Day 7 - Sunday, May 4, 2025 - Belgrade Serbia

By Ellen Outten


 

Welcome to Belgrade Serbia 


We had an 8:30 am tour this morning and toured the city of Belgrade Serbia by bus..   Our first stop was at a park which borders, what else, a fortress.  




It was pretty warm, warm enough not to need a jacket, but we had a very light drizzle and a gray sky.

We stopped at a monument, The Monument For The Gratitude of France.  It was erected as a sign of gratitude by the Serbian people for the help France provided them during World War I.  



This was called "The Blind Piper".

We walked a great deal in the park, looking out over the confluence of the Sava river and the Danube.


Just a pretty church steeple from the walkway promenade.

This is the fortress.   Thankfully we didn't tour the entire fortress.  
I found this paragraph on the website for the fortress.  I wonder how we would handle this in the US. Or if anyone would listen.  There was no graffiti!

Dear fellow citizens,

We ask you not to write graffiti on objects in the area of the Belgrade Fortress and Kalemegdan Park, and not to destroy the area by dumping garbage outside the designated garbage bins. The complex that includes the Belgrade Fortress and Kalemegdan Park is a cultural monument of exceptional importance.
Let us leave a legacy for future generations and contribute to the reputation of our country. Let us preserve the national identity, historical and cultural heritage of invaluable importance.





We had some free time, but not much, to wander a pedestrian shopping area.

Starbucks, they're everywhere!

From here we headed to The Church of St. Sava.   It's an Eastern Orthodox Church and has no chairs or place to sit.  Services last about an hour but at holidays , it could be three hours.  Ouch!

This church on the outside isn't that imposing.  It's certainly big but not terribly ornate.  But inside, WOW!  




Inside the church!!!!













The mosaics on the wall are all gold.  Building started in 1935 but stopped with WWII.  Then with communism, permission to rebuild didn't start until 1985.  It is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches and is among the largest churches in the world.  Its interior cladding of gold mosaics is 130,000 sq ft.  

The columns inside the church are made of Carrara marble and green marble.  The mosaics use pure gold (24k).

We took a further bus tour of Belgrade city before going back to our ship.

I managed to sleep all night and I think I'm adjusting to the tize zone, although we turned our clocks back and hour yesterday.  Were 9 hours ahead of Phoenix.

Tomorrow, Osijek, Croatia.












Comments

  1. Maureen LewisMay 4, 2025 at 12:26 PM

    Wonderful photos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM

    Spectacular church! Great pics. Thanks 🌻

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 14, 2025 at 7:14 AM

    Too beautiful for words

    ReplyDelete

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