Vojvodina Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
Vojvodina is a region of northern Serbia.
Contents |
Regions
Vojvodina is the Central-European or Pannonian part of Serbia and Montenegro. Its southern border is formed by two great rivers, Sava and Danube, in the southeast it touches the Carpathians, while its surface is consisted of lowlands just like other Central European countries (Pannonian plain). Vojvodina is a euroregion (Danube-Tisza-Mures) and is comprised of 3 parts: Srem, Banat and Backa. A part of Srem has been included into Belgrade metropolitan region.
Cities
Vojvodina was the place of Serbian cultural revival, belonging to Habsburg Empire, while other Serbian regions were mostly occupied by the Turks. Even when Serbia proclaimed independence in 1875 the largest Serb cities (Belgrade excluded) were in Austro-Hungary: Sombor, Novi Sad, Beckerek (Zrenjanin), Pancevo (also Serbs had a large percentage of the population in other cities througout Austro-Hungary, such as Temisvar, Osijek, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Knin etc). Novi Sad is the provincial capital and has some 300,000 residents; it was the largest Serbian city together with Sombor between the 17-19th centuries and was known by its nickname as "Serbian Athens", becoming the seat of culture for Austrian Serbs. Subotica was a large city of over 100,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century, however Serbs constituted only about 1/3 of its total population, the rest 2/3 being Magyars, Bunjevci, Germans etc. Still it was the biggest city alongside Zagreb that joined the Kingdom of SHS (later Yugoslavia); it is the seat of Teacher's college, the oldest educational institution in the country and, indeed, the wider region, which dates back to 1679. Unfortunately this beutiful city has been stagnating throughout the 20th century as a bordertown with Hungary; today it's reemerging as a popular crowd gatherer with nearby Palic lake. Its Art Nouvoeu monuments, multiethicity and tolerance are a draw for tourists. Beckerek was renamed Zrenjanin after WWII by a local hero; currently its population is somewhere between 100-120,000 residents; Sombor, another beutiful city in the Backa region close to the Croatian border has also traditionally been a major hub of Serbian culture but has been stagnating population-wise ever since the unification with Serbia; it currently consists of about 70,000 people. Pancevo (currently 135,000) was, with Zemun, the southernmost Austrian outpost bordering Serbia; both lying on the Danube, they look face to face with Belgrade. After WWI the Belgrade Metropolitan region tried to merge and connect the 3 cities into 1; Zemun unified with Belgrade, raising its population to 350,000 back in 1929, while Pancevo was still a city in itself; however by building a metro line between Belgrade and Pancevo this area started to function almost as one teritorial unit, and in the future it's generally expected that Pancevo will join with Belgrade within next years/decades.
Other destinations
Vojvodina is known for its enormous cultural value not only for the Serbs but for all the nations that comprise it (the province is consisted of 6 constituent nations and 30 other nationalities, the most diverse area in Europe after Greater London).
- Fruska Gora- a pilgramige site; located outside Novi Sad on a mountin overlooking Pannonian Plain, it posseses dosens of monasteries of Serbian Orthodox Church built between 15-19th centuries by Serbian settlers from the south. Combining European reinassance with ancient Balkan culture these churches have a big cultural importance as a bridge between so called Southern and Northern Serbs.
- Sremski Karlovci- today a town belonging to municipality of Novi Sad, has been a cultural seat of the Serbs in Austria for centuries. It contains the Patriarchate of Serbian Church (approved by Leopold von Austria), the oldest Serbian gymnasium (1791), and was the seat of the Cogress of Holy League in 1699, when great powers (Poland, Austria, Venice) have given this land to Austria for protection. One of the most picturesque sites in the country.
- Dundjerski Castle- just like other regions that have belonged to Austria, Vojvodina has more than 20 castles from that period, belonging mostly to Germans, Magyars and some Serbian noble families in the past. Most of them are under protection of the state today.
- Palic lake- the oldest tourist attraction in the country, dating back to 1840s, when it was a spa for European nobility. Today it faces its reconstruction trying to achieve its former glory.
Understand
Most people can speak English quite good,taking that they have been brought up in a multiethnic and diverse province. 6 languages are official in the province: Serbian, Magyar, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Rusyn; whether Bunjevci will get their own language is still a contraversial matter, while both Serbian and Croatian communities claim Bunjevci as their own ethnic group. Vojvodina has had a large German minority up to WWII (350,000) that made up some 20% of the overall population in the province; however following the expulsion to this day only some 5,000 remain, and use their language locally, as do the Czechs (18,000), Poles etc.
Talk
Get in
Get around
See
the above mentioned cities and places. EXIT music festival in Novi Sad has been a huge crowd gatherer ever since its foundation in 2000; it was ranked by London as the most vibrant and successful festival in Central/South Eastern Europe.
Itineraries
Do
Eat
Drink
Stay safe
Get out
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