river and the third largest in Southeastern Europe, after Istanbul and Athens.

One of the oldest cities in Europe, with archeological finds tracing settlements as early as the 6th millennium BC, Belgrade's wider city area was the birthplace of the largest prehistoric culture of Europe, the Vinča culture. The city was discovered by the Greeks, founded and named by the Celts (White City, name it still bears), awarded city rights by the Romans before it was permanently settled by White Serbs from the 600s onwards. As a strategic key, the city was battled over in 115 international conflicts and razed to the ground 44 times since the ancient period by countless armies of the East and West. In medieval times, it was in the possession of Byzantine, Frankish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Serbian rulers. In 1521 Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of the Pashaluk of Belgrade, as the principal city of Ottoman Europe and among the largest European cities. Frequently passing from Ottoman to Austrian rule, the status of Serbian capital would be regained only in 1841, after the Serbian revolution. Northern Belgrade, though, remained an Austrian outpost until the breakup of Austria-Hungary in 1918. The united city then became the capital of several incarnations of Yugoslavia, up to 2006, when Serbia became an independent state again. An economic and cultural boom followed.

Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government.Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each having its own local council. It covers 3.6% of the territory of Serbia, and 24% of the country's population lives in the city.Belgrade is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.

貝爾格萊德（塞爾維亞語：Београд）是塞爾維亞首都和最大的城市，位於塞爾維亞北部薩瓦河和多瑙河匯合處，此處也是潘諾尼亞平原和巴爾幹半島的相遇處。根據塞爾維亞人口統計，貝爾格萊德共有人口1,576,124（2002年），是原南斯拉夫地區最大的城市，也是僅次於伊斯坦堡、雅典和布加勒斯特的東南歐第四大城市。

貝爾格萊德地區最早的人類居住出現在公元前4800年溫查文明時期。如今的城市位置由凱爾特人于公元前3世紀確定，後被羅馬帝國佔領。城市的斯拉夫語名字Beligrad（字面意思為「白城」）第一次被提及是在878年。1284年，貝爾格萊德第一次成為塞爾維亞斯雷姆王國的首都。此後，它還先後成為塞爾維亞（1404年-1918年、2006年-）、南斯拉夫（1918年-2003年）首都以及塞爾維亞和黑山的行政、立法首都（2003年-2006年）。

貝爾格萊德是塞爾維亞唯一的直轄市，被分為17個自治市，每一個都擁有自己的地方委員會。貝爾格萊德占塞爾維亞總面積的3.6%，約21%（不包括科索沃自治省）的塞爾維亞人居住在該市。貝爾格萊德是塞爾維亞的經濟、文化、教育和科技中心。

References sources : wikipedia