Belgrade Castle: A Historic Fortress in Serbia

Visitor Information

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Official Website: www.beogradskatvrdjava.co.rs

Country: Serbia

Civilization: Early Modern, Medieval European, Modern, Ottoman, Roman

Site type: Military

Remains: Citadel

History

Belgrade Castle, Belgrade, Serbia, was first established as the Celtic settlement Singidunum by the Scordisci in the 3rd century BC.

The settlement became a fortified Roman military camp, or castrum (a Latin term for a fortified camp), situated on the empire’s northern frontier. From about 86 AD a permanent legionary presence was recorded, with the garrison known as Legio IV Flavia Felix stationed there into the fifth century. Under Roman authority the place developed as a defensive and administrative point along the Danubian border.

In the sixth century the stronghold was rebuilt under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who undertook reconstruction around 535 AD. During the medieval centuries that followed the fort changed hands repeatedly, falling at various times under Bulgarian, Byzantine, Hungarian and Serbian control as political fortunes in the region shifted.

In the early fifteenth century the castle served as the seat of Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević. He enlarged and strengthened the place, and under his rule it acquired renewed importance as a center of commerce and culture. Later the fortress remained a contested prize between regional powers as Ottoman expansion reached the middle Danube.

Ottoman forces captured the castle in 1521, and Ottoman administration persisted until the late nineteenth century, interrupted by an Austro-Hungarian occupation from 1718 to 1739. During the Austrian interval the fortress received modern military works and civic institutions, including hospitals such as the City hospital of Saint John. Early in the eighteenth century the occupying authorities also converted a deep Roman shaft into a cistern and constructed a large powder magazine within the ramparts.

The fortress witnessed major population movements and political unrest in the modern era, including the Great Serbian Migration and the two Serbian uprisings of the nineteenth century. Epidemics affected the city in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in 1837 military measures were taken at the fortress to contain a plague outbreak. After Ottoman troops withdrew in 1867 the fortress was ceremonially handed over to Serbian forces, and subsequent rulers carried out shaping of the surrounding grounds, creating the landscaped Kalemegdan Park.

In the twentieth century the structure sustained damage during both world wars. German occupying authorities conducted archaeological excavations during the Second World War and also rebuilt certain Baroque elements, work that was later damaged in 1944. After 1945 the castle and its grounds were formally protected as cultural property, and archaeological investigations and conservation efforts have continued. The area has been proposed for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List and remains an officially recognized monument of cultural and natural importance.

Remains

The castle complex covers roughly 66 hectares and is organized into distinct zones: the Upper Town, Lower Town, the large Kalemegdan Park, and a smaller park area. The earliest documented fortification on this plateau was a Roman castrum, a rectangular fortification about 570 by 330 meters, whose walls were built of pale Tašmajdan limestone and which occupied some 16 to 20 hectares. That Roman footprint underlies later layers of rebuilding and provides the basic north-south orientation of the surviving plan.

The Lower Town sits nearer the river terrace and contains several later monuments and structures. The medieval tower known as Kula Nebojša has been repurposed as a museum; nearby are the small Orthodox churches of Ružica and Sveta Petka and the Belgrade Planetarium. The low-lying position of this sector makes it vulnerable to floods, and archaeological work has revealed significant yet still restricted remains beneath the surface.

The Upper Town occupies the higher central plateau and presents promenades alongside historic monuments. A deep stone shaft known as the Roman Well is cut into the rock to a depth of about 50 meters; it was originally intended as a well but was transformed into a water cistern by Habsburg engineers in the early eighteenth century. The shaft measures approximately 3.4 meters across and is reached by 212 hewn steps; the double spiral stair concept within the well is attributed to the architect Balthasar Neumann. Also on the Upper Town is the türbe (a Turkish term for a mausoleum) of Damad Ali Pasha, a hexagonal stone tomb some seven meters high with roughly four-meter sides, and the historic fountain associated with Mehmed Paša Sokolović.

Beneath an imposing rampart stands the large Habsburg-era gunpowder magazine, constructed during the Austrian occupation of the early eighteenth century and covered by a rampart about seven meters tall. During later excavations this vaulted magazine yielded Roman objects such as gravestones, votive altars, and the third-century Sarcophagus of Jonah, now kept in situ beneath the earthwork.

The fortress retains multiple gates and defensive earthworks whose phases span medieval, Ottoman and Habsburg building campaigns. One named entrance, often referred to as the Gate of Charles VI, represents Baroque rebuilding carried out in the modern era; that gate was restored under German administration during World War II and sustained damage in 1944. Archaeological investigation across the site has revealed layered deposits from prehistoric settlement through Roman, medieval and Ottoman periods, including foundations of medieval churches, sections of ramparts, cobbled streets, and fifteenth-century pillars.

A number of museums and institutional buildings occupy preserved structures within the grounds. The Military Museum and the Nebojša Tower museum display military and local material, while the Museum of Forestry and Hunting is housed in a small nineteenth-century building dating to the 1830s and of roughly 100 square meters. Mid-twentieth-century defensive work is also present: a bunker built in 1948–1949 with a rampart about five meters thick covers some 200 square meters and retains period military fittings from the 1950s; the space was later adapted for public access and display.

Kalemegdan Park surrounds the Upper and Lower towns and was shaped during nineteenth-century landscaping programs. Geometric promenades organize the green space and it contains sculptural monuments such as the Monument of Gratitude to France, the Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion, and facilities including the Belgrade Zoo. The castle conceals an extensive network of underground passages, tunnels and catacombs, many of which remain archaeologically significant. Finally, parts of the grounds are protected as natural heritage, including the Kalemegdan Sandbank, which preserves exposed Miocene geological layers recognized for their scientific value.