Inland country Serbia is a former Yugoslav republic. It consists of two geographical parts – Pannonian plain and Balkan peninsula, this division also affected its culture.

Serbia shares borders with Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Northern lowland part of the country continues to rise to the hills and mountain ranges with river valleys in the south.

The biggest rivers Danube, Sava and Tisa flowing through the country are navigable. The climate is temperate continental, but in the south a bit Mediterranean.

Politics and Economy

Officially the Republic of Serbia has Boris Tadic as a president. The capital city is Belgrad. Serbia, divided into twenty-nine district and the City of Belgrad, covers the total area of around 88,360 sq km. There are two autonomous provinces Kosovo- Metohija and Vojvodina. Serbian Dinar is the state currency. Serbia is now succesfully recovering from past economical problems, but high unemployment and a lack of new economic reforms still remains. On the other hand, Serbia is significant exporter of frozen fruit and one of the world´s biggest growers of raspberries.

People and Language

Serbia has a population over 10 milion people. Great majority of them are Serbs, but Hungarians, Romas and minorities from other Balkan states live there too. Serbian is the official language, but Rusyn is official for Vojvodina and Albanian for Kosovo. You can also hear Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and Croatian language.

History

Serbs came to the Balkans in the 5th and 6th century. During the reign of House of Nemanjic Serbia was strong and firm country. In the 16th centrury the Ottomans took the control over Serbia. In the 20th century Serbia was a principal part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later on renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and than of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1992 only Serbia and Montenegro remained in, so they formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which became the State Union of S. and M. in 2003. In 2006 this two countries splited and became independent.

Culture

Serbia is very diverse country as for the cultural life. This is particularly caused by its location. The influences of Romans, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Turks and mid European countries are very ingrained. As a result, e. g. they use both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Eight Serbian sites are listed in UNESCO, such as recently added Gamzigrad - Romuliana, Palace of Galerius. Serbia was succesful in the Euroovision Song Contest – Željko Jaksimovic won the second place in 2005 and Marija Šerifovic the first prize in 2007.

What to do in Serbia

Serbia is not typical tourism place, but it offers many possibilities how to spend an anctive holiday. You can go fishning, hunting, hiking or skiing and snowboarding in winter. For relaxing you can try some recreational resort or a mineral spa.