What to See in Serbia - Top Sights and Attractions

Iconic monument of the Balkan War. Pobednik is a monument in the Upper Town of the Belgrade Fortress, built to commemorate Serbia's victory over Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Cast in 1913, erected in 1928, and standing at 14 metres high, it is one of the most famous works of Ivan Meštrović. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in Belgrade and the city's most recognizable landmark.

It is a standing bronze male figure in the nude with a falcon in the left hand and a sword in the right (as symbols of peace and war), modelled by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, set on a pedestal in the form of a Doric column on a tall cubic base, designed by the architect Petar Bajalović. The statue looks forward across the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, and over the vast Pannonian plain, towards the very distant Fruška Gora mountain (until 1918 a domain of Austro-Hungarian empire), it is probably the most powerful, most popular visual symbol of Belgrade.

The statue was removed from the column in October 2019 for repairs. It was returned on the pedestal after the restoration on 14 February 2020.^[4]

The Gallery of Matica Srpska is one of the largest and oldest galleries in Serbia. It is located in the central zone of Novi Sad, next to Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection.

The Gallery was established on the 14th of October 1847, with contributions from Sava Tekelija who left a valuable family portrait collection to the Matica Srpska, and other Serb merchants who made endowments and donations to the gallery.

The building of Gallery of Matica Srpska was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1979.

The Gallery of Matica Srpska has acted as an independent institution apart from Matica Srpska since 1958. Collections in The Gallery of Matica Srpska mostly consists of paintings from all periods of the national history of art.^[6]

Tower in Niš, Serbia. Skull Tower is a stone structure embedded with human skulls located in Niš, Serbia. It was constructed by the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Čegar of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising. During the battle, Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinđelić were surrounded by the Ottomans on Čegar Hill, near Niš. Knowing that he and his fighters would be impaled if captured, Sinđelić detonated a powder magazine within the rebel entrenchment, killing himself, his subordinates and the encroaching Ottoman soldiers. The governor of the Rumelia Eyalet, Hurshid Pasha, ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels. The tower is 4.5 metres high, and originally contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows.

In 1861, Midhat Pasha, the last Ottoman governor of Niš, ordered that Skull Tower be dismantled. Following the Ottomans' withdrawal from Niš in 1878, the structure was partially restored and roofed over with a baldachin. Construction of a chapel surrounding the structure commenced in 1892 and was completed in 1894. The chapel was renovated in 1937. A bust of Sinđelić was added the following year. In 1948, Skull Tower and the chapel enclosing it were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989.

As of 2022, 58 skulls remain embedded in Skull Tower's walls. The one that is said to belong to Sinđelić is enclosed in a glass container adjacent to the structure. Seen as a symbol of independence by many Serbs, it has become a popular tourist attraction, visited by between 30,000 and 50,000 people annually.^[8]

Museum in Kragujevac, Serbia. Amidža Konak is a 19th-century residence of Turkish-style architecture located in the old part of the city of Kragujevac in central Serbia. It was built in 1819-1824 by Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović, and it was named after Sima Milosavljević-Paštrmac, called Amidža, a Serbian hajduk and staff member of the court of Obrenović. Only Amidža Konak remained from large complex of building that existed during Miloš Obrenović time. Nearby, Miloš's Konak existed, and it was destroyed in 1941, during World War II, and also, Princess Ljubica Konak, that burned down in 1884.

Amidža Konak served as a residence of Sima and his colleagues that passed through Kragujevac, and now serves as a national museum.

It is part of Cultural Monuments of Great Importance.^[10]

October in Kragujevac Memorial Park, also known as Šumarice Memorial Park, is the site near Kragujevac, Serbia of the execution of an estimated 2,800 men and boys of the town by the German occupation forces on October 21, 1941, during World War II. Among the dead were hundreds of high school students. The 21 October Museum was designed by architect Ivan Antić is located at the site of the massacre.

Monuments within the park include the monument to the murdered schoolchildren and their teachers (the "Interrupted Flight" monument) by sculptor Miodrag Živković; the "Monument of pain and defiance" by sculptor Ante Gržetić; the "One hundred for one" monument by Nandor Glid; the "Resistance and Freedom" monument by Gržetić; and the Shoeshiners monument ("Crystal Flower") by architect Nebojša Delja. The complex also contains the Monument to the Slovaks killed during the World War I and the old World War I military cemetery with a Monument to Serbian soldier.

In December 2020 an exhibit about the Jasenovac concentration and extermination camp was held.^[12]

Monastery in Grgeteg, Serbia. The Grgeteg Monastery is a Serb Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in the northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. According to tradition, the monastery was founded by Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk in 1471. The earliest historical records about the monastery date back to 1545/1546. The monastery had been deserted before the 1690 Great Migration of the Serbs, but a renewal, undertaken by Bishop Isaija Đaković, took place in 1708. Around 1770, the extant baroque church was erected and it underwent restoration in 1898 under the guiding hand of Hermann Bollé. It was then that the residential buildings which enclose the church from all four sides were reconstructed. The first walled rocaille iconostasis in the church interior was painted and inlaid by Jakov Orfelin in 1774–1775. The extant iconostasis is a 1902 work of Uroš Predić.

Grgeteg Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.^[13]

Monastery in Serbia. The Novo Hopovo Monastery is a Serb Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. According to tradition, the monastery was built by the Despots of the House of Branković. The first written mention of the monastery was made in 1451, and the latest mention of the monastery dates back to 1641. The extant church was erected in 1576 and the bell-tower with the small St. Stephen's Chapel upstairs was built between 1751 and 1758. The monastic residences were constructed in several stages, from 1728 until 1771. The icons were painted in 1776 by Teodor Kračun.

The Novo Hopovo Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia.^[15]

Monastery in Serbia. The Staro Hopovo Monastery is a Serb Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in the northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. According to tradition, the monastery was founded by Bishop Maksim. The first reliable mention of the monastery dates back to 1545/1546. It is on the basis of some data from 1751 that an earlier church with timber walls dedicated to St. Nicholas existed. The old church which had collapsed in an earthquake was in 1752 substituted with the extant single-nave building dedicated to St. Panteleimon. The woodcarving of the iconostasis of Staro Hopovo was completed in 1793, and the paintings by Janko Halkozović and Kuzman Kolarić.

Staro Hopovo Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.^[16]

Fortress in Pirot, Serbia. Pirot Fortress or Momchilov grad is situated in Pirot, Serbia. It was built in the 14th century by Bulgarian brigand and local ruler Momchil. In 1344, the regency concluded a further alliance with Bulgaria, which required the surrender of Philippopolis and nine other towns in northern Thrace along the river Evros. Nevertheless, after their occupation, Ivan Alexander refrained from direct action against John VI Kantakouzenos' forces operating in southern and eastern Thrace. At the same time, Momchil, a former brigand whom Kantakouzenos had entrusted with control over the Merope in the Rhodope mountains, switched over to the regency. It was supposed to serve as a defense against the Turks along the ancient Roman road called Via Militaris which connected Belgrade to Constantinople.

Pirot Fortress was declared Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.^[19]

Monastery in Boturovina, Serbia. The Đurđevi Stupovi Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in the vicinity of today's city of Novi Pazar, in the Raška region of Serbia.

The monastery is located near Novi Pazar, on the top of a prominent elevation covered with woods. It was erected in ca. 1170 as an endowment of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, dedicated to St. George; it is known as the "Tracts of St. George", often incorrectly as "Pillars of St. George". The monastery is exceptional not only for its position and significance it had according to medieval chronicles and manuscripts, but also for its particular architecture. It was named after the church dedicated to St George and its two former bell towers, two high towers – pillars (old Slavic language- stolp, stub). Namely, according to Stefan the First-Crowned, Nemanja had built this church to commemorate his gratitude to St. George for saving him from dungeons-caves where he was put by his brothers.

The monastery complex consisted of church of Saint George, dining-room, refectory, water tanks and walls around entry tower. The architecture of the Saint George Pillars Monastery is very characteristic representing unique synthesis of two medieval construction concepts, Byzantine in the East and Roman in the West. Monastery is a building with a set of architectural and construction innovation in that period, among which there are two remarkable towers, lateral vestibules, cupola with elliptic basis, irregular shape of altar area, as well as specific arrangement of the central dome space of the church. Single-aisle temple with the altar consisting of three apses, naos and narthex, in its external appearance reflects the spirit of Roman construction. The combination of Byzantine spatial arrangement and Roman architecture resulted in original symbiosis that has been the ground for special architectural style. The entry tower, after the additional construction of apses in the east side in 1282–83, had been turned into chapel that king Dragutin designed for his tomb. The inside of the chapel is covered by frescos with historical content and portraits of the Nemanjics. The frescoes of this Monastery, rendered in the best tradition of the Comnenus style and skillfully adapted to the architecture of the temple, which is especially pronounced in the all-embracing cupola, have particular value. The most impressive is the picture of Saint George on the horse, which is above the main entrance in the church. Beside this very distinctive one are frescoes of four Serbian state councils where important decisions related to the Serbian history were made. A small building has been erected in front of the monastery and it is used as a museum for the protection and exhibition of the most important fragments from church and other structures, where some have been fully composed and reconstructed. As a part of the entity Stari Ras with Sopocani, Saint George Pillars Monastery has been on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1979 and it is on the Transromanica Route.^[22]

Synagogue in Subotica, Serbia. The Jakab and Komor Square Synagogue in Subotica is a Hungarian Art Nouveau synagogue in Subotica, Serbia. It is the second largest synagogue in Europe after the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest. It was built in 1901-1902 during the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary, according to the plans of Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab replacing a smaller and less elaborate synagogue. It is one of the finest surviving pieces of religious architecture in the art nouveau style. It served the local Neolog community.

In 1974 the synagogue was designated a Monument of Culture; in 1990 it was designated a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.

The synagogue has long been plagued by conservation issues, though a decade-long partnership between the government and World Monuments Fund that ended in 2010 rendered the building watertight after years of water infiltration. Work on the restoration of the facades is the next phase of work on the synagogue.^[24]